OpEd

Curfew Intends to Hold Parents Accountable for their Child’s Safety

The holiday weekend ended with gun violence and murder in Prince George’s County and D.C. In all, 10 people were shot and four lives were lost in Prince George’s over the three-day holiday weekend marking the deadliest month in the county in over three decades. The rippling effect of gun violence occurred all over the U.S. In Chicago, 55 people were reportedly shot, 11 fatally, while 10 people were killed and 23 injured in shooting incidents in Philadelphia. Mass shootings, where four or more people were shot and killed, occurred in Norfolk, Va., Charleston, S.C., Birmingham, Ala., and, the deadliest, in St. Paul, Minn.

Amazingly, police officials all over are reporting a reduction in gun violence compared to past years, but sadly, the ages of the victims and the perpetrators are also lower. In Prince George’s, a 15-year-old was shot and killed in an incident at a 7-11 in District Heights, and a 1-year-old baby girl was shot in her apartment in Lanham, Md.

Most residents we spoke to support Prince George’s County Executive Angela Alsobrooks's decision to reinstate a curfew for children 17 and under. “Something,” she said, “is not working,” noting that the same children and adults are being arrested and rearrested for committing crimes in Prince George’s County. Far too often, she said, the carjackings being perpetrated are by children. Of the 430 kids arrested this year alone, 84 were for carjacking, 55 had prior offenses, 34 were for gun or violent crimes and half of those arrested for carjacking were under 15 years old.

These are “armed and dangerous children” committing crimes against other children and adults, Alsobrooks reported. “Somebody has got to take responsibility,” she said, “and it's not the police or the government.”

The question she asked is what many others also echo: “Where are their parents? Where are the aunties, uncles, and other family members that are supposed to protect them?”

This curfew will not reduce crime. It is meant to protect children from becoming victims of crime and to keep them safe and away from the streets that lure them. It is intended to hold parents accountable. These are your children we all cry for when something bad happens to them.

It should not be unpopular to suggest that parents need to be held accountable for keeping their children safe. Fingers are readily pointed to the elected officials, the police, the government and even the church, for allowing crime to take over our communities. But when it comes to juvenile crime, it all begins at home and neither the county executive nor anyone else should back away from reminding parents of their responsibility.

WI

Sometimes Tough Love is the Only Answer for Wayward Children

If you’re an adult and certainly a parent, you probably remember hearing a conversation with one or both of your parents – even a grandparent, aunt or uncle – about the need for “tough love.”

Perhaps you snuck out of the house to go to a neighborhood party and when your folks found out, they took away the keys to the car. Maybe, you failed to get home before your curfew and found yourself grounded for the next month. The punishment you received could even have come because you failed to apply yourself and didn’t pass most of your classes in school.

In these, and other cases, those who were in charge at home, whether that was in a two-parent or one-parent home, had to lay down the law and give their child a healthy dose of tough love.

However, children weren’t known for doing such things as robbing seniors, stealing cars at gunpoint from unsuspecting drivers, going to school armed with weapons or participating in drive-by shootings.

But the times they are a-changing. And with these changes we are seeing the frustration, the anger, the anxiety and the feeling of being lost or alone that have overwhelmed so many of our youth, playing out with deadly force.

TO THE EDITOR

I loved the first day of school photo on the cover by photographer Robert R. Roberts. What a beautiful sight to see our little ones greeted by the mayor of our great city. That’s a picture the young student and her family will have her forever.

Beatrice Young Washington, DC Lisa Tamarind Washington, DC

Curfews should have already been in place in most homes without the Prince George’s County Executive re-invoking such legislation. But even if they weren’t, it’s going to take a lot more than curfews to end the surge in youth violence that has taken hold in communities throughout the DMV.

Are our children crying out for help? In many cases, that is certainly the case.

