STEPHON FERGUSON - THE KING EXPERIENCE

                                                        

            I have just had the honor of working with one of the most talented human beings I've even met. Many of you already know him, or at least, already know about him. But for those who don't, meet Stephon Ferguson. He is, without a doubt, one of the greatest interpreters of the words, courage and spirit of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. I've even seen.
           So much so that when Stephon asked my company  - CashWorks HD Productions, producer of my awardwinning 2010 film, "Obama in NC: The Path to History" -  to do a short film showcasing his amazing talent, I jumped at the chance to somehow capture lightning in a bottle.
            With the help of Stephon, who already had an extraordinary wealth of pictures, newspaper clips and videos of his past performances and historic people he's met over the years, we came together to create what I believe is a definitive short documentary about how this artist uses his precious gift from GOD to spread the message and inspiration of one of the most influential leaders of our time.
            The 12-minute documentary is titled, "Stephon Ferguson: The King Experience," and I'm convinced that if you are not swept away by Stephon's extraordinary rendition of Dr. King, Jr. within the first three minutes of this work, then I don't what else will.
             And if you do watch the whole 12-minutes (and I know you well), and listen to Stephon as he talks about his life and inspiration, I have no doubt that you will agree with thousands of others, that Stephon Ferguson is a gift to us from GOD, and he reminds us that our belief in freedom, justice and equality is what binds all people of good will together.
            If you want to know more about the Stephon Ferguson "King Experience" (and you will), please go to his Facebook page, or his website at www.TheDreamLives.com.
             And please, feel free to viral this page to your friends and family. I'm very proud of Stephon, and exceedingly proud to have had the opportunity to chronicle his extraordinary gift.
               GOD bless.


                                    -30-

NCNAACP DECLARES "STATE IN EMERGENCY" OVER GOP POLICIES

NCNAACP DECLARES “STATE IN EMERGENCY”

By Cash Michaels

Editor

            The NCNAACP and the HK onJ Coalition are calling on all activists across the state to come to the NC General Assembly Legislative Auditorium at the Legislative Building on Jones Street next Tuesday at 4 p.m. to “protest and pray” against what some are calling “Draconian” policies about to be passed by the Republican-led General Assembly.

            “Tea Party extremists seized the Republican Party and declared war on African-Americans, poor people and other minorities,” Rev. William Barber, president of the NCNAACP, said in a statement this week, later declaring North Carolina to be a “state in emergency.”

            Based on the state House budget which cuts hundreds of millions from K-12 public education statewide and the UNC System, and proposed laws repealing the 2009 NC Racial Justice Act, limiting the state’s One Stop/Early Voting period, eliminating same day registration and “Souls to the Polls” Sunday voting, and requiring picture voter ID at the polls, Rev. Barber claims that “jobs, voting rights, schools, health care, racial justice and public services are under attack.”

            “Ultra-conservative legislators continue their frontal attack on civil rights,” Rev. Barber alleged regarding House GOP efforts to repeal the Racial Justice Act through House Bill 615. On Wednesday, the House Judiciary Subcommittee B held a hearing and vote on the measure to ultimately send it to the House floor.

            The Racial Justice Act allows a felon convicted of a capital crime to challenge the prosecution if he believes that race played a role in his prosecution.

            Rev. Barber released an email from Republican Rep. Stephen LaRoque of Greene County to a constituent:

            “I am proud that I had the opportunity to co-sponsor HB-615 which I hope will effectively and literally repeal the so-called "Racial Justice Act"...One problem we have is that we don't execute the convicted murderers quick enough...”

            The LaRoque  email outraged Barber, especially since at least three black inmates on North Carolina’s death row have been released from prison in the past few years because DNA proved that they didn’t commit the crime, and were the victims of biased prosecutions.

            “While most North Carolinians are committed to ending Racial Injustice in our state, the Tea Party-backed leadership in the NC Legislature wants to dismantle a law that only begins to address racism in our court system,” Rev. Barber said.

            The state civil rights leader urged Gov. Perdue to veto the repeal if it gets to her desk for her signature.

            The NCNAACP, in a joint statement with Democracy NC, a nonprofit public policy group, is also calling what the state GOP is doing in requiring voter IDs  and crippling the One Stop/Early Voting law as “Unbelievable.”

            “A bill filed by Republicans in Raleigh would make Sunday voting ("Souls to the Polls") illegal in North Carolina,” wrote Rev. Barber and Bob Hall of Democracy NC.            

