November 27th, 2014 Edition

The fire Bob McCulloch started

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A community cries in Ferguson

Town erupts in chaos following grand jury decision

Protestors mourn as non-indictment is

By Kenya Vaughn Of The St. Louis American

“Defend himself from what?” Lesley McSpadden exclaimed as she listened to a radio broadcast of St. Louis County Prosecuting Attorney Robert P. McCulloch. “From what?”

It was part of the prosecutor’s attempt to justify the grand jury’s decision not to indict Ferguson Police Officer Darren Wilson for the August 9 shooting death of her son Michael Brown Jr. Tears fell from her face and rage echoed in her voice as she stood with protestors in front of the Ferguson Police Department on the night of Monday, November 24.

“They want him back in Ferguson,” she said of Wilson. “I can’t get nobody back. They wrong. Y’all know y’all wrong,” she said, pointing to the police department. And if it’s anybody out here that don’t think so, I don’t give a [expletive].”

She was once again forced to grieve before the world as she listened to the radio broadcast – and it was as if she learning that her son was killed all over again.

“Everybody want me to be calm, but do you know how those bullets hit my son?” McSpadden said. “Do know what those bullets did to his body … as they entered his body? Ain’t nobody had to live through what I had to live through.”

Heartbreak among the unrest Hundreds protest in Shaw

21 arrested after grand jury announcement

By Rebecca Rivas Of The St. Louis American

Hundreds took to the streets in the Shaw and Tower Grove neighborhoods on Monday, November 24, as they marched down both lanes on South Grand Boulevard and even shut down Interstate 44 for more than 30 minutes.

Chanting, “This is what democracy looks like,” the mostly young crowd expressed both rage and sorrow over the grand jury’s non-indictment decision in the Officer Darren Wilson case. At about 10:30 p.m., the crowd swelled even more, as protestors who escaped the tear gas in Ferguson arrived to join the Shaw action. The area has become a second home to the Ferguson protest movement, after the shooting death of VonDerrit Myers Jr. on Oct. 8. Like Michael Brown Jr., Myers was 18 when he was shot and killed by an off-duty St.

Photo by Lawrence Bryant

By Rebecca Rivas Of The St. Louis American

Wilson in the fatal shooting of unarmed black teen Michael Brown Jr., announced St. Louis County Prosecutor

Lesley McSpadden cries out in protest after hearing the grand jury decision.

Photo by Wiley Price

“Hands up, don’t shoot” remained the symbol of the Ferguson protest movement, even during its most violent night to date.

Photo by Lawrence Bryant

Halle in court over daughter’s hair

According to TMZ.com, Halle Berry just took Gabriel Aubry to court ... claiming he’s trying to make their 6-year-old daughter white. Berry was furious Gabriel Aubry was straightening Nahla’s naturally-curly hair, lightening it with highlights and she is convinced it’s because he does not want the girl to appear to be African American. Berry didn’t show in court Monday morning, but her lawyer Steve Kolodny did, along with Gabriel and after a lot of arguing the judge ruled neither Halle nor Gabriel could change Nahla’s look from its natural state and her hair to grow back naturally.

Royce Reed hotlines

Dwight Howard, her DCF history exposed

Last week former “Basketball Wives” star Royce Reed called the Department of Children and Family

Services on her son’s father, Dwight Howard, for excessively beating their son with a belt.

The Florida Dept. of Children and Families (DCF) got a call in February from 6-year-old Braylon’s school, informing authorities the boy had been belted on the back of his neck and leg for using “potty words.”

According to docs, Reed fessed up and said she did indeed belt the boy because he “dropped the f-bomb” in school. Authorities checked out the kid and there were no obvious marks ... she told them she only hit him once with a child fabric belt. The case was closed out, but school officials spoke with Reed and accused her of using excessive force on the child.

Was Nicki Minaj a mean girl at the AMAs?

According to The New York Post, Nicki latest feud isn’t with another musician — it’s with a reporter.

Liz Hernandez of “Access Hollywood” lashed out at the pop star Monday, following Minaj’s “disrespectful” behavior at the American Music Awards. “Never in the workplace has someone been so disrespectful to me as Nicki Minaj yesterday. I feel

embarrassed to have supported her as a fan,” Hernandez, who covered the AMAs red carpet, said via Twitter.

A source told Page Six Minaj was “very rude” to press on the red carpet at Sunday night’s awards show. Minaj, 31, reportedly got especially heated when reporters brought up her rumored foe, Iggy Azalea. The “Anaconda” rapper and Azalea, 24, reportedly have beef stemming from Minaj’s BET Awards speech – which some saw as a veiled diss at Azalea for not writing her own rap lyrics.

Is Kris holding Kim hostage in marriage to Kanye?

RadarOnline.com claims that the marriage of Kanye West and Kim Kardashian is in shambles. But they also say her “momager” Kris Jenner is reportedly forbidding her daughter to divorce the rapper, telling her she needs to keep her fame in focus and avoid another divorce debacle like she had with Kris Humphries.

“Kim told her mom that she and Kanye are arguing and Kris said that she better fix it because her career won’t survive another divorce,” an insider told Radar. “It was kinda of threat. Kim’s career is on top now and she doesn’t want her to screw it up.”

As Radar reported, Kardashian’s divorce from Humphries after just 72 days of marriage

was a public relations disaster, with many accusing the star of faking her marriage for rating.

Joe Smith says Monice is a bankbook bandit

Former NBA star Joe Smith accuses “Love and Hip Hop Hollywood” star Monice Slaughter of robbing him blind after stealing his checkbook. According to a report filed with the Manhattan Beach Police Department, Smith claims that between October 2011 and March 2012, nine checks were written from his checkbook to a Timothy Clayton Carr, totaling $109,000.

Smith told police he did not write the checks and does not know a man by that name. In June 2012, police were able to get a hold of Carr, who told them he was a friend of Slaughter and that he was cashing the checks for her as a favor because she didn’t have a bank account. Carr told cops he was unaware the checks were stolen or that anything was wrong until Smith canceled the last check Slaughter claims Joe Smith is lying and that he only wants the money back because they broke up. Smith is still pursuing charges and the case remains open and ongoing.

Sources: TMZ.com, New York Post, Twitter. com, RadarOnline

THE STUFF THAT HAS PEOPLE TALKING

Nicki Minaj

Royce Reed

U.S. Korean War vet receives long-due honors

“I have never been more honored to salute an enlisted man,” says Brigadier General

By Sandra Jordan Of The St. Louis American

This Veterans’ Day marks a long overdue fulfillment of promises made by the US Army to one of its soldiers.

Korean War veteran Leo Hardin received four awards for his military service, including a Purple Heart with one Bronze Oak Leaf Cluster.

Hardin thanked everyone who witnessed the event and worked on his behalf to get him his deserved military honors.

“As one general said, ‘War is hell,’ and to have been there, done that, and then to be favored by God that I didn’t return in a box,” Hardin said. “And I know it’s been a long time. It’s been a long struggle, just trying to get what was due me … and thanks be to God that I have prevailed.”

The Bronze Oak Leaf Cluster represents two Purple Hearts as Hardin was injured twice in combat. The first were second-degree frostbite injuries occurring in December 1950 in the Chosin Reservoir in North Korea. The second Purple Heart was for shrapnel injuries to his right leg, which occurred in September 1951 in the Battle of Bloody Ridge in central Korea.

Brigadier General James M. Robinson, Assistant Adjutant General-Army of the Missouri Army National Guard, also presented Hardin with the Combat Infantryman Badge, the National Defense Medal, and the United Nations Service Medal. Those in attendance stood as Hardin received the awards.

“I said ‘in the absence of

order’ because 60 years ago, there would have been a room full of soldiers as they stood at attention as the order was read,” Gen. Robinson said.

“On behalf of a grateful nation, it is my honor to give

n “On behalf of a grateful nation, it is my honor to give you this long overdue Purple Heart, PFC Hardin.”

– Brigadier General James M. Robinson

you this long overdue Purple Heart, PFC Hardin. I have never been more honored to salute an enlisted man.”

After U.S. Sen. Claire McCaskill’s office was informed that Leo Hardin never received these awards, her office submitted the necessary documentation to correct the error and the U.S. Army confirmed they would issue Hardin’s awards.

“We owe the veterans who have sacrificed for our country an unknowable debt of gratitude,” said McCaskill, a senior member of the Senate Armed Services Committee and daughter of a World War II veteran. “One of the best parts of my job is helping honor those sacrifices and making sure we’re keeping our promises to our veterans long after they return from the battlefield.”

Hardin, a veteran of the 2nd Infantry Division, served in Japan in the late 1940s as well as in Korea from 1950-1953.

Hardin’s title has changed from PFC to Reverend, now serving on God’s spiritual battlefield.

“Let us always remember to pray for your soldiers,” Rev. Hardin told those at ceremony. “The military needs your prayers.”

Truancy oficer busted

During the 2012-2013 school year, 66 percent of East St. Louis students were chronically truant (having nine or more unexcused absences). Average truancy for St. Clair County was 7.1 percent and 9.8 percent for the state of Illinois during that same period.

East St. Louis School District 189’s alarming numbers were the result of high poverty, lack of transportation, district-wide budget cuts and a reduction of the truancy staff from 23 down to 9, according to district oficial Fred Clarke. And, though, during the academic year 2013-204, truancy was reduced to approximately 46 percent (still way too high), one would think that the district’s skeleton crew of truancy oficers would be overworked in keeping track of over 6,000 ESL public school students. But, allegedly, one truancy oficer, 55-year-old Kevin McCaster, felt that he had enough time to track truants as well as line his pockets with the proceeds from drug sales, according to St. Clair County State’s Attorney Brendan Kelly. McCaster has been accused of selling a substance containing cocaine to an undercover agent within 1,000 feet of Annette Oficer Elementary School (a felony if convicted). He was arrested and, at press time,

bail was set at $50,000. He is innocent until proven guilty. McCaster has worked for the district since 2007 and has been place on paid administrative leave from his $44,000 a year job, according to District 189 spokesperson Kim Roberson.

Once again, the underperforming, cashstrapped community of ESL is faced with the prosecution of yet another alleged bloodsucker of the poor and disenfranchised.

The truancy oficer’s job description entails getting students with excessive absenteeism back in school and to work with troubled families in removing all barriers to that end.

Nowhere in that job description is there any mention of proiteering from the sale of drugs, particularly near our precious children.

One only hopes that McCaster’s arrest will send be a deterrent to similar misbehavior, and not simply become a government ploy to entice McCaster to disclose information on “bigger ish” within the school district hierarchy. Time will only tell. But, for now, I’ll settle for one alleged dope dealer off the streets of East Boogie. Email: jtingram_1960@ yahoo.com; Twitter@ JamesTIngram.

Korean War veteran Leo Hardin received four awards for his mwilitary service, including a Purple Heart with one Bronze Oak Leaf Cluster, from Brigadier General James M. Robinson, Assistant Adjutant General-Army of the Missouri Army National Guard. Photo by Wiley Price

James Ingram

Editorial /CommEntary

The fire Bob McCulloch started

Ferguson was lit up on the night of Monday, November 24 by smoldering fires from a series of arsons committed in the chaos following the announcement of the

not

St. Louis County Prosecutor Robert P. McCulloch chose to announce the grand jury decision in the Police Officer Darren Wilson case in the dark of the night on Monday, November 24. He did this knowing that the grand jury’s decision – that there is no probable cause to charge Wilson with a crime in the fatal shooting of Michael Brown Jr. – would inflame the Brown family and their many supporters. He did this knowing that some of this support takes the form of a determined protest movement that has kept the pressure on the Ferguson police (among other adversaries) since the day Wilson killed Brown on August 9. McCulloch did this knowing that this protest movement, when enflamed, can take on a very different nocturnal character. In the turbulent days and nights of August, when Ferguson was placed forever on the map of the world’s struggles, police authorities came to distinguish between day protests, which were multigenerational and invariably peaceful, and night protests, which were younger and much more unpredictable. Further, McCulloch decided to deliver this inflammatory news at night when national intelligence about outside agitators’ plans to infiltrate Ferguson when the decision is announced was so harrowing it helped influence Gov. Jay Nixon to preemptively declare a State of Emergency and conduct a press conference where the Governor rattled his sabre like invading hordes were descending on Missouri. The result of McCulloch’s choices was an unmitigated disaster. Brown’s family went blind with grief and rage, as anyone with a brain and a heart could have predicted they would, and the community convulsed around them. This enraged community – gathered in the night – included many young people who have not been seen at Ferguson Police Department protests since the hot days of August. It also included many new faces – or, rather, masks, since many of the new, edgier protestors who started showing up in recent weeks mask their faces (or shroud

St. Louis Public Schools strives to provide a quality, relevant education to every child. One way we accomplish this is to listen to our students’ dreams and aspirations.

Dating back to the 1970s, SLPS began to introduce schools with specialized curriculum. Called “magnet” schools, these campuses do not have traditional geographic boundaries and attract students from throughout St. Louis city and St. Louis County. Of the district’s 70-plus schools, 24 are magnet schools and three are choice schools, which also have specialized curriculum but are only open to city residents.

You may have recently heard a radio commercial or seen an ad in this newspaper reminding families that applications are now being accepted for the 2015-16 school year.

If you are not familiar with our magnet and choice options, we offer elementary, middle and high schools for nearly every interest: visual and performing arts, STEM (science, technology, engineering, math), career and technical education, military,

FIRE, Ferguson and diversity

Lack of diversity is part of the problem uncovered by Ferguson, and fixing it is part of the solution. So, what is the City of St. Louis doing about their situation as it relates to diversity?

Photo by Lawrence Bryant

them with bandanas). Some of these outside agitators are seasoned riot chasers who seize any opportunity to fight the police at militant protests and who favor the rhetoric of fire and the practice of arson. This incredibly volatile mix of ingredients, handled by someone as brazen and reckless as McCulloch, exploded on West Florissant Avenue and South Florissant Road on Monday night and burned to the ground.

Unless you live in a cave with no cable TV package, you know by now that a member of the extended Brown family, the youth’s stepfather Louis Head, responded with rage when he heard the grand jury’s decision publicly announced at the police department protest. This grief-enraged stepfather responded by chanting, “Burn the (expletive) down! Burn the (expletive) down!”

His chant was picked up by the people around him and spread, expressing the anger and frustration of the gathering crowd all too well. This momentarily violent chant, to be clear, is not the message that this family has conveyed up until now. The Brown family has consistently pleaded for peaceful protests. Further, it is clear from the scale and effectiveness of the arsons staged in Ferguson on Monday that it was a planned operation and not the spontaneous outgrowth of one stepfather’s fit of rage.

However, he will be blamed, and the family’s name and message of peace will be tarnished. We consider that unfair, considering that this enraged stepfather had almost no power to influence the course of events, whereas Bob McCulloch held all the reins of power – and every single decision he made culminated in the disaster we all saw on Monday night. McCulloch may have behaved as if he were proceeding by the rule of law and impartially administering criminal justice. But in fact the cumulative effect of every single decision the prosecutor made –up until and including when he stepped up to the podium after 8 p.m. on Monday night – had the effect of his chanting “Burn the (expletive) down! Burn the (expletive) down!”

international studies, law, medicine and gifted education. Students who know what path they would like to take once they graduate from SLPS have the opportunity to gain realworld experiences in their chosen field before they enter college or start a career.

Culinary students at Clyde C. Miller Career Academy cook in a state-of-the-art kitchen. Veterinary students at Gateway STEM High School care for a variety of animals every day, including the principal’s dog. Dancers and musicians at Central VPA High School perform on a world-class stage. Future doctors and scientists at the Collegiate School of Medicine and Bioscience learn crime-scene investigation techniques. Cadets at Cleveland NJROTC practice the principles of leadership as squad leaders, platoon commanders, company executive officers, company commanders and members of Battalion Staff. These are just a few examples of the unique opportunities students have at SLPS magnet and choice schools that translate to college, the military and future careers. Several SLPS magnet schools also provide accelerated education programs for children who have tested gifted as dictated by stateapproved criteria. SLPS is the

only district in the metropolitan area offering full-time, tuitionfree gifted education for students in preschool through grade 8. Testing is available for current SLPS students and can be scheduled by calling the SLPS Gifted and Talented Office at 314-345-4548.