Still, as difficult as it may be to say, there may be some children (and adults for that

It is despicable that Running Back Brian Robinson was shot and robbed by youth in our city. Thank God he didn’t lose his life. The behavior of the kids in this city is abhorrent, and it’s time the leaders here stop being “nice” about it. I applaud the curfew PG County is enacting, although we can’t legislate ourselves from this problem: the parents. My opinion.

matter), who may not want to be saved or may be nearing the point of no return – by human means anyway.

Then what? That’s something community leaders, especially youth advocates, clergy and law enforcement will need to discuss in a collective forum with prudence and prayer.

All is not lost. But curfews are just the beginning of the answer – they are not the solution.

WI

Guest Columnist

Labor Day

Labor Day has been celebrated in American communities since the late 1800s, and since 1894 the first Monday in September has been set aside as a national holiday to honor American workers. From the beginning Labor Day was celebrated with picnics and grand parades. Today, as retail sales have become as much of a Labor Day tradition as long weekends and cookouts, for many workers this day is no longer a holiday at all. But it should be a day to honor the people who have made America all that it is and a reminder for all of us to keep working to make it what it should be.

In his brilliant 1936 poem "Let America Be America Again," Langston Hughes made clear that our nation has never actually been what it should be for many Americans: "America never was America to me." But he still urged that America "be the dream it used to be" — a land "where Liberty/Is crowned with no false patriotic wreath,/But opportunity is real, and life is free/Equality is in the air we breathe."

Instead, for the many laborers,

Marian Wright Edelman

farmers and factory workers on whose backs America was built, that American dream clashed again and again with American reality:

"I am the poor white, fooled and pushed apart,

I am the Negro bearing slavery's scars.

I am the red man driven from the land,

I am the immigrant clutching the hope I seek—

And finding only the same old stupid plan

Of dog eat dog, of mighty crush the weak …

Tangled in that ancient endless chain Of profit, power, gain, of grab the land!

Of grab the gold! Of grab the ways of satisfying need!

Of work the men! Of take the pay!

Of owning everything for one's own greed!

I am the farmer, bondsman to the soil.

I am the worker sold to the machine.

I am the Negro, servant to you all.

I am the people, humble, hungry, mean—

Hungry yet today despite the dream …"

Years later, our nation's 20th-century prophet Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. used similar language and foreshadowed his own famous American dream when he spoke to the AFL-CIO labor union convention in December 1961: "I look forward confidently to the day when all who work for a living will be one with no thought to their separateness as Negroes, Jews, Italians or any other distinctions. This will be the day when we bring into full realization the American dream — a dream yet unfulfilled. A dream of equality of opportunity, of privilege and property widely distributed; a dream of a land where men will not take necessities from the many to give luxuries to the

Guest Columnist

Ben Jealous

Student Debt Relief Means Freedom for Millions

Nelson Mandela once said, "Education is the most powerful weapon you can use to change the world." I love that sentiment. I also know that when student loan debt is tying you down, changing the world can feel out of reach.

That's why the White House's new plan for student loan debt relief is good news, especially for Black and brown students who make up a large percentage of borrowers.

Here are the basics: the government will cancel up to $20,000 in debt for students who went to school on Pell Grants, and up to $10,000 for other federal loan recipients. You can get the benefit if your personal income is under $125,000. To find out how to sign up, you can go to studentaid.gov/ debt relief.

Up to 43 million borrowers will benefit. Black students, in particular, will benefit because we are more likely to borrow for school, more likely to take out bigger loans, and twice as likely to get Pell Grants.

You can qualify for the relief if you went to a vocational school, not just an academic institution — and whether or not you finished your degree. And in addition to past borrowers, current and future students will benefit, too. The new plan will put a cap on monthly payments for student loans, lowering payments by more than $1,000 a year. This will allow more people to consider going on to higher education in the first place.

Civil rights advocates have been calling for and organizing for this kind of relief for years.