           “Conservative state legislators also plan to reduce the length of the Early Voting period, end Same-Day Registration, and make everyone show a government-issued photo ID when they vote,” the joint letter continued.

            “Make no mistake about it: these voter suppression proposals are a direct response to the historic turnout of empowered, informed and motivated African-American and young voters in 2008.”

            Both groups are urging citizens to involve their churches in protests, and call their state lawmakers to voice their concerns.

                                                            -30-

MICHAUX: GOP BUDGET “TOTAL DESTRUCTION OF PUBLIC EDUCATION”

By Cash Michaels

Editor

            State Rep. H. M. Michaux admits he was wrong.

            Earlier in the state legislative session the Durham Democrat warned that the Republican majority was trying to resegregate North Carolina’s public schools.

            “To be honest, I may have to take back the resegregation of our schools because I don’t think that’s going to happen,” Michaux told The Carolinian last week after the state House passed its controversial $19.3 billion budget.

            “What I think is going to happen is we’re going to have a total destruction of our public school system as we know it today.”

            Michaux said the GOP majority’s push for unlimited charter schools, $6,000 tax credits for handicapped children to attend private schools; and another $2500 voucher for students to also attend private schools, in addition to the massive cuts in funding, will put public schools in the tightest squeeze ever.

            “With all of this…what you’re going to do is eventually be in a position where your traditional public schools are going to end up being poor and black,” Rep. Michaux charged.

            Michaux adds that thanks to the almost 9 percent budget cut in public education by the House GOP, over 18,000 jobs will be lost, many of whom will be teacher assistants in grades 2- 12. Local school systems will have reduce their budgets accordingly, resulting in higher class sizes and fewer academic programs than before.

            Republican House leaders counter that they have to do what’s necessary to close the state’s $2.9 billion gap, but Democrats say cuts alone aren’t the way to balance the budget.

            This week, Senate Republicans made it clear that they intend to spend even less on education than the state House, to the tune of $40 million less overall.

            The budget situation is compounded in many local school districts because their local county commission boards, which fund all local public school systems in the state, have also cut their funding to the schools. In many cases, as a result, school districts are out tens of millions of dollars from both the state and the county, in addition to millions in federal stimulus money running out.

            Rep. Michaux says the state defunding of public education is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the Republican-led General Assembly.

            In higher education, the 15.5 percent budget cut to the UNC System by the state House is drastic, Michaux and other lawmakers say, and is especially harsh on historically black university campuses like North Carolina Central University, Elizabeth City State University and NC A&T University.

            “When you start talking about cuts in (UNC) historically black colleges and universities, a 15.5 percent cut is not the same as a 15.5 percent cut in a school like UNC-Chapel Hill or N.C. State, or any of the other largest flagship institutions. That [cut] in historically black institutions can reek devastation because of the number of jobs that will be lost and the number of classes that would be lost,” Michaux told The Carolinian.           

            Michaux added that NCCU, for example, would lose 80 faculty members if the cut goes through.

            "Yes, people will be laid off," NCCU Chancellor Charlie Nelms told the NCCU Board of Trustees on April 26, according to minutes from that meeting. "How many, we just don't know yet. It could be significant."

            “A 15 percent cut in state funding, as recommended recently by a state House subcommittee, would mean a loss of about $14 million from NCCU’s budget,” Nelms continued. “If the reduction is, in fact, 15 percent, NCCU would lose some faculty members. There would be fewer classes, and some would be larger, meaning students would receive less individual attention from professors.”

            To deal with the cuts, Nelms said, the university is looking at "program consolidation, program re-configuration, even program elimination."

            UNC System President Tom Ross was also not pleased with the House GOP cuts.

            “The budget approved today by the House of Representatives would inflict real and lasting damage to the academic quality and reputation of the University of North Carolina,” Ross said in a statement last Thursday.  “We are thankful that House leaders provided the University some flexibility in determining how to apply and manage mandated cuts.  That said, no amount of flexibility could offset the impact of permanent net cuts totaling nearly $491 million (17.7%). “

Ross continued,  “We are particularly concerned that even deeper cuts in the pool of need-based aid are now being proposed.  That is a tremendous setback, given that 60% of our in-state undergraduates depend on need-based financial aid. This loss of funding would reduce the number of eligible students who could receive need-based aid by more than 5,500, and middle-class students would be hit particularly hard.”

  “As the budget process moves forward, we will continue to work with legislative leaders to lessen cuts to the University and increase the pool of funding for need-based aid.”

            State Sen. Dan Blue, Democrat of Wake, says the UNC System black universities simply don’t have the big endowments or other wide-ranging sources of financial support that the flagship institutions do.