Because the number of applicants requesting placement often exceeds the number of open/available seats, enrollment in magnet and choice schools is based on a lottery. The Pool B lottery application period for the 2015-16 school year runs through Jan. 7, 2015. A full description of each magnet and choice school—along with the application and selection criteria—is available at www. slpsmagnetschools.org.

If you live in the city and have additional questions, you can always call us at the SLPS Student Recruitment and Placement Office, 314633-5200. If you live in the county, please contact the Voluntary Interdistrict Choice Corp. (VICC) at 314-721-8422 x3012.

We look forward to helping you find a school that best meets your child’s interests and ambitions.

Louis F. Kruger is the Executive Director of the Student Recruitment and Placement Office at Saint Louis Public Schools.

St. Louis city is trying to be proactive in their approach to hiring on the St. Louis Police Department, no doubt to try to throw off the scent of perceived racism some feel the city can’t shake under the current administration. The city has gone into talks with the black police officers, the Ethical Society Of Police (ESOP). The Firefighters Institute for Racial Equality (FIRE) applauds ESOP for negotiating and setting up an avenue for blacks in the community to be prepared and enter the police academy.

That brings us to the St. Louis Fire Department. The city’s personnel department performed a study of how blacks and whites performed on fire service tests. That study was completed in 1994 and reviewed the three components of the exam. The results of that study has been the bases for fire department promotional exams ever since.

The multiple-choice part of the exam is the easiest part of the test to cheat and guess right answers. The study revealed that white candidates performed better than black candidates on this part. The study also said that this portion of the exam

Whole world is watching

Nobody likes the details of what is happening in Ferguson, and why it is happening, the horrible part – the tragedy of a kid killed or a cop who must wish it had never happened – regardless of the right or wrongness, regardless of the media, the headline of the day or Breaking News (again ) on CNN, or the smiling pundits mugging from all sides of the issues trying to look wellgroomed and smart, repeating non-news which we all know. This is a monster deal. I feel it is as powerful, as much in the ‘60s. It could be a Selma. When people from Thailand, Italy, England and the Bahamas are concerned, and ask, “Are you going to leave St Louis?” (Brits) or say “You can come here” (Bahamas). The whole world is indeed watching.

I hope what they see –after the fire, God forbid, and whatever happens and dust clears, and hate on all sides calms a bit, and when we all get together a bit – is a new model. Wouldn’t it be wonderful if the country can say at some time that Ferguson made a difference? Wouldn’t it be wonderful if the country would acknowledge that Ferguson changed things?

I believe that nothing will be the same after what is happening, and what is to come – regardless of how frightening, destructive, harsh, mean and sad it might be. Ferguson will matter. Ferguson will become a word that means something. And St. Louis will share this success. This is what I choose to believe.

John Marlow, president, Great Forest Park Balloon Race, St. Louis

Opportunity to address disparities

Former Missouri Supreme Court Chief Justice and current SLU Law Dean Michael Wolff challenged the audience at SLU Law’s Ferguson Policy Solutions Workshop on

least replicated the job of a firefighter captain.

The written fire scene simulation is the portion of the test where the candidate writes what should be done at a fire from start to finish.

Black candidates performed better than white candidates on this part. The study also said that this portion of the exam most replicated the job of a firefighter.

The final portion of the exams was the oral communication portion (assessment center). This is where candidates perform a presentation in front of a threeperson board of firefighters who score them. The study showed that on this portion of the test, black and white candidates performed equally.

The study suggested that candidates should be ranked according to their assessment center scores, seeing as no one group had an advantage in that area. The city’s personnel department in all the exams given since that study did just the opposite, giving up to 40 percent for the multiplechoice portion of the test while reducing the written fire scene simulation to three-word answers. These were deliberate acts to reduce the number of blacks on the St. Louis Fire Department. In fact, from 2000 to the present, there have been over 100 fire captains promoted with only 22 of them being black. These acts are deliberate and seem to be racially motivated. Further, the city, at the highest level, was found guilty of discrimination against the highest-ranking black fire department officer, Deputy

Chief Charles Coyle, by not promoting him to Fire Chief because of race, according to a jury as well as an appellate court. The fire department is in need of solutions that are lasting, tangible and expandable to all areas of the department. FIRE has tried to work with the city’s personnel department on these issues, with little cooperation from them. Simple questions like “what is the target date of the next entrance exam?” and “what will be the components of that exam?” have gone unanswered. Information like that would be helpful so we can help prepare black candidates for these jobs. In light of all that’s happened recently, one would think FIRE would get more assistance. FIRE’s suggestions on hiring and promotion have been received by the city and its personnel department. There has been no substantial movement in those areas so far. FIRE will continue to work with the Black Chiefs of St. Louis and the African American Fire Service Institute to prepare blacks for the entry-level exam, in spite of resistance from the City’s personnel department. If you are interested in becoming a firefighter, email firefightersinstitute@yahoo. com, give your name and number and we will contact you with additional information. The U.S. Department of Justice will inevitably talk with FIRE, and right now all the information we can provide to them is detrimental.

Abram L. Pruitt Jr. is president of FIRE.

November 4 to take advantage of the opportunity to eliminate racial disparities in health care by expanding Medicaid in Missouri.

A May 2014 report by “For the Sake of All,” a multidisciplinary project that focuses on the health and well-being of African Americans in St. Louis, found that African Americans face disproportionally higher rates than whites of chronic diseases, hospitalizations, and death due to chronic diseases and cancer in St. Louis city and county.

Further, the report found that African Americans were more likely than whites in St. Louis city and county to not have health insurance. Without access to health insurance people are left without needed medical care, which leads to poor health outcomes and expensive emergency care.

We have a real-time opportunity to address racial disparities in health care in Missouri. Our Legislature should expand Medicaid as a way to not only expand health care access to the nearly 300,000 uninsured Missourians that would benefit from expansion, but also as a way to address racial disparities in health care.

With expanded Medicaid, more Missourians will have access to regular doctors’ visits and affordable prescription medications, get timely and routine health care, and avoid expensive hospitalizations. Contact your legislature now and encourage them to expand Medicaid in Missouri.

Marie DeFer St. Louis

Guest Columnist

Louis F. Kruger

St. Louis County grand jury’s decision

to indict Police Officer Darren Wilson.

Mother’s investment

Life or death in a ten-minute drive

By Kelly McGowan For The St. Louis American

Who could forget the powerful movie “Soul Food”? We all have our favorite scenes from this movie. The most emotional, however, involve watching the family struggle to remain intact after their matriarch dies from diabetes-related complications.

The movie was a huge hit within the black community because in some way, shape, or form most of us can relate to a grandmother living with diabetes. In St. Louis, blacks are twice as likely to die from diabetes as whites. Honestly, that’s pretty normal. Just like it is normal for grass to be green, it is normal for blacks to be diagnosed with diabetes.

Most black neighborhoods are set up such that we cannot be healthy. Growing up just south of the Natural Bridge and Kingshighway intersection, I don’t think I ever saw anyone jogging around my neighborhood. I consider myself pretty coordinated, and I almost got injured when I went for a jog. Not from the actual exercise, but because I tripped on uneven sidewalks and almost fell on my face. Sure, one can hop in their car and sign up for a gym membership. This assumes that individuals have access to a vehicle and the money needed for the monthly membership fee. What about people who do not have a car or the money to spend on a gym membership? Even if money is available, most of our neighborhoods do not have facilities that can be used to engage in physical activity. Research has shown that if one relocates from a high-poverty area to a low-poverty area, that person would experience a 50 percent increase in accessibility of facilities or alternative outlets for engaging in physical activity. Currently, I live in the Central West End. I often see my neighbors engaging in some form of outdoor physical activity. The sidewalks are even and free from litter. There are several gyms and other places to engage in physical activity. These gyms not only have the typical workout equipment; they also offer classes such as kickboxing to their members. There are also boutiques and other businesses within walking distance that cater to any wants or needs of the residents.

Where I currently live is less than 10 minutes driving-time away from where I grew up. What a difference that 10 minutes makes!

Evidence from research and my personal experiences illustrate that living in a community that lacks usable facilities or outdoor spaces for physical activity is typical in predominantly black, low-income neighborhoods. However, areas such as the Central West End cater to their residents’ needs for active living. Where you live in this city dictates your accessibility.

I’m tired of reading about diabetes mortality rates in the St. Louis black community, and I’m fed up with the structure of our neighborhoods perpetuating this cycle. Diabetes is a reality in our community and within our families, but just like anything else, it can be changed. We can create a new normal, where we are encouraged to participate in physical activity. We can have communities where we don’t have to worry about transportation or money to maintain our health.

How can we create this new normal?

Active living can be incorporated in our communities through investment in the 108 parks throughout St. Louis city. Research has shown that the proximity to parks predicts park use and exercise levels. Investment in park services has been associated with higher rates of physical activity with health benefits.

St. Louis legislators passed Bond 190 in 2011, making available $34 million in funding to make improvements specifically on parks throughout the city. This would provide easy access for residents to exercise, thus promoting active lifestyles among the community. The parks are there for residents to use; the funding is there to make the needed improvements for residents’ usage of the parks.

So what is the hold up? We need to call out our aldermen, alderwomen and Mayor Slay so they can step up and appropriate the available funds to support healthier lifestyles in our communities. I live less than 10 minutes driving-time away from the 63115 zip code, which has the highest diabetes mortality rates in St. Louis. My circumstances have afforded me the opportunity to live in an environment that encourages a healthy, active lifestyle. Do my fellow St. Louisans living 10 minutes north of me deserve a diabetes diagnosis and potential death sentence?

Kelly McGowan, a second year candidate in the Master of Public Health program at Washington University, plans on working to address health disparities within the African-American community in St. Louis.

Kim Rhodes rushed water and juice to protestors at the Ferguson Police Department on Wednesday, November 19.

Photo by Lawrence Bryant

Kelly McGowan

CHAOS

Continued from A1 preceded it. McCulloch said witnesses had different opinions of where Brown’s hands were – on his stomach, at his sides or up in the air – when he was shot and killed.

In his testimony, Wilson told the grand jury that he initially encountered Brown and his friend, Dorian Johnson, walking in a street and told them to move to the sidewalk. Wilson said he noticed that Brown had a handful of cigars, and realized that the men were suspects in a theft at a convenience store reported minutes earlier.

Johnson told the grand jury that he was “shocked” when Brown stole cigarillos from the convenience store and was not surprised when police came after them. Wilson originally passed the two young men, telling them, “Get the (expletive) on the sidewalk,” Johnson said.

Brown remained silent while Johnson spoke to the officer, he said. “I wasn’t loud with the officer or anything like that,” Johnson testified. “I was just telling him where we were headed.” But then Wilson reversed his vehicle and opened his door suddenly, hitting Brown and himself slightly, he said. Wilson closed the door and then reached outside of the car and grabbed Brown by the neck, Johnson said. He saw no punches thrown; it was more like an intense “tug of war.”

He heard Wilson say, “I’ll shoot,” but he never saw Brown grab the officer’s gun. Wilson testified on the car wrestling: “I tried to hold his right arm and use my left hand to get out to have some type of control and not be trapped in my car anymore. And when I grabbed him, the only way I can describe it is I felt like a five-year-old holding onto Hulk Hogan ... That’s just how big he felt and how small I felt just from grasping his arm.” Wilson said that the two young men ran from him and

then turned back around. When Brown “charged” him, Wilson said, he shot him. After the initial shots in the car, Johnson said he and Brown took off running. When Wilson shot again, he said Brown stopped running and turned to face the officer.

“At that time Big Mike’s hands was up, but not so much in the air because he had been struck,” Johnson said. Johnson said Brown told Wilson, “I don’t have a gun,” but Wilson was “still mad, he still has his angry face. ‘I don’t have a gun.’ ... And before he can say the second sentence or before he can even get it out, that’s when the several more shots came.”

Johnson was asked if Brown ran at the officer, and he said he did not because he was already shot and hurting.

McCulloch said many of the witnesses most familiar to the public gave testimony that conflicted with the physical evidence or changed their testimony, whereas witnesses whose testimony was found more credible by the grand jurors have never been interviewed by the media.

Brown’s parents, Lesley McSpadden and Michael Brown Sr., were given a phone call on Monday briefly alerting them to the grand jury’s announcement, according to an MSNBC report. “While we understand that many others share our pain, we ask that you channel your frustration in ways that will make a positive change,” the Brown family said in a statement.

President Barack Obama quoted their statement in remarks from the White

House after the decision was announced, but a small element in the Ferguson protest crowd had already started setting fires and trying to destroy police cars as Obama was speaking. Wilson is white, and Brown was black. The Ferguson protest movement is diverse, but it focuses on a national pattern of white police officers shooting and killing black males who are unarmed (or where there is controversy over whether they were armed). The group that has rallied around the accused police shooters is virtually all-white.

This made the racial composition of the grand jury an issue of concern.

The grand jury who heard the testimony in the Michael Brown Jr. case consists of

nine white and three black members. Seven are men and five are women. Nine of the 12 jurors had to agree on charges to hand down an indictment. Those charges could have included murder in the first degree or second degree, or voluntary or involuntary manslaughter.

Throughout the protest movement, the chant, “Black lives matter,” has been a dominant thread. The movement has united “fairminded citizens who want a society that guarantees the human and civil rights for all, not just those with the right skin color or the resources to pay for it,” said Jamala Rogers, a longtime activist and a leader with the group Coalition Against Police Crimes and Repression.

“On the other side are those

who feel like the status quo that upholds white rights must be protected at all costs,” she said. Police said there were 21 fires in Ferguson on Monday night. Two police cars completely burned, and 10 were damaged. Three officers were injured.

Gov. Jay Nixon said 700 National Guardsmen were in the St. Louis area, but many people questioned why they were not stationed in Ferguson. Nixon said he would have 2,200 members of the National Guard deployed on Tuesday night.

“I’m sorry to the community of Ferguson,” Captain Ron Johnson of the Missouri Highway Patrol said at a press conference on Tuesday, November 25. “That was not fair to this community and this nation.”

Photo by Lawrence Bryant

An unknown arsonist torched a line of cars at the Auto Buy Credit lot in Dellwood, near the Ferguson protest zone, in the chaos following the announcement of the grand jury decision on Monday, November 24.

Continued from A1

People wailed with her from the crowd – and voiced their support as family members wrapped their arms around McSpadden when it appeared that her body would give at the weight of the news.

“We’re here for you, sister,” an older woman yelled from the crowd as McSpadden sobbed. “We’re here for you, and we love you.”

And just like that, the earth shattered again in Ferguson.

The lowest common denominator of the subsequent reactions will get plenty of attention – the looting, burning, vandalism and arrests of those erroneously lumped in with the masses of peaceful protesters.

Talks of the impact on the Ferguson community as businesses burned along a significant stretch of West Florissant Avenue have been continuing since not long after McCulloch announced that there would be no indictment.

But the biggest collateral damage as the fires raged in Ferguson was the collection of fragile hearts that broke more quickly than the storefront glass that crunched along the sidewalks of South Florissant Road later that night.

Before the more dangerous element did their worst, there was a collective of spirits whose idealism refused to allow them to believe anything other than that justice would prevail.

“I thought he was going to be indicted,” Gabby Davis said, shaking her head. She assumed she was coming to the long-standing protest hot spot to celebrate.

when it really happens, it feels like it’s a punch in the gut. You start to wonder, ‘How much do black lives matter?’” Bradley said the nonindictment raises serious questions.