Which is not to say it's perfect — it isn't. Many civil rights leaders, along with Senate allies, Elizabeth Warren and Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, wanted debts wiped out up to $50,000. And there are questions about whether the $125,000 income cap is racial-

Guest Columnist

Charlene Crowell

Biden Student Debt Forgiveness Plan Begins, Not Ends

President Joe Biden's recent student debt cancellation announcement elicited a diverse range of reactions — some congratulatory, others critical, and still others unsure what to make of the unprecedented multibillion-dollar effort.

Predictably, longtime education and civil rights advocates spoke to the need for additional reforms, while others wondered about cancellation's impact on an already troubled economy. Families struggling with the rising cost of living and deepening student debt — have only a few months to make household budget adjustments before loan payments resume in January.

The good news is that of the 43 million people affected by the executive action, 20 million borrowers will have all of their debt canceled. Many of these borrowers incurred student loans but dropped out of school, left with thousands in debt and lower earnings due to the lack of a degree.

Another 27 million people from working-class backgrounds who received Pell Grants are assured of up to $20,000 in debt relief.

But these actions do not resolve the structural mismatch between the still-rising costs of college, limited family financial means to contribute to that cost, and the availability of financial aid other than interest-bearing loans. "We've all heard of those schools luring students with a promise of big paychecks when they graduate only to watch these students be ripped off and left with mountains of debt," Biden said on Aug. 24. "Well, last week, the Department of Education fired a college accreditor that allowed colleges like ITT and Corinthian to defraud borrowers. … Our goal is to shine a light on the worst actors so EDELMAN Page 53

ly equitable. Brookings Institution analyst Andre Perry told The Grio that a $125,000 income is not the same for Black graduates as it is for White grads. He points out that because systemic inequities allowed White families to build more wealth, Black graduates have fewer resources for paying back loans even if they make the same salaries as their White counterparts today.

I agree that we have a long way

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students can avoid these debt traps."

It seems like a perfect time for the Department of Education to clean house of all the bad higher education actors — especially costly for-profit institutions that promise a lot but deliver little, and accreditors that fail to do their jobs.

On Aug. 30, following President Biden's announcement, the Department of Education took action

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Guest Columnist

What's Goin' On Now?

Throughout history, humankind has been blessed with prophets whose wisdom, insight and predictions have provided others with a pathway to prosperity. Unfortunately, as often as not, humankind has foolishly rejected the wisdom of its prophets and has suffered regrettable consequences. One such prophet for our times was Marvin Gaye. I can say with absolute authority that we should have listened in 1971 when he sang: Whoa oh, oh mercy, mercy me

Oh, things ain't what they used to be, no no

Where did all the blue skies go?

Poison is the wind that blows from the north and south and east

Oh, mercy, mercy me

Oh, things ain't what they used to be

What about this overcrowded land?

How much more abuse from man can she stand?

Marvin's song was a call to action, especially for Black people. He understood that most Black people were forced to focus on the daily, immediate challenges to survival more than predicted future environmental threats. But the future is now, and "responsible living" requires us to amplify our focus on the immediacy of environmental threats and what we must do to survive this new reality. The current flooding in Jackson, Miss., serves to refocus our attention on environmental issues as we observe the unnecessary suffering of people who look and live like us. As described by Michael Goldberg of The Associated Press: The forecasted flooding in Mississippi could not have come at a worse time for Veronique Daniels, who became homeless three months ago and was sleeping on her mother's back porch in Jackson…Daniels' mother lives in Canton Club Circle, the same Jackson subdivision that flooded two years ago. Residents on Sunday were taking precautions as the previous flooding loomed large in their memories.

There are absolutes to this discussion:

1. We need clean air to breathe. 2. We need clean water to drink. 3. We need uncontaminated food to eat. 4. Natural disasters, toxins, and contaminants are detrimental to good health. 5. Racism is thoroughly enmeshed in discussions of environmental concern.

Few can disregard the issue of racism in a discussion of the environment. In part, Wikipedia summarizes Environmental Racism as:

E. Faye Williams

Guest Columnist

Rev. Jesse L. Jackson Sr.