            “So as you cut this deeply into a budget, you cut the programming, you cut the quality of programming, and you just cut their ability to deliver the high quality of education that they’ve historically done,” Blue says.

            The result will be bigger class sizes, less financial aid, and loss of valuable faculty, Sen. Blue adds.

            Though the state Senate will be spending $40 million less overall on education overall, they intend to give the UNC System $87 million more than the House. If that ends up in the final budget deal, public schools will see a staggering $106 million less funding than in the House.

            Gov. Beverly Perdue, already in a funk about how bad the House education budget is, was reportedly “spitting mad” when she got wind of the Senate’s. Of particular concern is the refusal by the Republicans to allow the one-cent increase in the state’s sales tax to stay on. Republicans say they are just following through on their promise to voters to eliminate the tax.

-30-

FOR PARENTS, THE CHALLENGE OF HIGH POVERTY SCHOOLS

By Cash Michaels

Editor

EDITOR - This is part 7 of a multi-part look at Walnut Creek Elementary School, and the other high poverty schools that the conservative-led Wake County School Board will be creating in Southeast Raleigh as it moves forward with its controversial neighborhood schools policy. Studies consistently show black and Hispanic students are relegated to poor instruction, a lack of resources and a second-rate education in high poverty, racially identifiable schools. The property values in neighborhoods with high poverty schools also suffer, as families move away.

            The Carolinian examines the question, “Will all or any of this happen in Wake County?”

                                                __________________________

           

At last week’s US Dept. of Education Office of Civil Rights public hearing into the NCNAACP’s racial bias complaint against the Wake School Board, over 30 people spoke, many of whom were parents.

But the first parent to speak, an African-American mother named Susan Perry Cole, shared her experience with sending her child to, “… a racially identifiable, low wealth, poor academically achieving school in a nearby county.”

Ms. Perry, per her firsthand experience, told federal investigators that many of the children who are forced to attend high poverty neighborhood schools are high achievers.

Her son, she said, was one of them.

But because the majority of his class was low-achievers, Perry said the teacher, who was straight out of college and “ill-prepared to teach,” apologized to her, saying that she had to devote a majority of her time to them, not her son.

“Thus, my son was acting out too to get some attention,” Perry told the OCR hearing.

There was little administrative support to control discipline in the classroom, and as a result, Perry’s son’s teacher, “…lost control of the classroom, and never regained it.”

Ms. Perry went on to say that the quality of faculty at that school was inadequate. Faculty vacancies extended “right up until the end of the school year,” she said.

High poverty schools don’t attract high quality principals, Perry adds, and as a result, because the principal “sets the tone of the school, you can see it as soon as you enter.”

Perry decried what would happen in Wake County if the Republican-led board’s neighborhood school plan comes into fruition.

“What happens here will affect other neighboring counties,” she warned.

Now meet Charlotte parent Pamela Grundy

Grundy has lived in Charlotte since 1992. A resident of the eclectic Plaza - Midwood neighborhood, one mile northeast of uptown Charlotte, Grundy sends her son to Shamrock Gardens Elementary School, a neighborhood school.

            She calls Shamrock Gardens a “small, wonderful and very nurturing school where the teachers and kids really look after each other.”

            But that doesn’t mean Shamrock Gardens doesn’t have its challenges.

            For starters, the elementary school’s student population is 89 percent free-and-reduced lunch, and 94 percent black and Hispanic.

            Grundy’s young son is one of the handful of white students who attend Shamrock Gardens.

            “It’s a school that deals particularly with the economic challenges, and with kids who come in needing a lot of help, needing a lot of attention because their parents don’t have the things at home that a lot of middle-class parents, such as [myself] have,” Grundy says.

            The reason why Shamrock Gardens Elementary is a case study is because it sits right on the fault line of two economically distinct neighborhoods.

            On one side are some of the richest homes in Mecklenburg County, many valued at $330,000 and above.

            On the other side of the high poverty school, one of the poorest neighborhoods in the city with black and Hispanic children.

            When the lines were redrawn so that the poor children were reassigned to what had once been a public school with rich white children, those parents took their kids out and sent them to private schools, leaving the vacuum for poor children.

            Only a handful of well-to-do white families still send their children to Shamrock Gardens, because they believe in diversity.

            Pam Grundy’s family is one of them.