“You think about what needs to happen for an officer to be indicted – because right now, nobody knows,” he said.

“If eyewitness testimony doesn’t do it, if video doesn’t do it, if pictures don’t do it, then what? You start to wonder if there’s a difference between the law and justice – and that’s the danger of the whole thing.”

By evening’s end, a small group had fulfilled the prophecies of those expecting the worst.

Police cars burned. Tear gas was again deployed. Core businesses within a community went up in flames. St. Louis County reported more than 60 arrests.

“Last night was a disaster,” Colonel Ron Replogle, Commander of the Missouri Highway Patrol, would later say in a press conference.

“I really just thought it was going to be right and that somebody would be on our side and say the right thing,” Davis said. “Now I feel there’s no such thing as justice.”

SHAW

Continued from A1

Louis police officer.

Grace Kenyon, a frontline protestor since August, said she arrived late to the Ferguson action but quickly turned around.

“We were parking at the Family Dollar when we saw a bunch of people running from tear gas,” she said. “And then windows started breaking while police are teargassing protestors a few blocks away. Police were nowhere in sight when people were actually committing crimes and breaking the law.”

Kenyon held up a sign that said, “Black skin is not a weapon.”

“I’m here because black lives matter,” she said, “and people don’t think that.”

At about 11 p.m., the marchers arrived at the intersection of Arsenal Street and Grand, where the South Grand business district begins. Leaders stopped the march because several individuals had run ahead of the group and started breaking windows of businesses, including at the FedEx Kinkos.

Elizabeth Vega, a leader with the Artivists group, said she believes the offenders were agitators, who were wearing masks and were white.

Unlike the typical commanding presence during their nightly face offs with Ferguson police, there was an initial disheartening resignation as protestors tried to let the fact that Wilson would not be indicted sink in.

“I’m in disbelief, actually,” said Tiffany Nashville. “I think we all felt like we knew this was going to happen, but there’s that Christian side of me that felt like ‘God isn’t going to let that happen.’ And after I heard Lesley speak on Saturday, she was just so faithful and was like ‘y’all gotta stay faithful with me.’

During the march, they were encouraging the younger kids to pick up rocks. Vega said she pulled her whistle out and told the kids to put them down. That’s when the agitator pushed her. She said she understands their anger and sentiment of, “They’re killing us, and this is just property.”

“But this is just an excuse for police to start shooting rubber bullets and real bullets if this happens,” she said. “We’re just trying to keep the peace as best we can in the midst of real frustration and sorrow.”

A moving truck joined the protestors at the intersection, and several young black men jumped on top, wearing “In Peace Solidarity” T-shirts. Below them a car blasted Lil Boosie’s “F—k the police,” while young men and women danced.

By 11:30 p.m., tensions were growing, and several protestors started walking back down Grand toward the highway. That’s when police deployed smoke bombs. While not as harmful as tear gas, the smoke still agitated people’s eyes and throats. When people refused to leave the intersection, police in riot gear formed a line in the street.

St. Louis police arrested 21 adults after the grand jury announcement, according to the city police’s summary of incidents released Tuesday

And I was like, ‘If the mama can be faithful, then who am I not to have faith?’”

As recent as an hour before the announcement, there was a completely different energy from protestors. They marched from The Ferguson Police Department to the intersection of Hereford Avenue and Airport Road as if it were a victory lap. They blocked traffic with their familiar chant, “If we don’t get it, shut it down.”

But by 9 p.m. somber protestors stood in place, while others wandered back and forth wondering what to do next.

“Watching her on the car, it just brings tears because that was her son,” Nashville said. “Darren can come back to work

morning. Three were arrested on Interstate 44 for failing to disperse, and three more were arrested at Arsenal and Grand for the same charge.

Five people got felony charges for property damage in the South Grand business district. Two people, who carried gas masks, were

tomorrow if he wants to. Her son can’t come back.” Tears flowed down Nashville’s face as she struggled to finish her statement.

“It’s not over. I’m still faithful. We didn’t get this indictment right now, but it ain’t over because God’s got the final say,” said Kimberly Turner. “Whatever comes from this, justice will be served. We’ve got to change these laws, change this system. We’ve got to get in the system to change it. We’ve got to make our own change. But even with this case right here –it ain’t over.”

“I still have a knot right here,” Charli Cooksey said. “My heart is heavy, even

arrested for stealing a car and possessing handguns.

Four people were arrested for burglary in the second degree at the corner of Grand and Arsenal.

From restaurants to the U.S. Post Office, 21 windows were smashed on South Grand Avenue, basically hitting

though it was like we knew it was coming. I am a little worried that some of us are going to lose hope as a result of this. I just want us to keep hope and a sense of urgency.”

Tension had grown to a boiling point. Rage got the better of some individuals, who began lashing out – which had a ripple effect that ultimately wreaked havoc on Ferguson Monday night and into Tuesday morning.

“The way I see it is that people have lost faith in the system, and sometimes it seems like it’s justified to lose faith in the system,” said Stefan Bradley, a professor at Saint Louis University. “What occurred was something that people were prepared for, but

almost every business in the South Grand business district.

Six additional windows were smashed throughout the city, including Bank of America at Grand and Gravois Avenue.

At about midnight, one woman confronted a group of young people who were damaging the door of a popular

Peaceful protestors were once again lumped in with looters conducting criminal activities as yet another tragic moment in Ferguson was played – and replayed – before a global audience.

But no one’s loss of faith in the system at the present moment could rival that of Michael Brown Jr.’s family –his mother, in particular.

“They think this is a [expletive] joke,” McSpadden said, clearly speaking of those who have actively sought to criminalize her son as justification for his death. “But y’all want to come with y’all [expletive] up comments. They still don’t care. They ain’t never gonna care.”

neighborhood store, Jay’s International Food, on Grand Avenue. They told her they were going to follow her home, said the woman, who did not want to be identified.

“It’s a really sad time,” she said, standing on the corner near Jay’s in a shawl. “And now I’m scared to go home.”

Photo by Lawrence Bryant

There was widespread looting in the chaos following the announcement of the grand jury decision on Monday, November 24. Of the 44 individuals arrested on charges related to looting, all live in the metro area and 16 are from North County.

Chaos erupts in Ferguson

Unrest ater grand jury decision told in photos

Photo by Lawrence Bryant

Photo by Lawrence Bryant

Photo by Lawrence Bryant

Photo by Wiley Price

Photo by Wiley Price

Photo by Lawrence Bryant

Photo by Lawrence Bryant

Photo by Wiley Price

Photo by Lawrence Bryant

Photo by Lawrence Bryant

Fannie Lou almost kept Stenger from winning

It’s not often that anyone agrees almost completely with Political EYE. But David C. Kimball, a political science professor at the University of Missouri-St. Louis, agreed almost completely with the EYE’s assessment that the Fannie Lou Hamer Democratic Coalition had a significant impact on the November 4 election for County Executive. We’ll present his analysis exactly as he posted it on November 19 on his blog, Arch Politics.

David C. Kimball writes: Yesterday the St. Louis County Election Board released official results for the November 4 elections. While I have not had time to go through the polling place returns, I did examine the township results.

St. Louis County is divided into 28 townships. St. Louis Public Radio quickly posted a story by Jo Mannies and Brent Jones on the County Executive results, with some nice maps of the township returns. The story leads with the headline “North St. Louis County Carried Stenger Across The Finish Line” and the article makes a similar point, noting that Stenger lost in his home base of South County and even in the midcounty Clayton township. I would emphasize a different interpretation of the election. First, in such a close contest (Steve Stenger defeated Rick Stream by roughly 1,800 votes) the winning margin could be attributed to Stenger votes from any part of the county. More importantly,

Stenger significantly underperformed in North County compared to previous Democratic candidates. In the rest of St. Louis County (including South County), Stenger did almost as well as previous Democrats. The graph plots Stenger’s vote share in 2014 by President Obama’s share of the vote in the 2012 election for each of the townships in St. Louis County. Each data token is sized in proportion to the number of ballots cast in the township. Overall, there is a strong correlation between voter support for Obama and for Stenger (r=.96).

Townships tend to vote the same way in repeated general elections. The straight line indicates where Stenger’s share of the vote exactly matched Obama’s. Comparing the dots to the straight line indicates that Stenger came in slightly below Obama’s performance in most in GOP-leaning townships in South and West County and in competitive townships in the central part of St. Louis

County. It is worth noting that President Obama also lost Clayton township in 2012, and Charlie Dooley lost Clayton to Bill Corrigan in the 2010 county executive race.

But keep in mind that we cannot make an applesto-apples comparison with the 2010 election because township boundaries changed after the 2010 census.

The chart also makes clear that Stenger came in well below Obama’s performance in several North County townships. Stenger did not get more than 66 percent of the vote in any township in North County. The article notes that Stream won 12 townships in this election. In 2010 Bill Corrigan won 14 townships but still lost the election to Charlie Dooley because Dooley also racked up big vote margins (over 80 percent of the vote) in several North County townships. North County almost kept Steve Stenger from reaching the finish line. Reprinted with permission from https://archpolitics.

Protestors shut down streets in city

South City Solidarity honors VonDerrit Myers Jr.

By Rebecca Rivas Of The St. Louis American

About 150 marching protestors shut down more than five major intersections in South St. Louis on Sunday, November, November 23, demanding justice for Michael Brown Jr., VonDerrit Myers Jr. and the many other African Americans killed by police.

At each intersection, participants formed lines on the intersections’ crosswalks to block cars, while they stopped traffic for 4.5 minutes – representing the 4.5 hours that Michael Brown lay dead in the middle of Canfield Drive on August 9.

“We are out here for black life because they say our lives do not matter,” Ashley Yates, a member of the Millennial Activists United (MAU), said into a bullhorn at the intersection of Manchester Avenue and Kingshighway Boulevard. “But we know black lives matter, and we know that we must fight to prove that.”

Organized by the South City Solidarity activist group, the march started at the corner of Shaw Boulevard and Klemm Street by the memorial for Myers, who was killed at age 18. Two months after unarmed Brown, also 18, was shot and killed by Ferguson Police Officer Darren Wilson, Myers was killed by an off-duty St. Louis police officer on October 8. Police claim Myers was

armed and shot first, though family claims he was only carrying a sandwich.

Banging on drums and pots and pans, the diverse group wove through the Botanical Heights neighborhood and then confidently walked out into the busy intersection of Vandeventer Avenue and Kingshighway Boulevard at about 7:30 p.m.

As the cars backed up and headlights stared them down, the protestors yelled and chanted about justice. Minneapolis-based activist Deray McKesson watched proudly from the middle of the circle.

“It’s beautiful,” said McKesson, who writes a newsletter on the Ferguson protest movement with local activist Johnetta Elzie. “It’s cool to see new leaders emerge in the movement, 107 days in.”

The march’s organizers went through the direct-action trainings held last week, he said.

From there, the march went down Vandeventer and back up to Kingshighway, all the way down to Manchester and through the Grove. The group passed Sweetie Pie’s, marching down Tower Grove Avenue – trailed by a dozen police cars, who helped block off intersections. They continued down Shaw all the way up to Grand Boulevard, shutting down the intersection at Interstate 44.

Although the protestors were peaceful, some of the response from drivers was not. At one point, an agitated driver threw objects, possibly rocks, at the protestors. During the confrontation, Los Angeles Times reporter Matt Pearce was hit in the head. He visited the hospital as a precaution, and did not need stitches, according to the Huffington Post Graffiti was also scrawled on a monument at Flora Place, the neighborhood that hired the police officer as security the night he killed Myers. The energy from the young black women of the Millennial Activists United was infectious. All night, Alexis Templeton, 20, ran through the crowds, jumping up and down and leading chants – even though her voice was raw and tired. At one point, Yates asked the group to circle up and “ground” the movement.

“We appreciate you coming out, but we want to remember why we are out here,” she said. Yates led the group in what MAU calls a community chant – and a chant that has become one of the group’s hallmarks. It comes from a quote by 1970s activist Assata Shakur. As printed on the back of her MAU T-shirt, Yates yelled, It is our duty to fight for our freedom. It is our duty to win. We must love and support each other. We have nothing to lose but our chains.”

About 150 marching protestors shut down more than five major intersections in South St. Louis on Sunday, November 23, demanding justice for African Americans killed by police. The march was organized by the South City Solidarity activist group.

Photo by Lawrence Bryant

Business

Wells Fargo helps

Firm with STL presence donates $250K to Urban League for program

By Rebecca Rivas

Louis American

Of The St.

Wells Fargo & Co., parent company of St. Louis-based Wells Fargo Advisors, donated $250,000 to the Urban League’s “Save Our Sons” workforce training program for African-American men residing in Ferguson and surrounding North St. Louis County communities. The Urban League of Metropolitan St. Louis’ four-week training program will serve up to 500 men, ages 17 and over, in St. Louis County over the next two years.

“We are very grateful to Wells Fargo for joining the Urban League in partnership to help young

n “We can help North County community begin to create long-term economic growth and quality of life for the families who live there.”

– Mary T. Mack, Wells Fargo Advisors

African-American men and others find viable jobs in the St. Louis area,” said Michael P. McMillan, President and CEO of the Urban League of Metropolitan St. Louis, Inc.

Save Our Sons is an extension of the Urban League’s Workforce Investment Act program (WIA), a federally-funded initiative that has reached 6,000 St. Louis high school students. Training sessions will include

everything from public speaking and team building to emergency financial preparation and health care and will be held across North St. Louis County.

“Wells Fargo is committed to the communities in which our customers and team members live and work,” said Mary T. Mack, President of Wells Fargo Advisors.

“By providing resources and support

Charmaine

Chapman Society raises $2.25M Reuben and D’Anne Shelton chair successful giving campaign

By Bridjes O’Neil Of The St.

It has been a monumental campaign year for the United Way’s Charmaine Chapman Leadership Society. This year, The Society met a fundraising goal of $2.25

Charmaine Chapman Leadership Society campaign. The Sheltons will host a gala Tuesday, Dec. 9 at the Monsanto Company from 5:30 –7:30 p.m. to celebrate the end of a “rewarding” campaign year, Reuben

n “We were the beneficiaries of a lot of philanthropy. We came up in some pretty tough times.”

– Reuben Shelton

said. It was rewarding to work with a fairly large group of talented cabinet members dedicated to fulfilling the mission of the United Way, he said.

Adding to that rewarding experience was nearly attaining the lofty goal of reaching 1,000 Society members – a feat he said had never been done before. In the end, over 800 members contributed to this year’s campaign.

“We had a huge push,” he said.

“We did telethons. We had major events – like the 20th anniversary gala

at the Peabody Opera House.”

This year marked 20 years since Donald M. Suggs, publisher and executive editor of The St. Louis American, founded The Society in 1994. It was re-named in 2001 after Charmaine Chapman – the first African American and first woman to lead the United Way. The Society is comprised of African Americans who pledge an annual gift of $1,000 or more to the United Way and remains a national leader in leadership and philanthropy. The initiative has raised nearly $29 million since its inception, according to the United Way.

The 20th anniversary gala honored Chapman, who was described as a “warrior for the underdog” and a “vigilant advocate” for the St. Louis community. Roughly 600 guests attended the anniversary gala.

Sandra FarragutHemphill was appointed Circuit Judge for the 21st Circuit, which encompasses all of St. Louis County, by Gov. Nixon. She will fill the vacancy created by the retirement of Judge Mark D. Seigel. Judge Farragut-Hemphill ‘s judicial experience has included being appointed as a Special Judge by the Missouri Supreme Court. She has taught at the Washington University and Saint Louis University schools of law.

to the Urban League and the ‘Save our Sons’ program, we can help the North County community begin to create long-term economic growth and quality of life for the families who live there.”

