VOL. 63, No. 2
www.tsdmemphis.com
January 9 - 15, 2014
75 Cents
COMMENTARY
Help keep kids warm! Donate to the Action News 5 coat drive by WMCTV.com Staff
Extreme cold and school cancellations exposed a major need in the Memphis community: coats for schoolchildren. Action News 5 is partnering with the YWCA Greater Memphis and its Common Ground program to collect new coats for Memphis schoolchildren. New coats can be dropped off between 9 a.m. and 4 p.m. at the YWCA’s main office at 766 South Highland Ave. on Thursday and Friday this week. (The drive began Wednesday.) Please bring new coats only. The community needs children’s sizes all the way up through the largest adult sizes in order to accommodate students of all ages, from pre-K to high school, boys and girls. Gift cards will be accepted to area merchants as well as monetary donations, which will be used to buy coats in specific sizes for kids who need coats but whose sizes/genders were not available through the coat donation. The YWCA will distribute the coats to needy children in YWCA afterschool programs across the county and in the YWCA emergency shelter. Coats will also be distributed to Common Ground’s adopted school South Park Elementary and other public schools. Online donations can be made at donations.memphisywca.org.
The Root
by Peniel E. Joseph Fifty years ago today, President Lyndon Johnson gave one of the most important State of the Union speeches in American history. Championing the cause of racial and economic equality, he promised, “This administration today, here and now, declares unconditional war on poverty in America.” A half-century later, it’s time for America to declare a new war on poverty. Like the best presidential addresses,
Fifty years after President Johnsonʼs declaration
Johnson’s “War on Poverty” speech was enormously ambitious. He argued that a nation as rich and powerful as the United States had a political and moral obligation to lift millions out of poverty, help create jobs for inner-city youth, protect the elderly and provide food for the hungry. The war on poverty became the heart of Johnson’s “Great Society” – a vision of American democracy that
sought to amplify and extend social policy enacted during the New Deal to an emerging generation of Americans. But two generations later, the same inequality Johnson so eloquently described – and vowed to defeat – is growing throughout America, and leaving a wealthy nation scarred with pockmarks of hunger, unemployment, mass incarceration and homelessness.
The anniversary of his speech, though, is an opportunity to ponder missed opportunities, celebrate successful programs and, most importantly, to look ahead to the future. What can we do now, and how do we want future generations to remember us? Now is the time for black activists and their allies to demand a new war on poverty. In contrast to 1964, where a burgeoning civil rights movement inspired and cajoled the federal government into action, we live in a moment where politiSEE POVERTY ON PAGE 2
ANALYSIS
The Root
by John McWhorter
• MLK calender of events. See News, page 3. • Grizz fall in OT against Spurs. See Sports, page 12. • Family tragedy puts spotlight on depression. See Community, page 11.
Bennie Nelson West and her son Joshua Parks
MEMPHIS WEEKEND
FRIDAY
SATURDAY
SUNDAY
H- 5 5o - L - 4 9o C l oud y
H- 5 4o - L - 3 3o Mostl y Cl o udy
H- 5 9o - L - 4 2o S unn y
Friday H-55 L-54 H-56 L-50 H-62 L-55
Time for a new ‘War on Poverty’
Why legalized weed is good news for young black men
- INSIDE -
REGIONAL TEMPS LITTLE ROCK NASHVILLE JACKSON, MS
President Lyndon Johnson signs the Economic Opportunity Act on May 21, 1964. (LBJ Library photo by Cecil Stoughton)
Saturday H-57 L-34 H-57 L-34 H-62 L-36
Sunday H-62 L-41 H-53 L-39 H-64 L-42
As the legalization of marijuana promises to join the legalization of gay marriage as part of the unanticipatedly rapid social revolution that will define our times, we will be hearing certain ruminations. And not only from fire-breathing moralists easy to dismiss as “behind the times.” I refer to wiser heads worried that legalization will raise rates of usage and addiction. The New York Times’ David Brooks has stated that even though he partook for a spell in his teens, he feels that legalizing marijuana will encourage more young people to smoke pot instead of exploring things more constructive and challenging. Meanwhile, Ruth Marcus, who also acknowledges having smoked her share of pot in days now associated with “polyester,” worries about data showing that the pothead teen often lowers his IQ permanently. This is hardly a new take on the matter. Mark Kleiman, a UCLA public-policy professor and a leading voice and author on the drug war, has long been convinced that legalization will raise addiction rates, and encourages more carefully targeted enforcement efforts. To anyone who supports the end of the war on drugs – and opposes legalization in states like Colorado – views like Kleiman’s and the others’ can’t help but seem like a bucket of cold water. Here we all are, excited about the “Hamsterdam” vision from the third season of “The Wire” coming true, in which the cops allow drugs to be sold in a carefully policed setting instead of endlessly rounding up the Bodies and Wallaces. And then here come these pundits and professors worried about increased addiction rates – it feels SEE WEED ON PAGE 2
President Barack Obama hugs Katherine Hackett of Moodus, Conn., who introduced him during an East Room event on unemployment insurance benefits on Monday, Jan. 7th at the White. President Obama continued his push for the benefits, which had expired before the New Year. The Senate this week voted 60-37 to begin the debate on a bill to extend the benefits for three months. (Photo: Alex Wong/Getty Images)
President Obama’s inequality strategy theGrio
by Perry Bacon Jr. The push by President Obama and Democrats to extend unemployment insurance for 1.3 million people whose benefits ran out at the end of last month is only the first step in a series of debates in which the party will try to cast Republicans as out of step with Americans still struggling economically. Democrats, both nationally and in states like Kentucky and South Dakota, will call for increasing the minimum wage, a policy change backed by the majority of Americans but largely opposed by conservative-leaning lawmakers and business groups. Democratic gubernatorial candidates in Florida, Wisconsin and Maine are attacking Republican incumbents who have refused to expand Medicaid in their states, looking to cast those Republicans as unwilling to offer health insurance to low-income people. Obama, in his State of the Union address later this month, is expected to repeat his call to raise taxes in other
to fund universal pre-kindergarten programs. On all of these issues, Democrats are pressing a strong populist message against Republicans. These programs would disproportionately benefit people who earn little or no income and particularly in the case of hiking the minimum wage, would be effectively redistributing wealth from higher-income business owners to low-wage workers. For Democrats, this populism benefits in three ways. First, it puts the party further in line with the direction of Democrat activists, who are increasingly adopting the rhetoric of politicians like Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren and New York Mayor Bill de Blasio, who argue that rising income inequality and the struggles of people to advance economically are now the defining problems of America. Secondly, particularly for President Obama, talking about other issues will help distract from any controversies around the rollout of his health care law, which remains bumpy. And third, unlike Obamacare,”
polls suggest that raising the minimum wage, expanding Medicaid and giving unemployment insurance to more Americans are popular ideas with the majority of Americans. They could also split the Republican Party, dividing Tea Party Republicans from more establishment figures. Republicans, too, seem aware of the growing worries about income equality and the challenges of people at the bottom rung of American society. As the Washington Post reported today, potential Republican presidential 2016 candidates Marco Rubio and Paul Ryan, as well as House Majority Whip Eric Cantor, are all delivering speeches on this subject this week alone. Cantor is expected to call for greater expansion of school vouchers, while Ryan is likely to emphasize tax cuts. The Republicans’ proposals are not new, nor are they likely to get much support from Obama or Democrats. But they establish that 2014 will be a year in which inequality is one of the defining clashes between the two parties.