            Indeed the story of Shamrock Gardens, and how Pamela Grundy, a white mother, came to deliberately send her son to the high poverty school, and become its PTA president, is one of the reasons why The Carolinian newspaper joined Patty Williams of Great Schools in Wake Coalition last October, in a trip to the Queen City to interview parents, former school administrators and others about Charlotte’s experience with neighborhood schools.

            The Charlotte-Mecklenburg Public School System (CMS), has employed a neighborhood schools policy for a decade now after it was forced to end its socioeconomic diversity policy by federal court order. The result has been a high number of high poverty schools like Shamrock Gardens Elementary, a high degree of low performing schools, and so many tens of millions spent to prop up those schools that CMS now has to close ten of them, layoff hundreds of employees and teachers for the third year in a row (The Charlotte Observer reported today that CMS has just sent out over 730 layoff notices), and now plead with its county commission board for $55 million more just to compensate for anticipated drastic cuts from the state.

            The Carolinian and Great Schools in Wake set out to document what went wrong in CMS for a series of articles, and an online video on YouTube titled, “Costs and Consequences: What’s at Stake in Wake,” to better inform Wake County taxpayers about what to expect once the Republican-led Wake County School Board fully implemented its neighborhood schools policy.

            Though Wake Supt. Anthony Tata has yet to formally present a final version of his student assignment plan to the board, the board has already created a $25 million super-high poverty school, Walnut Creek Elementary, in Southeast Raleigh, scheduled to open in August.

            The student population there will be 81 percent free-and-reduced lunch, over 95 percent black and Hispanic, and over 50 percent low-performing.

            Education experts say such high poverty schools present unique and compounded challenges because many of the children come from low-income backgrounds and, depending on the neighborhood, very complex lives where alcoholism, crime, drug and sexual abuse may be factors in their homes.

            Teachers in high poverty schools, because of the tremendous stress of dealing with their special populations, usually burn out after a year or two, experts say. And now that the Republican-led NC General Assembly is planning to sharply cut funding to the state’s public schools, that means class sizes will increase, fewer teachers will be hired, and teacher assistants from grades 2-12 will be eliminated, making the situation in high poverty schools even worse.

            For Pam Grundy in Charlotte, even before expected budget cuts, the high poverty school experience at Shamrock Gardens offered significant challenges for parents.

            As the PTA president, Grundy says she’s had to fight to get advanced curriculum work in the Shamrock Gardens, despite its high poverty status. As a result of her efforts, her son is in a partial magnet program, there is a Science Olympiad, special after-school and other programs.

            But Grundy laments it’s not “nearly enough” compared to other CMS standard schools.

            “Our kids are really smart and have s lot of abilities, but the challenge is to get the organization together that really allows them to shine,” she says, noting that special programs like Science Olympiad requires lots of hands-on work by parents, but many of the parents of F&R students didn’t finish school or don’t have a college degree or education, thus restricting their ability to help their children with advanced work in the classroom.

            As a result, those children weren’t able to reach the levels they should.

            Grundy’s husband is an architect. He was able to do what other parents at Shamrock Gardens weren’t. It was testament to the fact, says Grundy, that middle-class parents, through their time, connections, and yes, money, “bring so much to a school,” namely a baseline of support low-income parents whose are trapped in a high poverty neighborhood school, can’t.

                                                            -30-

             

            

WHAT DOES GEN. TATA THINK ABOUT OBAMA NOW?

By Cash Michaels

Editor

            “[President] Bush, who cast the fight against bin Laden in millennial terms of good and evil, never got his man. Obama, mocked by conservatives for his commitment to soft power and rolling back Bush-era interrogation practices, green-lighted a risky mission that resulted in the elimination of the man who was responsible for the murders of more than 3,000 [people].”

                                                     Josh Gerstein and Glenn Thrush

                                                                                    Politico.com

            All across the world, and certainly here in North Carolina, the praise for America’s military and its Commander-in-chief, President Barack Obama, in the aftermath of the capture and assassination of Osama bin Laden, the al Qaeda mastermind behind the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks on the United States, has been virtually unanimous.

            Per press accounts, it was Obama’s intense attention to mission detail, trust in the training and capabilities of the US military, and willingness to put his presidency on the line if the bin Laden mission failed, that most observers credit with the historic victory over terrorism.

            “[President Obama] obviously did the right thing,” NC Congressman Brad Miller, Democrat from the 13^th District, told The Carolinian Tuesday. “The same was true [in April 2009] with the Somali pirates [when Obama ordered US Navy SEAL snipers to kill the Somali kidnappers].”

            “He gave the order that any American president would have given.”