McMillan said the organization has already received “tremendous outpouring” of individuals who want to participate. So far, the Urban League has hired two staff members for the program, who are currently sifting through applications for the first classes.

The four-week-long sessions are expected to begin on January 12. Two classes of about 20 people each will run simultaneously Monday through

Lewis E. Reed became the newest member of Smart Growth America’s Advisory Board last week at an annual Board Meeting hosted in Washington, D.C. Reed is President of the St. Louis Board of Aldermen. The Advisory Board is comprised of a select group of council members who represent cities across the nation and convene to develop a policy solutions around the issues that impact urbanized areas.

Phyllis Anderson joined the Board of Directors of COCACenter of Creative Arts. She is Chief Marketing Officer of Express Scripts Holding Company. She is responsible for the company’s marketing and corporate communications functions, including brand development, creative services, digital strategy, division marketing and public relations. She is responsible for driving awareness and utilization of the company’s pharmacy benefit solutions as well as the stewardship of the Express Scripts brand.

Malik A. Henderson will be promoted to the rank of Major in the Missouri State Highway Patrol and assigned Commander of the Administrative Services Bureau, General Headquarters, Jefferson City. Major Henderson will have oversight responsibility for the Budget & Procurement Division, Human Resources Division, and the Training Division. He also will serve as a member of the Patrol’s command staff.

Shereen Fischer joined the Board of Directors of COCA-Center of Creative Arts. She is a graduate of Grinnell College and Washington University School of Law who currently lends her time as a community volunteer. Most recently, she has headed Operation Food Search’s Empty Bowls Event, which endeavors to raise awareness and funds to fight homelessness and food insecurity. Shereen spent her early years training as a ballet dancer. Patrick Jackson.jpg

Patrick Jackson was honored by his alma mater, McComb High School in McComb, MS, and inducted in to its 2014 Hall of Fame. He is a music education teacher in the Kirkwood School District. He was recognized for his work as a music educator and orchestral conductor. Jackson has taught music education for 28 years, and served the district for 23 years. On the move? Congratulations! Send your

Lewis E. Reed

Phyllis Anderson

Malik A. Henderson

Shereen Fischer

See FARGO, B2

Sandra FarragutHemphill

See SHELTON, B2

Reuben Shelton and his wife, D’Anne Shelton, served as 2014 co-chairs of the Charmaine Chapman Leadership Society campaign.

Patrick Jackson

Marlon Lee, director of community organizing of the Urban League; Mary Atkin, managing director and market manager of St. Louis for Wells Fargo Advisors; Michael P. McMillan, president and CEO of the Urban League; Vanessa Cooksey, senior vice president of community affairs at Wells Fargo Advisors and Herta Shikapwashya, vice president of workforce development.

That evening, David Steward and his wife, Thelma Steward, pledged to make an annual gift of $1 million to the United Way – becoming

What you need to know before reading Social Security statements

By Jason Alderman

No matter how far away you are from retirement, it’s important to understand your Social Security benefits – and there’s a particularly good reason to do it now.

The Social Security Administration (SSA) is bringing back annual paper benefits statements for the first time in three years. It stopped in 2011 to save money on printing and postage, but Congress and consumer advocates complained that workers needed better access to their data. In September, the agency reversed its decision and announced it’s resuming the practice of mailing paper statements to workers in two categories:

• Those who are not receiving benefits and are within three months of turning 25, 30, 35, 40, 45, 50, 55, and 60. (After age 60, workers will receive a statement every year.)

• Those who still haven’t registered for a My Social Security (www.ssa.gov/ myaccount/) online account.

Why is this important?

First, if you’ve paid into the Social Security and Medicare system, you should understand the benefits you’ve earned. Second, as the SSA has been closing field offices and reducing services to the public, despite the fact that Baby Boomers are starting to flood the system. It’s a good time to confirm and correct benefits due to the longer wait times on the agency’s toll free telephone line and field offices. Start by waiting for your next paper benefits statement or sign up at My Social Security website to review your current data. Here’s a quick overview of what your statement tells you:

• Introduction and your estimated benefits. This section covers four categories. The first is your retirement benefits, which are based on your age when you start drawing them. The calculations are based on three critical ages as examples: 62 (the earliest age you can draw retirement benefits), 67 (the full retirement age for anyone born after 1960) and age 70 (the oldest anyone can start drawing benefits, generally at the highest level if you can wait). The second is disability,

which refers to the amount of your monthly disability benefit if you qualify. Third, your family/survivors benefits if a loved one dies. And lastly, your Medicare eligibility and the particular facts to support that conclusion.

• Your Earnings Record. This is a summary of your earnings that you need to verify for accuracy. Pull your annual tax returns as far back as you can to confirm this information, and if you work with a tax or financial planning professional, double-check their conclusions if you plan to challenge any errors with the SSA.

• Some Facts About Social

Security. Provides additional definitions and guidelines to better understand your statement and includes key contact information.

Most experts will tell you that when it comes to retirement, time is your biggest ally – it gives you the opportunity to invest, save and adjust your plan strategy. Use your statement to do the following:

• Spot and correct errors. If you and your tax professional spot disparities in your benefit statement make careful notes, gather your evidence and consult the SSA’s contact page (www.ssa.gov/agency/ contact/) to start the correction process remotely or in person.

• Blend Social Security into a broader retirement plan. Most experts agree Social Security alone won’t provide a comfortable retirement. It’s never too late to plan.

Bottom Line: Even if you’re years away from retirement, make sure you understand your Social Security benefits, and that they’re accurate and fit into a broader financial plan for your retirement.

Jason Alderman directs Visa’s financial education programs. To Follow Jason Alderman on Twitter: www. twitter.com/PracticalMoney.

FARGO

Continued from B1 Friday. One class will meet at 9:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m., and the other will convene at 1:30 p.m. to 4:30 p.m.

Aside from Wells Fargo, the Urban League has many partners in the program, who have contributed dollars, resources and expertise. Monsanto and Emerson each donated $200,000 to support the program’s launch and implementation.

SHELTON

Continued from B1 the first African-American philanthropists in St. Louis to do so. David Steward is founder and chairman of World Wide Technology, Inc., which ranked first among the top three companies in fundraising for this year’s Charmaine Chapman Leadership Society campaign. The company was joined on that list by Edward Jones and Monsanto.

“As former co-chairs of the Charmaine Chapman Society,” David and Thelma Steward said at the gala, “it is an honor and privilege to make this gift to help people in our community.”

World Wide Technology raised $1 million – and approximately half of David and Thelma Steward’s $1

Business BrieFs

Monsanto scores perfect 100 on LGBT workplace equality

Monsanto has been named by the Human Rights Campaign (HRC) as one of the “Best Places to Work for LGBT Equality.” The distinction comes with the St. Louisbased company earning a perfect score of 100 percent on the HRC’s annual Corporate Equality Index (CEI). The CEI is a national benchmarking survey and report on corporate policies and practices related to lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) workplace equality, administered by the Human Rights Campaign Foundation. Monsanto is one of only 366 major businesses across all U.S. industries to earn the top score.

“We believe that an inclusive workplace where everyone is treated equally allows people to truly bring their best and most innovative ideas to the organization,” said Steve Mizell, Monsanto executive vice president of human resources.

The 2015 CEI rated 971 businesses in the report, which evaluates LGBT-related policies and practices including non-discrimination workplace protections, domestic partner benefits, transgender-inclusive health care benefits, competency programs and public engagement with the LGBT community.

For more information on the 2015 Corporate Equality Index, visit www.hrc.org/cei.

Mizzou J-school given $1M for community journalism

Walter B. Potter Jr., a resident of Falls Church, Va., has committed $1 million to the University of Missouri School of Journalism to supplement the Walter B. Potter Fund for Innovation in Local Journalism. The endowment supports teaching and research centered on journalism that serves small communities, such as towns in rural areas or individual neighborhoods in larger urban areas.

Trust gives $10K to support Imagination Learning Center

The Dana Brown Charitable Trust gave a $10,000 grant to MERS Goodwill, which will use the funds to purchase equipment and supplies for the Imagination Learning Center, which provides child day care services to clients participating in MERS Goodwill rehabilitation programs, MERS Goodwill staff, and to families living or working in the downtown St. Louis area. The center’s mission is to provide children with comprehensive education to facilitate cognitive, social, emotional, physical, and linguistic development.

The St. Louis County Division of Workforce Development will work with Urban League staffers to lead seminars and offer mentorship opportunities.

The St. Louis Community Credit Union has volunteered space and will help with the financial empowerment aspect of the training. To aid job transportation, the credit union will also work with participants to purchase vehicles – regardless of their credit history.

The St. Louis County NAACP has contributed to

million gift was counted into the Chapman Society numbers, according to the United Way.

As one of nine children, Reuben Shelton said his family benefitted from the generosity of others.

“We were the beneficiaries of a lot of philanthropy,” Shelton said. “We came up in some pretty tough times.”

He is a firm believer giving back. He has served on the board for Legal Services of Eastern Missouri and the Mathews-Dickey Boys’ and Girls’ Club – both beneficiary organizations of the United Way. He works as senior counsel-litigation at Monsanto. Overall, Monsanto raised more than $4 million. The Monsanto members of the Chapman Society raised $118,994.

“I saw first-hand the impact that those types of contributions have on children, the elderly, and the indigent

the program’s funding and has been recruiting young men. Urban League vice president Herta Shikapwashya, who is heading up the program, said they are looking for AfricanAmerican men who are interested in volunteering and mentoring the participants. They are also asking for donations on any new or used suits, shirts, ties, etc. that would be appropriate to wear on interviews and jobs. To enroll in Save Our Sons, please contact Shikapwashya at 679-3500.

– people who need legal services and can’t afford it,” he said. “I truly believe we’re on this planet, first, to have a relationship with God and to help others.”

Overall, the United Way exceeded its 2014 fundraising goal of $72.5 million by raising a little more than $73 million.

“We witnessed an outpouring of generosity from everyone in our region – on both sides of the river, from our labor unions, from companies big and small, and households in 16 counties – to make this campaign successful,” said 2014 United Way campaign chair Scott Schnuck.

Money raised in this year’s campaign will help one out of every three people in this region, Schnuck said.

Follow this reporter: @ BridjesONeil.

– Lewis Hamilton, after clinching his second Formula 1 racing championship last weekend

JBS, CBC head to Dome for state

Two teams will represent STL in Show-Me Bowl

By Cedric Williams Special to

the American

For some high school football players, the prep work for the 2014 season began the moment last school year ended.

Some of those kids began working even before that, while most of the rest hit their stride during the dog days of summer as training camp approached.

Then once fall practice opened up for real, the blood, sweat, and tears of every kid who dared to dream of winning a state championship decorated the practice fields and workout rooms

n There were upsets galore throughout the MSHSAA playoffs.

at every school across the country.

And now, here in Missouri, the best weekend of the year is finally here, as the Show-Me Bowl State Football Championships will once again take over the Edward Jones Dome, with a glorious six games in two days (three on Friday and three more on Saturday) that will answer the question once and for all, which team

See PREP, B5

The high school basketball season gets underway this weekend with several Thanksgiving weekend tournaments. Here is look at a few of the top boys players and teams to watch in the area this season.

Boys Basketball Players to Watch

Carlos Anderson (Alton) – Athletic 6’4” swingman who has signed with SIUEdwarsdville.

deserves to be crowned champion? There were upsets galore throughout the MSHSAA playoffs, meaning that of the 12 teams playing for state titles this weekend, only two teams from the area -- John Burroughs in Class 3 and CBC in Class 6 -- will represent the area in our never-ending quest to prove that the best schoolboy football in Missouri is played in St. Louis. Burroughs will be making its fourth championship game appearance in the last five years, while CBC will making its first trip back Boy basketball players to watch in STL

Jordan Barnes (CBC) –Junior point guard who returns after helping the Cadets to the Class 5 state championship.

Ralph Bellamy (Clayton) – High-flying 6’4” lefty forward who led the Greyhounds in scoring and rebounding last season.

Marshawn Blackmon (Fort Zumwalt South) –Hard working 6’4” athlete who recently signed with Eastern Illinois.

Lee Andrew Bogan (Jennings) – A 6’4” senior guard who returns after leading Warriors to a Class 4 district championship.

Aaron Cook (Westminster) – A 6’1” junior point guard who returns to lead one of the top area teams in Class 4.

Tyler Cook (Chaminade) – The 6’8” junior power forward is ranked among the top 50 players in the country in the Class of 2016.

Alex Floresca (Webster Groves) – The 6’7” senior forward averaged 12 points a game for district champions. Signed with San Diego.

Donovan Franklin (O’Fallon) – The 6’5” senior guard returns after averaging more than 20 points a game as a junior.

Demarkus Gary (Northwest Academy) –Excellent 6’4” senior forward who returns as one of the area’s top rebounders.

Zach Glotta (Fort Zumwalt North) – Takes over role of team leader after graduating of older brother Chaz. Signed with Austin Peay.

Jordan Goodwin (Althoff) – A 6’3”

Too premature to declare state of emergency in Cleveland

Looks like the state of Missouri isn’t the only place where premature panic and fear take place. The Cleveland Cavaliers have gotten off to an anemic 5-7 start to the NBA season and people are starting to lose their minds. It didn’t help that the Cavs watched an 18-point first quarter lead turn into a 19-point deficit against the conference leading Toronto Raptors. (Yeah, that sounds strange to me too.) So what exactly is wrong with LeBron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers?

Oh how quickly we forget.

It wasn’t that long ago when King James took his talents to South Beach to unite with two superstars and a rookie head coach. Despite astronomical

expectations, the team sputtered off to a 9-8 start to the season and everyone wondered what was wrong. How could the Big Three not roll over the opposition like monster trucks? The answer was simple. The team just needed time to develop some chemistry and gel together. Eventually, the Miami Heat finished the regular season with a record of 58-24 and made it all the way to the NBA Finals before succumbing to the Dallas Mavericks. Therefore it should be no surprise that the Cavs and its All-Star trifecta have gotten off to a similarly slow start. Kevin Love and Kyrie Irving are all used to be the #1 option on offense and having the ball in their hands a lot. Growing

Growing pains should be expected while Kyrie Irving, LeBron James and Kevin Love (not pictured) learn how to play with one another.

Ishmael H. Sistrunk

Austin Jr.

During the Missouri Class 5 state quarterfinal Ladue’s James Bell (21) catches a touchdown pass over two Jackson defenders. Ladue went on to defeat Jackson 31-21.

Photo by Wiley Price

Claib’s Call

With Mike Claiborne

Happy Ferguson Thanksgiving

Claiborne

Normally this is the traditional “what we have to be thankful for” Thanksgiving column where I reflect on all the things we are thankful for in the sports community. This year, with all the things that are going on in our world, including sports, this just does not seem to be a year where holiday cheer has as big of a spot at the table as years past. The Ferguson saga just continues to have the world riveted on what next. If I am thankful for one thing Ferguson has produced: we have some real issues other than should Darren Wilson be indicted for the death of Michael Brown Jr. I am saddened that it took the loss of life to expose the shortcomings in our community, as political and civic leadership has failed miserably in all corners of the room. I am thankful that we can see for ourselves that the lack of education that has beset our community will now challenge the next generation of leaders to make sure this will not happen again.

While there are some who will view this situation with a jaundiced if not self-serving eye, it is my hope that enough will see through the saberrattling, hand-holding, “hey look at me” antics to put this sad collection on the back burner and turn up the pilot light.

To be thankful to finally see a community and its alleged leaders be exposed for what they are is unfortunate but welcome. If there were ever a

time to make changes in how things work in our community, it’s now. Too many young people with potential are being spoken of in the past tense. Those young people who are no longer with us could have been something other than a statistic. They all have the potential to be a player on the biggest field in the biggest game of life, and yet we mourn over a chosen few. Soon we could be mourning over an entire community if something is not done.

n Parents have to get back into the batter’s box and take a swing at being parents and not buddies, friends or dogs with their offspring.

