THE WESTSIDE GAZETTE POST OFFICE 5304 FORT LAUDERDALE, FL 33310
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12 die in Chicago violence over Christmas week, two others fatally shot by police Will America bring in the New Year like this? -- Bobby R. Henry, Sr.
Bettye R. Jones, 55, and Quintonio Legrier, 19, were fatally shot this weekend. At least 12 people died from violence during the Christmas holiday week in Chicago, including two men fatally shot on Christmas Day, and a 21year-old woman whose body was found in a suitcase in a
Far South Side alley. Chicago Police also fatally shot two people while responding to a domestic violence call in the west side Austin neighborhood, where four of the week’s earlier homicides took place.
The body of Dominique Ferguson was found in an alley Sunday in the Roseland neighborhood, according to police and the Cook County medical examiner’s office. She was found by kids playing in an alley in the 300 block of West 115th Street. The medical examiner’s office said results of an autopsy Monday were inconclusive, with results pending further investigation. A man and a woman were killed in an Englewood neighborhood shooting early Sunday. Tyree White, 29, and Ashley Eddings, 28, were outside near West 59th Street and South Wentworth Avenue when someone walked up and opened fire about 2:15 a.m., according
to police and the medical examiner’s office. White, of the 200 block of East 121st Place, was shot in the chest and was pronounced dead at the scene, authorities said. Eddings, of southwest suburban Joliet, was shot in the back and was taken to Stroger Hospital, where she died about four hours later, according to the medical examiner’s office. A 37-year-old man was fatally shot late Saturday in Little Village. Jose L. Lopez was sitting outside with other people about 9:50 p.m. in the 2800 block of West 21st Place when an SUV pulled up and someone inside flashed gang signs and opened fire, according to police and the medical examiner’s office. (Read full story on www.thewestsidegazette.com)
110 years between draining the Everglades & Depopulating S. Florida By Audrey Peterman Florida’s Governor Napoleon Bonaparte Broward, for whom Broward County is named, ordered the Everglades swamp drained around 1904, beginning the era of South Florida’s mega-development. He wanted to create an empire in its stead. To look at South Florida now, with wall to wall development from the Gulf of Mexico to the Atlantic surrounding a sliver of remaining Everglades, it’s easy to see how well that era succeeded. But in the coming years, our descendants might point to Dec. 21, 2015, as the beginning of the opposite era, the
one that led to our undevelopment: “There’s no keeping the water out...ultimately this area (South Florida) has to depopulate,” South Miami Mayor Philip Stoddard is quoted in the article, “The Siege of Miami,” published Dec. 21, 2015 in The New Yorker. If you are at all interested in the present and future of our region, you should read and study this article, easily accessible on line. “We can’t let investor confidence, resident confidence and confidence in our economy start to fall away,” Miami Beach Mayor Philip Levine explains his priorities in the same piece. “There’s no textbooks, there’s
In 1904, the Everglades stretched from Orlando to the Florida Keys. Today a mere sliver remains and development stretches from the Gulf to the Atlantic. (Everglades Foundation photo)
no ‘How to Protect Your City from Sea Level Rise,’ go to Chapter 4. So the city would have to write its own. We have a team that’s going to get it done, that’s going to protect this city. ..” So in just a little over 100 years South Florida has moved from the charge to “drain the swamp” and “create an empire” to the possibility of the forced “depopulation” of the area. Mayor Stoddard’s words made my heart flutter. It isn’t often that someone who relies on votes has the courage to speak such an unpopular and scary truth. Finding that the Mayor is also a scientist made his position more understandable - he deals in facts. (Read full story on www.thewestsidegazette.com)
Stigma mustn’t stop us from discussing HIV and mass incarceration By C. Virginia Fields Recently the New York Times published an op-ed that has drawn much needed attention to the continuing epidemic of HIV infection among Black American women by linking it to mass incarceration. What’s striking is not so much the strength of the argument (which is debatable) but rather the public discussion that has started around it — one illustrating the power of stigma to influence the conversation around HIV/AIDS. In “Why Are So Many Black Women Dying of AIDS?,” philosophy professor Laurie Shrage reminds us that the
rate of new HIV infections in Black women is 20 times higher than it is for white women. We would also point out that Black women accounted for the largest share of new HIV infections among women in 2010: 6,100, or 64 percent of all new infections in women. In Shrage’s words, this state of affairs has “perplexed public health officials” because “rates of injection drug use or unprotected sex among Black women are no higher than for other groups,” and “most gay men do not have female sexual partners.” Meanwhile, it has been shown that Americans tend to have sexual partners within