We Can Make America Better

Benefits of a long life include lived memory and perspective. Today, it is easy to despair about America — with its extreme inequality, its continuing racial divide, its fragile democracy,

Its partisan feuds, and the shaky state of an economy hammered by pandemic and catastrophic climate change. Yet it's important to remember how far we have come, the progress that has been made, and the possibility of change that is the promise of America. "Make America Great Again" is a popular slogan — but it's worth remembering that in some ways, America today is far greater than it was in the past.

I can remember when African Americans growing up in South Carolina could barely hope for change. Now, we can vote for change. Racial divides still exist, but we have achieved greater equality under the law today than we could hardly have imagined 70 years ago. America is still a work in progress, but progress has been made. Black soldiers coming out of World War II returned to a country that would not allow them to stay in a white hotel or to use a whites-only restroom. Across the South, schools were legally segregated and unequal.

Blacks and women couldn't sit on juries. Blacks were systemically denied the right to vote.

Today, African-American mayors govern in cities across the South. Blacks, Latinos, women and Asian Americans are competing in and often winning elections. A Black man was elected president of the country with a majority of the votes — twice. Board rooms that once were all white and male now have opened the doors, at least a crack, to minorities and women. African-American actors find roles in advertisements for general audiences. The popular culture is far more integrated than most of our neighborhoods. This week we will celebrate Serena Williams as the greatest of all time — in tennis of all things. Dr. King's "dream" became famous. We're still dreaming today, with much to be done, but some of the dream has already come true.

Progress is never easy and never unopposed. Every era of reform sparks a reaction. We see that now. When Lyndon Johnson, a Democrat from the South, championed the Voting Rights Act and the war on poverty, Republicans responded with their "Southern strategy," grounding the party in the South among whites embittered by the change. Police brutality against Blacks — some of it caught on video for the first time — sparked the largest interracial protests across the country in our history. Now the reaction against Black Lives Matter and police reform is a central theme in our elections. Inequality has reached obscene

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Guest Columnist

Marc H. Morial

Serena Williams' G.O.A.T. Status About More Than On-Court Performance

"A champion is defined not by their wins but by how they can recover when they fall." — Serena Williams

In the days since tennis phenomenon Serena Williams announced her retirement, pundits and sports commentators have enthusiastically engaged in the age-old game of debating her status of the Greatest of All Time. Her statistics have been analyzed relentlessly and measured against her contemporaries alike. As the sport and its technology have evolved, different strengths and skills have become more relevant than others. With nearly three decades of dominance over her sport, the timespan of her career is unprecedented. Comparing and contrasting athletes of different eras is as much the American pastime as any particular sport.

But for those of us firmly in the G.O.A.T. camp, her place in the pantheon — not just of tennis, but of professional sports as a whole — is defined by more than just her performance on the court. Like others who have claimed the status — particularly the first to claim it, Muhammad Ali — Serena has been a transformational player, upending the global image of what a woman tennis player looks like, how she trains and how she plays, how she dresses, and how she behaves.

Even the issue of her retirement itself is following a unique path. Her stunning performance this week at the U.S. Open — which she declared to be her last — has raised questions about her plans for the near future. "I've been pretty vague about it, right?" she told The New York Times. "I'm going to stay vague because you never know."

Like the legend whose name graces the stadium where Serena currently is delivering her captivating performance, Arthur Ashe, Serena is a Black player in a sport that remains dominated by whites more than half a century after Althea Gibson blazed a trail as the first first African American player to compete in a U.S. national tennis competition. And like both Ashe and Gibson, racism has been as formidable a challenge as any opponent across the net. Fellow players, officials, and the media have openly mocked her muscular physique with racist and sexist taunts. She was tested for drugs twice as often as her peers.

Serena has been fearless both in calling out and combating the racial barriers she has faced: after spectators subjected them to racist abuse at the Indian Wells Masters in 2001, both sisters boycotted Williams boycotted the tournament for 14 years. Serena's exuberant expressions of joy on the

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