Like all things, it starts with education and home. The era of letting someone else raise our children should no longer be tolerated by our community. Parents have to get back into the batter’s box and take a swing at being parents and not buddies, friends or

dogs with their offspring. The education is not limited to the children, as while a PhD is not required by the parent, simple interest is. It’s amazing what communication can do for a relationship. While a lack of communication has crumbled more than an empire,

The “Black Lives Matter” slogan of the Ferguson protest movement seemed to cover the jersey of

when protestors

it still holds the key to any positive future. So when you sit down with your family and certainly the youngsters, if you do not know the names of your kid’s friends and their parents, perhaps you may be putting work in the wrong place. Funny how when kids are playing sports the parents all come together in support, but most other elements of their child’s life are on page two of that list of priorities. Thankful? Of course I am, as there are still good things

in this world to feel good about, with sports being one of them. There are a few things that are more important to me than wins, losses, rankings and the post-season. I am grateful for those things to write about, but there are times – as we have witnessed in the last three-plus months that put sports on page two as well. Happy Thanksgiving, and truly take into account the blessings you have in 2014, as we have lost some who will not be at the table with us.

Mike

Rams defensive tackle Ethan Westbrooks

unfurled banners at the Edward Jones Dome on Sunday, October 14.

Photo by Lawrence Bryant

PREP

Continued from B3 to Show-Me Bowl since 2011.

The Bombers have won eight state titles with the last one coming in 2001, while the Cadets have won 38 state championships in other sports, including six in basketball, eight in soccer, and 13 in hockey, but they have never won a state football title.

Here’s a quick inside look at this weekend’s six ShowMe Bowl state championship football games at the Dome:

Friday, November 28

Class 3 Championship Game -- John Burroughs Bombers (13-1) vs. Oak Grove Panthers (12-2) 1 p.m.

JBS is led by senior RB John Moten. A powerful runner with great speed who’s headed to Northwestern next year, Moten is a strong candidate for STL area player of the year, with 2,402 yards and 36 TDs. And he’s been just special in the playoffs, going for over 1,000 yards in JBS’s five postseason games, including a sensational 32-carry, 207-yard, two-TD effort for the Bombers last week in the semifinals

against Monett. Other top players for Burroughs include QB Tre Moore (2,328 passing yards, 37 TDs), WR Chris Booker (52 catches, 819 yards, 12 TDs), and TE Nathan Van Slyke (41 catches, 685 yards, 10 TDs). For Oak Grove, senior RB Aaron Graham is their top performer, with 2,668 yards and 37 TDs of his own. Junior Landon Cairer has also had a big year, with 1,378 rushing yards and 17 TDs.

Class 1 Championship Game -- Valle Catholic Warriors (14-0) vs. Westran Hornets (13-1) 4:15 p.m.

Well, surprise surprise, Valle Catholic has made it back to the Dome for the fourth year in a row and is looking for its third championship in a row, which would give the Warriors their third straight Show-Me Bowl title.

Valle has 12 state titles overall and must contend with one of the top dual-threat QBs in the state in Westran senior Zane Jacoby, who has accounted for more than 5,000 total yards and 69 TDs this season.

Class 5 Championship Game -- Columbia Battle Spartans (10-4) vs. Nixa

Eagles (9-4) 7 p.m.

Rare is the occasion when you’ll see a team with four losses advance to the state championship game. Even more rare though, is the day when both teams playing for a state title have four losses.

But that’s what the case will be when brand new Battle High School from Columbia takes on Nixa (Mo.) High in Friday’s marquee game of the night.

Battle features one of the best defenses in the state and is coming off a virtuoso semifinal performance when he held previously high-scoring Ladue to just six points. Nixa has been on that type of defensive roll for 2 months.

The Eagles began the year 1-4, but have run off eight straight wins, including a hardhitting 22-10 win over highflying Kansas City-area power Park Hill last week.

Battle’s top player is RB Nathan Sutherlin, while Nixa relies on its huge offensive and defensive lines, led by D-1 recruit Austin Heatherly. Both teams are making their first ever Show-Me Bowl appearances.

Saturday, November 29

Class 4 Championship Game -- Cape Girardeau

Central Tigers (12-2) vs. Webb City Cardinals (14-0) 11 a.m.

That other team that always makes it to state will make its appearance in the first game on Saturday, as those boys from Webb City will be back at the Dome for the fifth straight year.

The Cardinals have just about cinched their claim as the best prep football program in the state, but they’ll get their chance to prove it once again when they see Cape Central Saturday morning.

Webb City is led by coach John Rodrique’s son Tyson Rodrique (How many sons does he have? Seems like there’s a new Rodrigue boy leading Webb every year).

Tyson Rodrique has passed for 1,048 yards, rushed for 725 yards, and accounted for 25 TDs.

Another team bringing a top defense to the Dome this weekend is Cape Central, which is coming off smothering victory over St. Charles West in last week’s semis. The Tigers held the high-scoring Warriors to just 194 yards and 21 points in a 42-21 win last Friday.

On offense, Cape Central is led by senior RB Braion Owens, who had 182 yards and

HOOPS

Continued from B3 sophomore swing who averaged nearly 20 points a game as a freshman.

Stephen Harris (Webster Groves) – A smooth 6’2” senior guard who led the Statesmen in scoring last season. Signed with Austin Peay.

Mike Lewis (Chaminade) – Smooth shooting 6’1” junior guard who can fill it up from long distance.

Satchel McDonald (Maplewood) – Strong, physical senior guard who led the Blue Devils in scoring as a junior.

Demarco Owens (McCluer North) – A 6’7” senior

CLUTCH

Continued from B3 before the season’s end. The team’s biggest question marks are unchanged from the start of the season. Can Irving and Love improve on the defensive end and still put up points on offense? That remains to be seen. However anyone freaking out about the season in November needs to take a deep breath. The Cavaliers will be fine. By season’s end, the only way the Raptor’s will be looking down at the Cavs is on a map.

Pacquiao impressive in victory

As I predicted last week,

forward who is a strong presence in the low post for the Stars.

Emondre Rickman (Collinsville) – An improving 6’8” senior post player who signed with Indiana State.

Jahmourie Robinson (Cardinal Ritter) – A fouryear starter at the Lions at point guard. Directed Ritter’s Class 3 state championship team in ’14.

Xavier Sneed (Hazelwood Central) – Talented and athletic 6’5” junior forward who helped Hawks to the Class 5 Final Four in ’14.

Jayson Tatum (Chaminade) – The 6’9” junior is ranked the No. 1 player nationally in the Class of 2016. Tatum is being recruited by all of the major power programs.

Jeremiah Tillman (East St.

Manny “Pac-Man” Pacquiao put a vicious beat down on Chris Algieri Pacquiao didn’t quite get the KO, but dropped his overmatched opponent as astonishing six times en route to an easy decision victory. Pacquiao’s speed and world-class pedigree was simply too much for Algieri to overcome. Unfortunately, I’ll have to catch the replay Saturday night before HBO’s World Championship Boxing bout between exciting WBO lightweight titlist Terence Crawford (24-0-0, 17 KO) and Ray Beltan (29-6-1, 17 KO).

My fight experience at Kevin Cunningham’s grand opening of Knockouts Bar & Grill was interrupted mid-fight by an idiot who

Louis) – The 6’10” sophomore is one of the nation’s top prospects in the Class of 2018.

Cullen Van Leer (Pacific) – A 6’4” senior guard who averaged 21 points a game last season. Signed with Missouri.

Levi Stockard (Madison Prep) – A 6’8” sophomore center who made a big impact in the lane for the Bears as a freshman.

Casey Teson (St. Charles) – A 6’2” senior sharpshooter who led Pirates to a Class 4 district title. Signed with Eastern Illinois.

Jah-Kobe Womack (Cardinal Ritter) – A 6’3” guard who is poised for a breakout senior year for defending Class 3 state champions.

Preston Whitfield (Fort Zumwalt South) – Talented

decided to take a life because he was denied entry into the sports bar. With all the issues surrounding Ferguson and the killing of Mike Brown, you would think that people would be able to chill and put their energy towards resolving the greater social issues of the area. I feel awful for the victim, Herbert Burnett. Prayers go out to his family and to Cunningham, who had an amazing opening weekend marred by senseless violence. Hopefully he and his establishment will be able to bounce back. C’mon St. Louis, we’ve got to do better.

Follow Ishmael and In the Clutch on Twitter @ IshmaelSistrunk and on Google+

three touchdowns.

Class 2 Championship Game -- Lamar Tigers (13-1) vs. South Callaway Bulldogs (14-0) 2:15 p.m.

Lamar will go for its fourth straight state title when it shows up for the middle game on Saturday, while unbeaten South Callaway will look for its first championship ever in a matchup of small school powers that both play stifling defense.

Class 6 Championship Game -- CBC Cadets (13-0) vs. Rockhurst Hawklets (121) 5:30 p.m. And finally, the marquee game of the weekend will be its finale when No. 1 CBC takes on No. 2 Rockhurst Saturday night. The Cadets are led by the STL’s best 1-2 punch RB duo in senior Calen Taylor and junior Tre Bryant. Taylor is CBC’s primary ballcarrier, with 1,060 yards and 21 TDs, while Bryant provides the change-ofpace, with 1,034 yards and 21 TDs of his own.

QB Blake Charlton has 18 TD passes and only three interceptions this season. Rockhurst, which has won 11 straight games after beginning the season 1-1, is led by QB T.J. Green, son of former NFL star Trent Green, who played 15 professional seasons for the Redskins, Rams, Chiefs, and Dolphins.

senior guard who returns after leading South to the Class 5 state quarterfinals.

Christian Willis (CBC) – Powerful 6’2” junior guard who returns after averaging 13 points a game for Class 5 state champions.

*A few Freshman of Note: Carteare Gordon (Vianney), Courtney Ramey (Webster Groves), Torrence Watson (Whitfield).

Chaminade College Prep junior Jayson Tatum is currently ranked the No. 1 player in the USA Class of 2016. He returns to lead a loaded Chaminade team in 2015.

By Alison Dreith For The

St. Louis

Clay must protect MO jobs Congress should not Fast Tract trade pacts

American

The Huffington Post posted an article on November 5

titled, “McConnell And Obama Are Already Planning To Undercut Liberal Democrats

In Congress.”

The article reported that Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY) said that he and President Barack Obama are already discussing plans to pass free trade agreements, following the GOP’s major gains in November’s elections.

“Trade pacts,” McConnell said at a press conference.

“The President and I were just talking about that, right before I came over here. Most of his party is unenthusiastic about international trade. We think it’s good for America, and so I’ve got a lot of members who believe that international trade agreements are a winner for America.”

Obama has struggled to sell Democrats on the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), a pact his administration is negotiating with 11 other Pacific nations.

Leaked drafts of the massive 29-chapter text have sparked a host of concerns.

The pact would set rules affecting approximately 40 percent of the global economy, covering not only tariffs and quotas, but everything from financial regulations and public procurement to medicine patents and environmental policy. While various leaked texts from the TPP negotiations have been published by Citizens Trade Campaign and WikiLeaks, none of the U.S. proposals or composite texts has ever been officially released for review by the public.

President Barack Obama and President Xi Jinping of China greet children during the State Arrival Welcome Ceremony at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, China, Nov. 12.

President Obama just visited Asia for summits and meetings aimed, in part, at bringing the TPP to conclusion. At the same time, Congress will be headed into its “lame duck” session. The White House and various corporate lobby groups are calling for the TPP to be approved under “Fast Track” trade promotion authority, an expired, Nixon-era policymaking process that would allow the pact to circumvent ordinary Congressional review, amendment and debate procedures.

n A majority of the Democratic Party is cautious of free trade deals in the mode of the 1993 North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA).

treaties have helped to expand overall U.S. economic growth, many economists argue they have had substantial negative consequences for American workers.

A majority of the Democratic Party is cautious of free trade deals in the mode of the 1993 North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). Some studies have concluded that such deals exacerbate income inequality and depress wages. While the NAFTA and World Trade Organization

On Friday, November 7, activists and allies delivered to Congressional leaders, including House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH), and Senate Finance Committee Chairman Ron Wyden (D-OR), a petition with more than 600,000 signatures opposing

“Fast Track” authority for the proposed TransPacific Partnership deal.

A broad coalition of labor, environmental and consumer groups told Wyden, whose committee is writing the rules for fast track “or Trade Promotion Authority“ that the TPP deserves considerable scrutiny that would be shortcircuited by fast tracking it. Over the past year, in Missouri, similar coalitions have been meeting with

Congressional members of the state to demand that representatives stand against Fast Track. Members of Communications Workers of America (CWA), Interfaith Committee on Latin America (IFCLA), and Missouri Progressive Vote Coalition have met with Congressman Wm. Lacy Clay a number of times, on the issue, with this promise of standing against Fast Track, yet Clay has yet to make a public statement on TPP.

Auto plants, tire plants, radio, electronics and apparel plants at one time provided St. Louis with good familysustaining union jobs. Free trade agreements, like NAFTA,

wiped them out. The future of our community is in jeopardy, because we ship our jobs overseas, forcing competition with countries that let corporations abuse workers.

Workers in Vietnam will earn 75 cents a day doing jobs that used to be in St. Louis. St. Louis is currently in a time of turmoil, and the region’s future has not been entirely decided. It is time for Clay to publicly say no to Fast Track authority, to protect the jobs that are still here, to say no to TPP and other “free trade” deals, and get Missourians working again. Alison Dreith is St. Louis Regional Organizer for Missouri ProVote.

Official White House Photo by Pete Souza

Beverly Hills bride

Meaghan Roberts weds Je’Caryous Johnson in star-studded ceremony

Special to The American Meaghan Chrystal Roberts exchanged marriage vows with rising entertainment mogul Je’Caryous Johnson in an outdoor evening ceremony in the Weatherly Garden at the Four Seasons Los Angeles in Beverly Hills on Saturday, November 15. Nearly 300 guests came from across the country for the weekend wedding celebration that concluded with a “Happily Ever After” bridal brunch Sunday in the Weatherly Garden. Meaghan, 30, earned her Bachelor of Arts, Master’s and Juris Doctor degrees at Pepperdine University in Malibu, California. She is an entertainment attorney licensed to practice law in California and has developed a seven-week program called Sticks and Stones to improve communication between parents and their children.

She is the daughter of Michael Roberts and Jeanne Gore Roberts of St. Louis. Mr. Roberts is a hotelier, real estate developer, broadcast entrepreneur and Chairman/CEO of The Roberts Companies. A Houston native, Johnson, 37, attended the University of Houston before becoming a highly sought-after playwright, producer, director and CEO of Je’Caryous Johnson Entertainment in Beverly Hills. His plays have grossed over $85 million, and he is also the author of several books. He is the son of Manon Jones of Houston, Texas and Frank McClain of Dallas, Texas. Rev. Joseph Cazer, the bride’s uncle, performed the ceremony under an acrylic pergola dripping with purple, pink and white orchids, roses and hydrangea. He wore a robe that belonged to his late father-in-law, Rev. Herman Gore. Meaghan wore a stunning Nell Gown from Vera Wang’s Fall 2014 Pink Collection. The couple exchanged traditional vows and their own personal vows. The groom said, “I

Rance John ‘The Groomer’ talks beards, tapers and

fashion

By Danie Rae, Style Broker

For The St. Louis American

Ask any woman what attracts her most to the opposite sex and one of her top three answers will be “a well-groomed man!”

That’s why it was imperative for me to tap in the mind of the “groomer.”

We see men’s grooming becoming more and more popular with traditional women’s

beauty brands creating a men’s line of products. This Style File feature sheds a little light on how a man’s most trusted confidant, the “groomer,” maintains his own style perspective. And with 19 years in the grooming game, Rance John has been cruising in his own lane.