Pleading Our Own Cause
their own communities. To explain the racial disparity in HIV infection rates in women, study by two University of California, Berkeley professors linking a steep rise in incarceration rates for Black women between 1970 and 2000 with the explosion of new HIV infection rates in Black women
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during the same period, concluding that “higher incarceration rates among Black males explain the lion’s share of the Black-white disparity in AIDS infection rates among both men and women.” (Read full story on www.thewestsidegazette.com)
Who is controlling your fireworks display? “For just like the lightning, when it flashes out of one part of the sky, shines to the other part of the sky, so will the Son of Man be in His day.” Luke 17:24 (NASB) By Bobby R. Henry, Sr. The end of the year usually brings an array of fireworks displays that can lead to death. If you have never been caught in the undertow currents of a wave crashing to the shore or experienced a moment of feeling disconnected to life because you suddenly feel your life slipping away in the midst of a situation gone totally wrong, you immediately know that the need to find God can be as fleeting as the life of a shooting star. It’s an amazing sight and as soon as you realize it, it’s all gone. So too is a life without God. Even though we may be caught in the deadly currents of sins and life appears to be leftover remnants of a fireworks display God is right there to pull us to safety. Imagine, if you will, the brilliant display of sparkles and starbursts and loud bombs bursting in the midnight blue sky, while the smell of gunpowder tickles your nose like the aromas of a Sunday dinner being prepared at grandma’s house. (Cont'd on Page 6)
Clifford Gassett called to eternal rest Clifford Alexander Gassett, the eldest of 10 siblings, was born on Jan. 7, 1936 in Fort Lauderdale, Fla. to the late Homer and Julia Gassett. Clifford was educated in Broward County Public Schools, graduating from Dillard High school in the class of 1954. He attended Kentucky State College where he earned a Bachelors Degree in 1960 and pledged Omega Psi Phi Fraternity. He also obtained a Masters in Education from Florida A&M University. Clifford was united in marriage to his high school sweetheart, Vivian Middletown in 1959 and this union was blessed with two children: Cindy and Barry. Vivian and Barry both preceded Clifford in death. In 2008, Clifford was united in marriage to Theresa Mckinzy of Ft. Meade, Fla. Clifford joined a blended family with her three sons: Reginald, Jarett and Jeraemy Gillis. Clifford transitioned from this life to his eternal home on Wednesday, Dec. 23, 2015. Professionally, Clifford enjoyed 35 years of dedicated service as an educator. He began his career as a teacher in Ft. Pierce, Fla. He continued his career with the Broward County School Board, serving as a classroom teacher, guidance counselor and retiring as dean at McArthur High school in June of 1996. Clifford was a man of character with great convictions and a man of God. Born and raised in Mt. Hermon AME Church, he served as a trustee and was a faithful member until his death. He was an avid football and tennis fan, and faithfully followed the Indianapolis Colts and the careers of Venus and Serena Williams. An avid reader, he read two newspapers from cover to cover every day, watched major news channels to keep well informed of political and social issues past and present. Affectionately called “Rudy” by his friends, he faithfully supported Dillard High School
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financially, by regularly attending football and basketball games, and convening monthly Class of 1954 meetings at his home for many years until his death.
GASSETT The consummate financial supporter of his alma mater, Kentucky State College and Omega Psi Phi fraternity, Clifford attended homecoming every year since graduating, including October of this year. He faithfully attended fraternity meetings, various local functions and national conventions until his death. Clifford loved and collected music of various genres, enjoying artists from Nat King Cole, James Brown, Wilson Pickett, Charlie Wilson, Aaron Nevell,Sade, Michael Jackson to Mary J. Left to cherish his memories are a devoted wife, Theresa; one loving daughter, Cindy Rogers (Jeff), of Durham, N.C.; two grandsons, Brandon and Tyler Rogers of Durham, N.C.; three stepsons Reginald and Jeraemy Gillis of Fort Lauderdale, Jarett Gillis of Charlotte, N.C.; one brother, Clinton (Christine) of Miramar, Fla.; six sisters: Albertha Bryant of Plantation, Fla., Elouise Campbell, Estella Allen (Neal), Jearline Hall, and Earline Dubose of Fort Lauderdale, Connie Taylor of Tallahassee, Fla., and a host of family members and friends. MEMBER: National Newspaper Publishers Association ( NNPA), and Southeastern African-American Publishers Association (SAAPA) Florida Association of Black Owned Media (FABOM)