Given the reputation of the New York City police and their track record for killing unarmed Black men, it was not hard to believe that the three officers involved were cleared of all charges. This is not the first time police were not held accountable in a criminal case of excessive use of force against Blacks. The New Pittsburgh Courier took a poll to sample the pulse of the Steel City on this controversial case. Here’s what you said.
Last week, Rev. Jeremiah Wright broke his silence. After Sen. Barack Obama delivered an historic speech on March 18 that addressed this country’s difficulties with the issue of race, the distraction caused by the media’s repeated airing of segments of an old Wright sermon appeared to have finally become a thing of the past. In Obama’s quest to secure the nod to be the Democratic party presidential nominee, he had addressed the Wright matter with boldness and clarity. For the most part, the issue was dead.
I stop every Sunday morning to buy New Pittsburgh Couriers for the senior citizens in my church of 76 years, New Destiny CME. One Sunday while buying the papers, the clerk said, “Who is this woman portrayed as a Black leader, because I’ve never heard of her.” My response was there are hundreds, if not thousands, of Black leaders that you are not familiar with.
For more than 30 years, beginning in the 1960s, the federal government saw the enormous benefit of providing summer jobs to millions of disadvantaged youths across America. But since 2000, the Summer Youth Employment and Training Program, has lost its direct funding, and is now effectively buried among 10 competing programs within the Workforce Investment Act. With the economy reeling, unemployment soaring and the summer heat approaching, there is an urgent need to bring back summer jobs for youths.
A brief recap of some of the high points from the Jeremiah Wright resurrection tour: The former pastor of Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago reiterated his belief that America has been a terrorist nation from its inception, defended his damning of America, stood by his belief that the American government created the HIV virus and placed drugs in the Black community in order to exterminate Black people, further derided the country as a place where “I can worship God on Sunday morning wearing a black clergy robe and kill others on Sunday evening wearing a white Klan robe.” Finally, Wright dismissed the entire controversy over his words as an attack on the Black church.
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