Name: Rance John Age: 40

Occupation: Professional Groomer

Business: Rance John Styles, 2901 S. Jefferson, 63118, 314-772-7511

Birthplace: Chicago, IL

Danie Rae: How would you describe your personal style?

Rance John: I would like to consider my style post- modern. I like to mix a little old with what’s new. I really love a classic casual look.

DR: As a barber, or should I say groomer, how important is it for you to always be

fresh?

RJ: I believe your appearance is extremely key to your brand and how the public receives you. It also helps determine the type of clientele you attract.

DR: What must your fall wardrobe consist of?

RJ: I have a few must have items for my fall/winter wardrobe must-haves starting with a tailored wool double-breasted trench coat, Levi 513 jeans and corduroys and a ACF x Kooples hat.

DR: What are some of the biggest trends this season in men’s grooming?

RJ: This season, men aren’t afraid to explore more “self-expression” type styles. We have seen the knotty natural look come back, but I have been adding hard, deep tapers to them to give them more of a defined look. Guys are also going back to fuller beards,

On the shoulders of Motown

Legends including Marvin Gaye, The Temptations, The Four Tops, Edwin Starr Jr. Walker and The All-Stars, Smokey Robinson and The Miracles, Wells, Martha and The Vandellas, The Marvelettes, Gladys Knight and The Pips, The Jackson 5, Rick James, Teena Marie and Jackie Wilson are among those given their respective moments in the production.

Meaghan Chrystal Roberts wed Je’Caryous Johnson in the Weatherly Garden at the Four Seasons Los Angeles in Beverly Hills on Saturday, November 15.

Photos by Joseph Latter

Rance John, a professional groomer, owns Rance John Styles, 2901 S. Jefferson, and also travels to clients. Photos by Lawrence Bryant

How to place a calendar listing

1. Email your listing to calendar@stlamerican. com OR

2. Visit the calendar section on stlamerican.com and place your listing

Calendar listings are free of charge, are edited for space and run on a space-available basis.

holiday haps

Thur., Nov. 27, 8:45 a.m., 30th Annual Ameren Missouri Thanksgiving Day Parade. The Midwest’s best holiday parade features colorful floats, bands, storybook characters, carriages, equestrian units and Santa Claus to kick off the holiday season. We expect over 130 parade units, such as musical floats and displays, giant helium balloon figures, animal units and marching bands from around the St. Louis region. As always, Santa Claus will be present to wish everyone a Merry Christmas at the end of the parade. The parade begins at Market and 7th Street and heads west on Market concluding at St. Louis Union Station. For more information, visit www.christmasinstlouis. org/parade.

Nov. 28 – Jan. 4, Sophia M. Sachs Butterly House presents Winter Jewels: A Holiday Celebration. Surround yourself with the magic of the season. Go on a treasure hunt through the Animal Exhibit Hall, discover fairies in the Tropical Conservatory, and new friends in the Gnome Forest, but be sure to guard your treasure. 15193 Olive Blvd., 63017. For more information, visit www. missouribotanicalgarden.org.

Tues., Dec. 2, 7 p.m., The Peabody Opera House presents Moscow Ballet’s Great Russian Nutcracker. The largest and longest continually running Russian ballet tour in North America. With hundreds of hand-sewn costumes, life-sized puppets designed in the Russian tradition, and 9 hand-painted backdrops with 3-D effects, the Great Russian Nutcracker is an acclaimed and spectacular holiday celebration. 1400 Market St., 63103. For more information, call (314) 499-7600 or visit www. ticketmaster.com.

Dec. 3 – 27, Chase Park Plaza presents The Annual Holiday Extravaganza. A month-long event featuring Christmas carolers, cookie decorating, a gingerbread house, elves, a Hanukkah Celebration, a

special Kwanzaa display, and free photos with Santa and Mrs. Claus. The festivities begin with the outdoor arrival of Santa and Mrs. Claus by a Holiday-themed horse drawn carriage as Caroling St. Louis, dressed in period costumes, perform in the hotel lobby. The evening also includes complimentary cookies, hot chocolate and hot cider. Tour the Chase’s elegant lobby as it is transformed into a magical Winter Wonderland. 212 N. Kingshighway Blvd., 63108. For more information, visit www.chaseparkplaza.com.

Thur., Dec. 4, 7 p.m., The River Front Times Holiday Spirits Party. The night will feature an array of 15+ distilleries from St. Louis and beyond. Guests will also receive a commemorative tasting glass, spirit samplings, plus complimentary hors d’oeuvres. Third Degree Glass Factory, 5200 Delmar Blvd., 63108. For more information, call (314) 754-5921 or email sarah.cochran@riverfronttimes. com.

Thur., Dec. 4, 7:30 p.m., Sterling Bank presents Brian Owens: A Motown Christmas. Brian rings in the holiday season with his soulful interpretations of holiday favorites. 3648 Washington Blvd., 63108. For more information, visit www. metrotix.com.

Sat., Dec. 6, 7 p.m., Bratton Center Inc., presents “Snow Days, Christmas Concert.” Featuring the Town & Country Symphony Orchestra with special guest, Broadway singer John Leggette. A community event to beneit low-income housing building efforts. America’s Center, 701 Convention Plz., 63101. For more information, call (800) 745-3000 or visit www. brownpapertickets.com.

Fri., Dec. 12, 8:30 p.m., The Kranzberg Arts Center presents Javier Mendoza’s Christmas Concert. 501 N. Grand Blvd., 63103. For more information, visit www. javiermendoza.com.

Dec. 12 – 14, The Fox Theatre presents A Christmas Carol. When Charles Dickens wrote

see

his “ghostly little tale” in 1843, he couldn’t know that it was destined to become one of the most beloved holiday traditions of all time. By telling this fable illustrating the unfairness of the Industrial Revolution and the necessity for brotherhood and unselishness, Dickens gave the world one of its most enduring Christmas stories. 527 N Grand Blvd., 63103. For more information, visit www. fabulousfox.com.

Sat., Dec. 13, 7 p.m., The Platinum Group presents Networking Christmas Party. Polish Heritage Center, 1413 N. 20th St., 63106. For more information, call (314) 660-9610 or email platinumgroup02@gmail.com.

Sat., Dec. 13, 8 p.m., The Sheldon Concert Hall presents Blind Boys of Alabama with Kelly Hunt and Ruthie Foster. The Blind Boys of Alabama have spread the spirit and energy of pure soul gospel music for over 60 years, ever since the original group formed at the Alabama Institute for the Negro Blind in 1939. Back by popular demand, the Blind Boys return with their soulful, uplifting Christmas celebration. 3648 Washington Blvd.,

Sun., Dec. 14, 8:30 p.m., The Magic House hosts Breakfast with Santa. Parents and their little short stacks are sure to “lip” over this breakfast. Families can make their morning (or evening) sizzle with a yummy pancake breakfast cooked by a pancake lipper extraordinaire. This isn’t any normal pancake breakfast, as kids will catch their pancakes as they are tossed through the air by Chris Cakes Catering’s master chef. The kids can also have a special photo taken with Santa, enjoy playtime in the museum and even have the opportunity to make a fun holiday craft to take home. Reservations are required. 516 S. Kirkwood Rd., 63122. For more information, visit www.magichouse.org.

Sun., Dec. 14, 10 a.m., Lafayette Square Restoration Committee presents The Holiday Parlor Tour. The restoration committee seeks to facilitate the preservation and redevelopment of Lafayette Square, respecting its special historic character and enhancing its overall livability. Lafayette Square was added to the National Register of

Historic Places in 1972 and has been named one of the “prettiest painted places in America.” Visitors will enjoy the sights, sounds, and scents of a Victorian wonderland as they tour ten decorated homes. The tour will also feature carriage rides around Lafayette Park, trolley rides to tour destinations, holiday caroling, and live music.1917 Park Ave, Saint Louis, MO 63104. For more information, visit www. lafayettesquare.org.

Sun., Dec. 14, 12 noon, Holiday Soul Food Buffet at the New Northside Conference Center, 5939 Goodfellow. Blvd., St. Louis, MO. 63147. Come Enjoy delicious food, fellowship and Christmas Cheer with us on Sunday, December 14, 2014 from 12 pm- 5 pm. Adult dinner $12.95, Children ages 4 to 10 - $9.95 and children under 3 are FREE

concerts

Nov. 28 – 29, Broadway Oyster Bar presents Javier Mendoza. 736 S. Broadway, 63102. For more information, visit www.javiermendoza.com.

Fri., Nov. 28, 8 p.m., The Sheldon presents Marquise Knox. The St. Louis native has made a name for himself as one of today’s great young blues performers and has performed with some of America’s most notable blues performers, including B.B. King. 3648 Washington Blvd., 63108. For more information, call (314) 533-9900 or visit www.metrotix.com.

Fri., Dec. 5, 7 p.m., Roscoe Mitchell and Craig Taborn at The Stage at KDHX, 3524 Washington Ave. 63103. ADDITIONAL INFORMATION AT: NEWMUSICCIRCLE.ORG. Roscoe Mitchell will partake in an artist talk and Q+A on Thursday, December 4th at Tavern Of Fine Arts (313 Belt Ave). This interview will be moderated by radio announcer Dennis Owsley (KWMU -/ Jazz Unlimited/) and musician, writer, and Washington University music professor Paul Steinbeck.

local gigs

Wednesdays, 6-10 p.m., Lexus Len’s “Winedown

Wednesdays,” Live Band featuring: Cheryl Brown, Jeremiah Allen, Jeff Taylor, Gerald Warren & Amos Brewer, The Loft, 3112 Olive.

Sat., Dec. 13, 9 p.m., Troy’s Jazz Gallery presents Ladies Sing the Blu’zz Masterpieces. Come experience the smooth and sultry vocal styles of Mary Dyson & Diane Vaughn. 4519 Olive St., 63108. For more information, call (314) 9231120.

special events

Fri., Nov. 28, 5:30 p.m., Nickelodeon presents The Fresh Beat Band Greatest Hits Live. Come see Kiki, Shout, Marina, and Twist perform in this brand new production featuring new hit songs such as “Walk Like an Egyptian” along with fan favorites from their live-action TV show and recent albums. The band will perform all of their biggest hits that teach preschoolers about music appreciation and how to express their feelings through movement, song and instrumental music. Fresh Beat Band Party packages, which include a meet and greet with The Fresh Beat Band will be available. Peabody Opera House, 1400 Market St., 63103. For more information, call (314) 499-7600 or visit www.ticketmaster.com.

Nov. 28 – 30, 9 a.m., 12th Annual Fair Trade Market. Come enjoy food samples, product demonstrations, movies, children’s activities, and more. Every purchase helps someone earn a living wage. Manchester UMC, 129 Woods Mill Rd., 63011. For more information, call (636) 394-7506 or visit www. machesterumc.org/ftm.

Dec. 1, 6:30 p.m., Florissant Police Department and STL Football U presents Meet and Tour Community Relations Event, Florissant Police Department 1700 N Us Highway 67, Florissant, MO 63033. For more information, visit www.myfletch2011@ gmail.com

Fri., Dec. 5, 7 p.m., Hope for the Holidays Gala beneitting Stray Rescue of St. Louis. Come join us for an unforgettable evening of delectable food, drink and entertainment to beneit Stray Rescue of St. Louis. Celebrity guests include cast members from the ABC hit series “Castle.” Also in attendance is St. Louis Blues great Brett Hull and other favorite alumni players. The exclusive celebration includes gourmet food, open bar, live music as well as silent and live auctions. Chase Park Plaza, 232 N. Kingshighway, 63108. For more information, call (314) 771-6121 or email jenn@ strayrescue.org.

Tues., Dec. 9, 6 p.m., Ozzie Smith’s Sports Academy Basketball Clinic. Inviting ages 6 – 14 to join us for a slam dunk of a holiday basketball clinic. Collegiate athletes from the Ozzie Smith’s Sports Academy will teach the “Big 5 Skills” of basketball - dribbling, passing, shooting, rebounding and defense. The instructors make their best shot, assuring that you will have fun learning basketball skills. Please bring

your own age appropriate basketball. Brentwood High School Small Gym, 2221 High School Dr., 63144. For more information, call (314) 963-8689 or visit www. brentwoodmo.org/parks.

Fri., Dec. 12, 7:45 p.m., The Pageant hosts Kurt Warner’s Night with Champions. Kurt and Brenda Warner host this event, along with special guests from the 1999 Super Bowl winning Rams: Head Coach Dick Vermeil, Marshall Faulk, Isaac Bruce, Torry Holt, and Orlando Pace. This will be an evening of entertainment as Kurt Warner and the panel of guests relive the excitement of that fairytale season. All proceeds beneit the St. Louis outreach of the Kurt Warner First Things First Foundation. 6161 Delmar Blvd., 63112. For more information, visit www. thepageant.com.

Sat., Jan. 3, 7 p.m., The Scottrade Center presents Harlem Globetrotters Fans Rule World Tour. The world famous Harlem Globetrotters have been thrilling families and millions of fans for 88 years, all the while innovating the game in exciting new ways. Last year, the Globetrotters did something unparalleled in the history of sports and entertainment, letting fans vote on new rules to be used in actual games. It was so much fun, we are doing it again, and there are cool new rules to choose from: Hot Hand Jersey, Make or Miss, or Trick Shot Challenge Take your kids to www. harlemglobetrotters.com/rule to vote for their favorite, craziest rule. Then, get your tickets to the game, where you will see the winning rules put into live action. 1401 Clark Ave., 63103. For more information, call (314) 622-5400 or visit www.scottradecenter.com.

Thursdays, 7 p.m. (6 p.m. practice), The Cultural Bop Society Of St. Louis Continuing the Bop with Style (CBS) (BOP the official Dance of St. Louis, Free Bop Lessons and Bop Set Every Thursday Night, 7555 Olive Blvd. in U-City, St. Louis, MO 63130.

comedy

Through Dec. 13, Satori presents STL Up Late. This is an interactive late night talk show featuring the most talented & engaging guests that St. Louis has to offer. STL Up Late takes all of the best elements of your favorite televised late night talk shows, like live music & famous personalities, and adds interactive audience games, sketch comedy, and a spontaneity that you can’t ind on FCC regulated TV shows. 3003 Locust St., 63103. For more information, visit www. stluplate.com.

theatre

Through Nov. 30, The Fox Theatre presents MOTOWN the Musical. 527 N Grand Blvd., 63103. For more information, visit www. fabulousfox.com.

Nov. 28 – Dec. 1, The Black Rep presents A Raisin in the Sun. Emerson Performance Center, Harris-Stowe State University, 3026 Laclede Ave., 63103. For more information, call (314) 534-3807 or visit www.theblackrep.org.

The Sheldon presents Marquise Knox. For more information,

CONCERTS.

Tues., Dec. 2, 7 p.m., The Peabody Opera House presents Moscow Ballet’s Great Russian Nutcracker. The largest and longest continually running Russian ballet tour in North America. 1400 Market St., 63103. For more information, call (314) 499-7600 or visit www. ticketmaster.com.

Fri., Dec. 5, 6 p.m., The Fox Performing Arts Charitable Foundation presents Kids Night at the Fox. For this special day the Fox will offer adults the opportunity to purchase a ticket and receive a kid’s ticket free to attend a fun-filled performance of ANNIE. Area restaurants will offer a free or discounted kid’s entreé with the purchase of an adult entreé. Prior to the show, the Fox Theatre lobby will be filled with lots of kid-friendly, interactive activities. Each kid will also receive a free souvenir to remember this special day. 527 N Grand Blvd., 63103. For more information, visit www. foxpacf.org.

Dec. 10 – 14, The Peabody Opera House presents Pippin. Come experience one young man’s journey to be extraordinary in this high-flying, death-defying hit musical. 1400 Market St., 63103. For more information, call (314) 499-7600 or visit www.ticketmaster.com.

arts

Fridays & Saturdays Through Dec. 20, 10:30 a.m., The Alliance of Black Art Galleries presents Hands Up, Don’t Shoot: Artists Respond Exhibiting artists include: Lenard Hinds, Bill Murphy, Lola Ogbara, Eva Sutton, Jacquelyn Williams, (St. Louis), Edna PattersonPetty (East St. Louis), Sean Starowitz & Lauren Tweedie (Kansas City), Teamworks Unlimited (New York). The Griot Museum of Black History, 2505 St. Louis Ave., 63106. For more information, call (314) 241-7057.

Through Jan. 4, St. Louis Art Museum presents Atua: Sacred Gods from Polynesia Explore, in unprecedented depth, the relationship between art objects and Polynesian concepts of atua—gods, ancestors, and spirit beings that are fundamental to the Polynesian cosmos. Organized geographically, Atua leads visitors across the vast span of Polynesian islands. With the arrival of missionaries, artworks associated with atua often were destroyed or exported to the West as souvenirs of conversion and colonialism. Among those sculptures that did survive this period, the most powerful and celebrated objects are presented in this exhibit. One Fine Arts Dr., 63110. For more information, call (314) 7210072 or visit www.slam.org/ atua.

lectures

Dec. 5 – 6, The St. Louis Science Center presents Brain Works: Your Mind on Life. Understand life and the human brain like never before. In a unique convergence of science and theater brought to you by Barnes-Jewish Hospital and Washington University Physicians, Brain Works takes you inside the

minds of two individuals as they experience the moments that shape all of our lives. Join leading neurosurgeonscientists Albert Kim and Eric Leuthardt as they reveal the secrets behind life’s milestone moments and the fear of a life-threatening medical diagnosis. With a professional ensemble, moving music, and gripping visuals, Brain Works is a compelling and emotional story of the mind, and what makes us human. 3648 Washington Blvd., 63108. For more information, visit www. metrotix.com.

Sat., Dec. 13, 11 a.m., Circle of Inluence hosts Mock Interview Workshop. This workshop will provide an interactive experience with participants by helping them to practice their interviewing skills. Participants will gain an understanding of what is expected of them as well as the kinds of questions that they should expect from an interviewer. Participants will also receive tips on business etiquette and resume writing. Please dress professionally and bring your resume. Mid-County Branch, St. Louis County Library, 7821 Maryland Ave., 63105. For more information, visit www. circleoinluence.us.

Sat., Dec. 13, 10:00 a.m., St.

The Sheldon Concert Hall presents Blind Boys of Alabama with Kelly Hunt and Ruthie Foster. See HOLIDAY HAPS for details.

Louis Alumnae Chapter of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc. Economic Development Committee presents An Innovative Entrepreneurship Workshop. Panelists of minority business owners will speak on how they started their own business. Participating business areas include: daycares, catering, construction, real estate, healthcare, and education. There will also be refreshments, prizes, giveaways, and more. RSVPs must be received no later than Nov. 22. O’Fallon Park Recreation Complex, 4343 West Florissant Ave., 63115. For more information, call (314) 790-1243.

Through Jan. 4, 2015, The St. Louis Science Center presents The International Exhibition of Sherlock Holmes. Step in to Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s Victorian London and work sideby-side with his legendary detective. You will become Holmes’ eyes and ears as he tackles a baffling new case in a world steeped in innovation and experimentation. Along the way you’ll see a dazzling array of original manuscripts, publications, period artifacts, film and television props and costumes. You’ll learn to use investigative tools and techniques from Holmes

himself, and test yourself with exciting, interactive crimesolving opportunities. Come Solve the Mystery. 5050 Oakland Ave., 63110. For more information, call (314) 289-4400 or visit www.slsc. org/watson.

health

Sat. Dec. 6, 11 a.m. - 4 p.m., Free Mammograms at the Health Resource Center Victor Roberts Building, 1408 Kingshighway in St. Louis; for female patients age 40 and older in conjunction with Mercy St. Louis Breast Center mobile mammogram van. Free flu shots, physical therapy evaluations, health screenings and info, family counseling and social work consultations are also available at this event. To schedule a mammogram or for more information, call 314389-0008.

Sat., Dec. 13, 10 a.m., Omega Psi Phi Charles Drew Blood Drive. The Omega Center, 3900 Goodfellow Blvd., 63120. For more information or to make an appointment, call (314) 385-4100.

Sat., Dec. 20, 9:30 a.m., Health Protection and Education Services presents Free Health Screenings and Physician Referrals. Health Protection and Education Services, a health organization operating in University City offers free health screenings and referrals for people who are under-insured. They employ volunteer doctors, nurses and medical and nursing students to screen people for ailments. Translators available. Referrals are made to the People’s Health Center. University City Public Library, 6701 Delmar Blvd., 63130. For more information, call (314) 448-7373.

spiritual

Through Nov. 27, TEMPLE OF DELIVERANCE OUTREACH MINISTRIES 2014 Thanksgiving Revival , 215 Shepley Drive, St. Louis,

MO 63137. For more detials visit: todom.org.

Sun., Nov. 30, 10:30 a.m., The 116th Church Anniversary celebration for Galilee Baptist Church, 4300 Delmar, St. Louis. Sunday, Nov. 30th at 10:30 AM. Special Guest Speaker, Rev. Dr. Wallace Hartsfield, Pastor Emeritus, Metropolitan Baptist Church, Kansas City, Mo.

film

Sun., Nov. 30, 1 p.m., Holocaust Museum and Learning Center Film Series: In Darkness. Based on a true story, this ilm recounts how a sewer worker and petty thief in Lvov, a Nazi-occupied city in Poland, hides a group of Jews in the labyrinthian sewers below the city. Initially acting from greed, the rescuer eventually develops a deeper bond with the group. 12 Millstone Campus Dr., 63146. For more information, visit hmlc.org.

Sat., Dec. 6, 2 p.m., St. Louis Public Library presents The Arts and Its Influence on the Civil Rights Movement and Beyond. The performance group A Call to Conscience will dramatize a “timeline” of occasions of police brutality in reader’s theater format followed by the screening of the film Fruitvale Station. A panel of artists/ arts educators will follow to discuss and illustrate how the arts positively influenced the impact of peaceful activism in America and throughout the world. Moderator, Roseann Weiss, Director of Community & Public Arts – Regional Arts Commission; Activist Stephen Houldsworth; Shirley LeFlore, activist, writer, poet; Robert Powell, Founder, Executive Director of Portfolio Gallery. Central Library, 1301 Olive St., 63103. For more information, call (314) 241-2288.

Fri., Dec. 19, Annie starring Jamie Foxx and Quvenzhané Wallis opens in theatres nationwide.

following their natural face line.

DR: Most men don’t usually care too much about their hair or skin, what are some products or methods you might recommend to dudes out there who care about maintaining their appearance?

RJ: What I recommend for daily men’s grooming maintenance is a good facial cleanser along with a beard oil. We as men sometimes overlook our skin, but this is a great start to help replenish our skin from the harsh elements.

DR: How do you feel about that hair color/tint guys use to fill in their hair and beards? I personally hate it! LOL

RJ: I personally offer this service, and it’s an art to it. The key is to make the hair look as natural as possible and still enhance it with a much fuller look. When it’s done right, it takes a man’s look from a 10 to 20.

DR: What are some of your pet peeves and attractions when it comes to the opposite sex?

RJ: What bothers most men about a woman’s style is when she has on too much make up. I prefer when a woman uses it to enhance and bring out her natural beauty, not to put a whole new face on. I think a woman is most attractive when she knows who she is, and it shines through with her own sense of style.

DR: What are some of your favorite spots to cop fresh gear?

‘Love, Love’ and ‘War Cry’

Brian Owens and Tef Poe contrast in musical response to Ferguson

By Willis Ryder Arnold Of St. Louis Public Radio

Two leaders in the St. Louis music community released Ferguson-related songs this month. Tef Poe’s “War Cry” levels harsh criticism at political leaders, while Brian Owens’ “Love, Love” addresses the hope for community understanding.

Tef Poe’s “War Cry”: “Ferguson is Barack Obama’s Katrina.”

RJ: I don’t have a specific store that I patronize. I just purchase what I like. I may find a piece at Target or Neiman Marcus and wear them together. It’s all about creating a flow with your own personal style.

DR: Any other endeavors other than grooming that you would like the reader to be hip too?

RJ: I also love to give back to the community. The Rance John Styles staff does an annual back to school fair as well as an event called “Cutting Out Homelessness” that helps the homeless people look and feel better about themselves by giving them a free haircut. I’m a part of a collective entitled “The Foundation,”

and we have an education series called “Elements of Grooming” for salon professionals on advance clipper cutting techniques and creating a great business model.

I also have always been a lover of the art of spoken word, so every last Monday of the month we host one of the hottest spoken word events in the city, “Hustle and Flow” at the Rance John Styles Salon.

Rance can be found on social media sites: IG @ RanceJohn, FB Rance John Styles & Barber, Twitter @ RanceJohn.

Brian Owens’ “Love, Love”: “We need love, love, love –let’s talk about it – love is all we need.”

The songs approach the problems that have gained attention since Ferguson Police Officer Darren Wilson killed 18-year-old Michael Brown Jr. on August 9 from radically different perspectives. But taken together, the songs portray a city frustrated, critical and cautiously hopeful.

Tef Poe and Brian Owens have both spoken about the death of Michael Brown Jr. and the subsequent protests’ effects on Ferguson and the larger St. Louis area. Both musicians have played benefit shows. Poe performed at a benefit at Plush for Michael Brown Jr.’s family. Owens performed at “#HealFerguson,” a concert held to benefit the Ferguson Youth Initiative.

“War Cry” was released with a “prologue” explaining the song’s content and genesis. Although the prologue is four paragraphs long, Poe sums up the song’s creation in a sentence.

“This record was made out of a sense of desperation,” wrote Poe. In both the prologue and the song, Poe strongly criticizes local officials and police, comparing them to slave owners.

The song is loaded with emotion and vitriol. For Poe, the stakes are high. He views the song as a chance to address

the public through an artistic and unified expression of his dissatisfaction with the subsequent handling of Michael Brown Jr.’s shooting.

“If I never record another rap record in my lifetime, then so be it. I did this for St. Louis and the countless victims of police brutality,” Poe writes at the end of his prologue.

The song received some criticism on social media for being too violent. Poe responded, highlighting the difference between his words and the actual violence of

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police actions.

“People say this song incites violence,” Poe said via Twitter. “No sir, racism and killer cops incite violence.”

For Brian Owens, the song “Love, Love” has a different goal.

“It’s a song that for me is a directive,” said Owens. “It’s about us as a community trying to get to this place where ultimately we relate to one another out of love.”

Owens released the song with an accompanying video on YouTube. The video opens with audio from news coverage of Michael Brown Jr.’s death and shots of Ferguson including the looted and fenced off QuikTrip.

As the song begins, the accompanying images cover the set up and performance of “Love, Love” at the #Heal Ferguson event. Owens first started working on the song five years ago, but only remade it as a duet with vocalist Nao Yoshioka. Although it wasn’t written as a direct response to Michael Brown Jr.’s death, Owens believes the song is fitting for hard times.

“I think the universality of the message and the timelessness of the message of it speaks to many different situations,” Owens said. “We just happen to find ourselves at a time right now where the voice in that song is needed all the more.”

Owens hopes the song will act as a soundtrack for community progress in the future.

“I live in Ferguson and, regardless of what happens with the verdict, I’ll be in Ferguson,” Owens said. “I think sometimes that if and when we don’t like what people do, we tend to withhold love and really that’s the opposite of what we should do.” Owens is currently working with Peter Martin and local group the 442’s to produce a song cycle, “The City Suites,” directly addressing the issues facing Ferguson residents. The project will consist of a threesong suite. Owens expects to release the music in the coming weeks.

Reprinted with permission from news.stlpublicradio.org.

Brian Owens and Tef Poe have both released songs in response to the Ferguson protests and crisis.

Tef Poe photo by Lawrence Bryant

We have seen the knotty natural look come back, but I have been adding hard, deep tapers to them to give them more of a defined look. Photo by Lawrence Bryant

Winter Celebrations at the Saint Louis Art Museum

Sunday Family Programs

Noon to 4:00 pm

December 7: Feast of our Lady of Guadalupe

December 14: Hanukkah: he Jewish Festival of Lights

December 21: Christmas Celebrations

December 28: Kwanzaa: Honoring our Past; Strengthening our Future

For more than ten years, the Saint Louis Art has celebrated Kwanzaa with music, dance, and tours of the museum’s collection. The success of Kwanzaa inspired our new and exciting Winter Celebrations program. Join us each Sunday in December as we take a trip around the world exploring winter festivals through free hands-on art activities, a themed scavenger hunts through the galleries, and electrifying dance and music performances.

The excitement begins Sunday, December 7 as Family Programs celebrates the Feast of Our Lady of Gaudulupe, a holiday in both Mexico and the United States. Beginning at noon visitors can participate in a hands-on activity inspired by traditional Mexican art techniques, complete a fun scavenger hunt through the Museum’s galleries, stop by demonstration tables to get an up close look at authentic artisans works from Mexico, or snap a picture wearing traditional Mexican accessories at one of the dress-up tables. This special family day

is presented in collaboration with the Mexican Cultural Society of St. Louis.

The Feast of Our Lady of Gaudulupe concludes at 2:00 pm in the Farrell Auditorium with a lively and interactive ballet folklorico featuring dances from across Mexico. The performance is free, but a ticket is required for entry. Tickets can be reserved in person at the Museum’s Information Centers or through MetroTix (314.534.1111). Tickets reserved through MetroTix incur a $3 per ticket service charge; the charge is waived for tickets reserved at the Museum.

The Museum’s winter celebrations continues on Sunday, December 14 as Family Sundays highlights Hanukkah: The Jewish Festival of Lights. Visitors can enjoy storytelling, music and many other special activities throughout the afternoon. We will celebrate Christmas on December 21 with an afternoon showing of the Disney hit movie, Frozen, a visit from the Snowlake Lady, and a performance of classic Christmas carols.

Saint LouisArt Museum’s Winter Celebrations will conclude with our annual Kwanzaa program. This year’s theme is Honoring our Past; Strengthening our Present featuring traditionalAfrican dance, an art activity where families will make their own zawadi (gift), and scavenger hunt with clues that teach about the seven principles of Kwanzaa. The Museum’s Kwanzaa program is sponsored in collaboration with Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc.,St. Louis Metropolitan Alumnae Chapter.

We hope that you will join us every Sunday in December for our free Family Programs: Winter Celebrations. Visitors of all ages will enjoy exploring a different winter holiday each week with art activities, performances and refreshments. For more information please visit www.slam.org.

Preparing for the cold

Larry Rice distributed warm clothing to the

shelters at New Life Evangelistic Center, 1411 Locust St. in downtown St. Louis, on Wednesday, November 19. Rice invited the media and public to the shelter to discuss preparing the homeless to face another brutally cold winter.

Photo by Lawrence Bryant

Better Together seeks input on policing

Better Together is working with the Police Executive Research Forum (PERF) to model an “ideal policing strategy for St. Louis.” Better Together and PERF plan to examine the geographic and demographic characteristics of St. Louis city and county and, with much input from the community, develop an idealized policing strategy for St. Louis. They said the study will take months.

PERF is a research organization focused on critical issues in policing, as well as a national membership organization of police executives. It is providing guidance and expertise, like subject-area experts have done for previous Better Together studies of municipal courts and other government structures. The study will employ community meetings, seeking opinions and insights from thousands of community members – including police officers, clergy members and their congregants, police officers’ families’ groups, neighborhood association leaders, local elected officials and constituents. If your organization would like to take part in a discussion moderated by Better Together and PERF, send an email to janelle@ bettertogetherstl.com.

Rev.

homeless individuals he

Family Sundays are sponsored by Wells Fargo Advisors.

Married

Meaghan Chrystal Roberts

wed Je’Caryous Johnson in an outdoor ceremony in the Weatherly Garden at the Four Seasons Los Angeles at Beverly Hills on Saturday, November 15, 2014. The bride, age 30, is the daughter of Michael and Jeanne Roberts of St. Louis. She is the granddaughter of Victor and Delores Roberts, the late Rev. Herman Gore and Jeanne Gore. She earned her bachelor’s, master’s and juris doctor at Pepperdine University in Malibu, California and is an entertainment attorney. The groom, age 37, is the son of Manon Jones of Houston, Texas and Frank McClain of Dallas, Texas. He studied at the University of Houston before becoming a highly sought-after playwright, director, producer and the CEO of Je’Caryous Johnson Entertainment in Beverly Hills. The couple will honeymoon in Thailand then return to their home in Beverly Hills.

Reunions

Attention Beaumont Class 1968, join the Beaumont Alumni Class 1968 meeting on Saturday, Nov. 22,2014, 2-5:00 p.m. at St Louis County Library, 7606 Natural Bridge, to organize and plan the 47th Class Reunion. For more information email bhsco1968@att. net or call (314) 869-8312.

Celebrations

Beaumont High School Class of 1970 is looking for team members to plan its’ 45th year reunion. Interested? Please email Beatrice Palmer (Vanzant-Smith) at bvanzantsmith@ yahoo.com or bsmithrealtor@ att.net.

Beaumont High Class of 1984 can stay updated via our Facebook page “Beaumont Class of 1984”. We meet the last Friday of every month. Contact Rochelle Williams at rochellewilliams001@yahoo. com.

Girl Scouts of Eastern Missouri District 3 would like to invite you to an Alumni Event. We are looking for anyone who worked in or was a member of Girl Scouts in St. Louis City.

If you would like to participate, please contact Essie Harrison at essie.harrison@att.net or call (314) 400-4602 with your name, address, phone number, and email address.

Sumner High School Class of 1965 is planning a 50th year reunion for June 12-14. 2015. Please join us via Facebook: Class of ‘65 Sumner High School St. Louis, MO.

St. Louis Community College needs your help identifying the 1.5 million STLCC alumni. Alumni are encouraged to visit the website: www. stlcc.edu/foundation/, to become members or update information. For more information, contact Ashley Budde, coordinator of alumni

Birthdays

Happy 13th Birthday to Byron A. Blassingame on December 2! Be proud of who you are and where you’re from. You are our blessing always! Love and miss you, Nana; your Uncles D. and C. ; Aunts Tra-Vette and Bran Gran Mary and Lois; PaPa Duck; all your little and big cousins; Grandpa Rob and Elijah

Happy 51st Birthday to my fiancée, Jacqueline “Ms. Jackie-B” Heard on Thanksgiving Day, November 27! Celebrate and live life to the fullest! With love from, Rodderick “Duck” Williams

relations, at abudde6@stlcc. edu, or 314-539-5145.

Sumner High School Class of 1965 is planning its 50th Reunion on the second and fourth Mondays at 7 p.m. at the Lower Level of Ronald L. Jones Funeral Chapel. For updates and/or to leave your contact info--visit our Facebook group Sumner Class of ‘65.

Sumner High Class of 1975 has started planning its 40th reunion. Please provide contact information to sumnerclassof75@gmail.com or C. Jackson 314-477-6785 for more information.

Sumner Class of ‘76 Annual Christmas Party, Friday, December 19, 2014, 6 pm at Deja

buy from kitchen, free parking, no cover charge and limited reserved seating available until 10 p.m. Please RSVPASAP with B. Louis at 314-385-9843.

Upward Bound (Webster University ) Class of ‘66 thru ‘70 of Kinloch, Beaumont, Vashon, Summer, Central, Soldan, Northwest, McKinney and Laboure, we are the process of planning a reunion around June/ July 2015. Please respond by contacting via email or Facebook Lawrence (Larry) Lewis: lewis3936@gm.com or Kenneth W. McClendon irisingridarlene@aol.com.

Do you have a celebration you’re proud of? If so we would like to share your good news with our readers. Whether it’s a birth, graduation, wedding, engagement announcement, anniversary, retirement or birthday, send your photos and a brief announcement (50 words or less) to us and we may include it in our paper and website – AT NO COST – as space is available Photos will not be returned. Send your announcements to: kdaniel@stlamerican. com or mail to: St. Louis American Celebrations

Reunion notices are free of charge and

on space availability. We prefer that notices be emailed to

However, notices may also be sent by mail to:

Kate Daniel, 2315 Pine St., St. Louis, MO 63103

Deadline is 10 a.m. on Friday. If you’d like your class to be featured in a reunion profile, email or mail photos to us. Our email address is: reunions@ stlamerican.com

Photo by Joe Latter

Stunners Deerra and Video model Dolicia Bryan were among the beautiful people perched in VIP for Envy Fridays.

Praying for peace in Ferguson. I know y’all are used to me keeping it light, but I must address what’s going on in our community right now as we attempt to move to a healing space. I could hardly breathe when Bob McCulloch announced that Darren Wilson wouldn’t be indicted for the shooting death of unarmed teen Michael Brown Jr. And just as I was catching my breath from that, a portion of my city went up in flames. Because of a few people who decided to conduct criminal activity and use this volatile climate for personal gain, the efforts of the overwhelmingly peaceful protesters that have been demonstrating nonstop for more than 100 days are at risk. I know people channel their anger and rage in different ways, but for those who may be inclined to lash out in a way that doesn’t represent who we truly are as a community, please remember that the world is watching us right now. And if there is ever a threat to justice for Michael Brown other than McCulloch and the fight to ensure that this trend of young black lives lost to police violence, it is for people to be able to negate the tireless efforts of many thanks to an unruly few. Businesses owners (several of them minorities) who should be basking in the upcoming holiday season now have the heavy load of rebuilding. I’m not saying you shouldn’t be outraged. I’m not saying you shouldn’t protest. My suggestion is that we encourage everyone to channel that anger towards change – and please keep the peace. That being said, I send my heartfelt prayers to Michael Brown Jr.’s family, our city and this nation as the quest for justice continues.

Tragedy in NoCo. Even before Ferguson went up in flames, my heart was especially heavy as two senseless deaths rocked the nightlife scene. It was a shame that a senseless killing ruined Kevin Cunningham’s grand opening for Knockouts at its new location. But the fact that it was “Big” Herb Burnett made me completely sick. Just as I was getting my head wrapped around Herb getting shot, I got word that another young man named Brandon Ferguson was shot in the parking lot as Cuetopia II let out. I found out early Sunday morning that both men passed away. Like I said before – as in the previous post – I just hope that we come to a place where we can practice healthy conflict resolution so that lives aren’t lost over situations people won’t even remember sooner than later.

I’m a survivor. And now I follow up two of the most somber Partyline items I’ve had to write, with some good news. It may seem out of tone, but I put a couple of recaps and info in here that should lift your spirits up as we seek a temporary escape from what’s currently in our midst. That being said, I’ll get straight to it with my featured event of the week. It’s unfortunate that most of the city wasn’t on hand to see it, because aside from the extremely light crowd Orlando “Pretty Boy” Watson’s latest “I’m A Survivor” experience was his best win yet for the annual affair! The truth is I was expecting to catch a little life as he presented 112 and Vivica A. Fox for the worthy cause of his foundation to fight cancer at The Pageant Thursday night. But I had no idea that it would give me such a thrill watching a band that I never really checked for rip the stage to pieces. My seat neighbor was all up in it! 112 to him clearly equals to him what The Temptations mean to just about every woman named Loretta. But I have to say that – even as they sang to tracks – I couldn’t have been more pleased with their performance. And Vivica Fox looked fantastic for someone who I know secretly gets the AARP magazine in the mail. I don’t know what her hair or wardrobe were going through – she was giving KiKi Shepherd at the top and Nicki Minaj at the bottom. But she was looking well preserved and that shape is still intact.

Indulge. I made my way to Indulge Friday night to kick it with Koncepts, Mo Spoon, Derick Hibbler and some other folks that I’m sure I’ve left out. I must give a special shout out to D-Hibb for turning the kicking it experience into an opportunity to do good thanks to his kicks donation bin that overflowed . It was a nice crowd up in there too that was ready to party. Give it up to the brother who didn’t have time to put down his hot wing before getting possessed with the spirit of Bobby Shmurda. Buffalo sauce and ranch was flinging as he worked his shoulders, hips and kneecaps to the beat. I also want to give a special shout out to the fellas that rolled through the Marquee. I hate to say it, but y’all straight up shamed the ladies with bearded swag and blazers for days.

Welcome back to radio,Tony. I’ll tell you what, I’m so glad to have some good news to report that I don’t know what to do! In probably the best news I have had in a minute in the ever-changing radio scene that STL has been shaking itself up to be, I’m happy to report that the familiar voice of my boy Tony Scott now graces the airwaves of his former competitor. My heart was filled with joy as I heard him on for the first time in what felt like forever. He’ll be holding down the weekends every afternoon. Now y’all were fit to be tied when he was taken off the air at Majic, so y’all better show him some love on Old School 95.5. He checks in from 2-7 p.m. on Saturdays and 3-7 p.m. on Sundays.

Rebirth of ‘The Beat.’ Speaking of Majic, I know y’all know by now that the station as we know it has gone on to the airwaves of the after-life as they revamped the station with a throwback hip-hop extreme makeover. They reached in their own Clear Channel vaults and dusted off the 100.3 The Beat too. Being a lover of Majic for as long as I can remember, I can’t say that I didn’t sulk at the idea that the brand was gone. But I’ve been grooving to their new format.

Chris, Joe and Roy had their section in VIP looking pretty clean this Saturday @ the Marquee.

Colondra, Samantha, and Brittany came through to experience Envy Fridays

Eye Candy models Dani and Raven were among the ravishing beauties in VIP with Mo Spoon for @ Indulge Friday @ The Marquee

Felicia, Makesha and Lisa were excited to experience ‘Black Men’s Rock’ Café Soul takeover Saturday @ the Rustic Goat

Kandle, Miranda, and Nikki got a taste of Mo Spoon’s, Hella Fly, and Koncepts Indulge @ The Marquee Friday night

Stacie and Tasha as things began to heat up @ One Cool Night Saturday @ SOHO

Michelle, Theresa, and Maurnice showed the fellas some love by supporting Café Soul’s “Black Men Rock” Saturday night @ The Rustic Goat

Darnell and Marcus got their suit and tie on for Indulge Friday night @ The Marquee

Niddy played host with the most as he laid out the red carpet for Global Grind and Social media

Comedian King Keraun Friday @ Envy

Orlando “Pretty Boy” Watson welcomed some big names to our city for a worthy cause Thursday night. R&B group 112 and stunning actress Vivica Fox headlined his annual “I’m a Survivor” Benefit concert Thursday at The Pageant. The show, which raises funds for cancer awareness, also featured The Dirty Muggs.

Photos by Lawrence Bryant & John Scott

Finding the spiritual center

New exhibit at Museum of Contemporary Religious Art

By Erica Smith Of St. Louis Public Radio

After 20 years, the Museum of Contemporary Religious Art has its first site-specific installation.

“During our first 20 years, we had thematic shows that often included many artists,” museum director the Rev. Terry Dempsey told “Cityscape” host Steve Potter. “Each one of the works that is in place over at MOCRA right now is essential to the other works that are there. This is very special.”

That work, “Axis Mundi,” was created and installed by Rebecca Niederlander, who grew up in St. Louis but now lives in California. Niederlander said the installation works specifically with the MOCRA building, a former chapel used by Jesuits at Saint Louis University.

“The space is this former place for contemplation and a place where the philosophical side of the Jesuits was explored, and I think that the spirit of that history is still very rich in the space,” she said.

“There is a beautiful tile floor in the space that leads into the center of it, and it is a space that is rich for looking at the center of things — the notion of does the center hold. For me personally, an artist who also looks very extensively at notions of family, the notion of what centers us individually is also of import.”

Each piece in the installation has its own axis mundi,

The Message Maturity requires action

As someone who has come to Christ as a mature adult, I’m challenged from time to time as ministers and Bible study leaders and others of faith talk about the process of becoming a mature Christian. The challenge is in knowing what it means to mature as a person and applying some of those same principles to the maturation process as they relate to faith and knowledge.

Latin for center of the world, Niederlander said.

“In this exhibition, I took that notion of what is the center of our universes and expanded it,” she said. “So the ‘Axis Mundi’ exhibition incorporates a number of works, which all peruse that theme, but which all then contribute to a larger axis mundi. The center piece is its own kind of axis mundi, and then the works around it all have their own axis mundi within them but they surround the center one and create what you might call ripples — a ripple effect.”

The building’s architecture contributed to the exhibit’s design, including unmasking stained glass windows that have been covered since the museum opened.

“The way the architecture is set up in that space, when you walk in, you turn a number of corners and it’s fascinating,” Niederlander said. “You go up

n “People have said this is one of the most contemplative places they have seen.”

– Rev. Terry Dempsey

a set of stairs and you turn and then you turn again, so you don’t just walk straight into the space and discover it all. The space very much reveals itself over time, and the side chapels also provide for these

contemplative moments that one can experience individual works of art.”

Two of the large stained glass windows were uncovered, then covered with illusion film, a laser-etched cover that allows light to pass through while blurring the image behind it.

“We’re creating a work of art that insists that you raise your chin and you look upward,” Niederlander said.

“People have said this is one of the most contemplative places they have seen,” Dempsey said.

This exhibit is open 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Tuesdays-Sundays through December 14. Museum of Contemporary Religious Art is located at 3700 West Pine Mall Blvd., Saint Louis University. Visit http://www. slu.edu/mocra/mocra-currentexhibitions.

Reprinted with permission from news.stlpublicradio.org.

Faith as a concept is pretty easy to understand. The knowledge I’m speaking about accompanies the experience of knowing God’s word. As such, just like a mature adult, your behavior starts to be dictated by your experience, your knowledge. In other words your decisions are affected and guided by what you know.

For the mature Christian, your faith is easily expressed in words. However, your deeds, your actions now have parameters set in stone due to the experience of faith. So the more you know about God’s word and God’s will, the more responsive you become in what you do, don’t do, say, don’t say etc.

Forgiveness for instance is an example of what I’m talking about. The more you accept the truth of Christ in your life, the more mandatory it becomes to forgive those

who have in some way “trespassed” against you. A mature Christian knows if you don’t forgive your enemies, God will not forgive you. How dare you not at least undertake the notion of forgiveness when Jesus paid the ultimate sacrifice so we all could be forgiven! Some people refer to this as knowing that you know that you know. It is a process however and it does take time. Maturity requires action and it is this action that I’m saying challenges me more often than not. It is not always easy to do the right thing. But for the mature Christian, it is purely a matter of knowledge that easily lets you know what the right thing is. It’s what you’re supposed to do in all situations and circumstances. The more mature you become in your faith, the more evident it becomes in your behavior. However, I think you pass the real test when your maturity readily surfaces in what you think. The thought process of the mature Christian is where I find myself these days. I guess you can say I am now a proponent of “you are what you think.” I believe faith does move mountains. And as I start to move mine, I’ll be living proof of what they say about mustard seeds. Believe me, I’m working on it.

The American is accepting Inspirational Messages from the community. Send your column (no more than 400 words) as a Word document and pasted text to cking@stlamerican.com and attach a photo of yourself as a jpeg ile. Please be patient; we will run columns in the order received.

James A. Washington

An overview of Rebecca Niederlander’s installation at the Museum of Contemporary Religious Art at Saint Louis University in St. Louis. Credit Jeffrey Vaughn / Courtesy of the Museum of Contemporary Religious Art