Even some conservatives and Republicans, like NC Tea Party Republican Congresswoman Renee Ellmers [R-2-NC], no fan of Pres. Obama for sure, begrudgingly expressed brief praise for his efforts.

             “I commend President Obama for bringing Bin Laden to justice…,” Ellmers said in a statement, before, like most conservatives, also thanking former Pres. George W. Bush, a fellow Republican, for his “long standing commitment and resolve.”

            But there’s one well-known conservative Tea Party follower and longtime staunch critic of President Obama in North Carolina who, interestingly, has not been heard from yet this week.

            Former US Army Brigadier General Anthony J. Tata, better known as Wake Schools Supt. Tony Tata.

            Before the 28-year US Army veteran took over the reins of the nation’s eighteenth largest public school system last January, retired Gen. Tata served 19 months as the chief operating officer of the Washington, D.C. public school district. However during that time, Tata, who also wrote war novels, was also in hot demand as a conservative blogger for Andrew Breitbart - the man who falsely accused Shirley Sherrod of racism - and as a television military analyst, primarily on the conservative Fox News Channel.

            In both arenas, Tata’s intense distain for President Obama, was palpable. In many of his early blogs, Tata blasted Obama for not immediately adhering to the recommendation of then-Gen. Stanley McChrystal to deploy considerably more troops to Afghanistan, where McChrystal was in command.

            Later, after McChrystal was removed by the president after a damning  Rolling Stones article, Tata, who had retired in March 2009, went on Fox News openly criticizing Obama for firing his friend.

            A few months earlier in December 2009, Tata blogged his admiration for Tea Party favorite, former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, writing that she was “ready to lead” the nation as president.

            “…[T]his woman is far more qualified to be president of the United States than the current occupant of the White House,” Tata wrote then, after reading Palin’s first book, “Going Rogue.”

            On Sept. 1, 2010, the day after Pres. Obama formally announced the pullout of US military forces out of Iraq, Tata appeared on Fox News Channel. While most of the nation welcomed the president’s announcement with open arms, Gen. Tata was not so generous.

            In fact, he got personal.

            “I give the president a B on content and a C on delivery,” Tata said, accusing Obama of doing so ,”…with this dispassion as if he was reading Ben Stein teaching Ferris Bueller economics. It was almost as if he was reading it, and truly didn’t believe it.”

            Later during that appearance, Tata accused Obama of not being as excited about the troop pullout as he was about being elected; of being “palpably uncomfortable” around military personnel “who have done your bidding for you”; of blaming the “bad economy on supporting the troops”; and using the Iraq troop pullout “as a political event, which, as a former soldier, I take a little bit of offense to.”

            But those criticisms from Tata were only the opening pitch for his most devastating barrage against his former Commander-in-chief.

            “I really don’t think he’s vested in this thing. [Obama’s] vested in being president. He’s vested in all of the perks and luxuriating in the perks of his office. But to really get down and to understand what being Commander-in-chief is, I don’t think he’s fully vested in that.”

             Tata continued, “He’s sort of disinterested, in my opinion, in that he’s got these two wars that he was handed, that he has to manage, but comments such as [Obama’s Iraq troop pullout speech]  really kind of unhinge in my mind, his passion, which I don’t believe is there, from the reality that I just don’t think he’s fully vested in the military, and fully vested in the security of this nation.”

            Unknown to Gen. Tata in September 2010 when he made those remarks, just a few weeks earlier in August, the president he just accused of not being, “…fully vested in the military, and not being fully vested in the security of this nation,” had been informed by his national security team that a strong lead to Osama bin Laden’s whereabouts in Pakistan had been determined.

            Obama ordered that US intelligence services continue to followup, and the wheels began to turn in earnest to finally get the terrorist that Tata, himself, would have loved to have had a crack at during his time in Afghanistan, where many believed bin Laden could be.

            From that point on, the president was deeply immersed in all aspects of strategic and military planning to get bin Laden.

            The rest is history.

           When Tata was introduced to the Raleigh media in January of this year, he defended his criticisms of the president by saying he was standing up for the people in uniform if he felt they weren’t being respected. He also accused the media for trying to deny him his freedom of speech in questioning whether he would also be giving political commentary during his tenor as Wake superintendent, as he did while working for DC public schools.

            Tata, though his contract with Wake Public Schools allows him to engage in outside activities on his own time, would only say that he will work hard "24/7" at making the school system the best.

            Thus far, three months into his short tenure, there is no indication that Supt. Tata has gone back on that promise. Indeed, by all accounts, he has been singular in purpose in leading Wake Public Schools, thus far.

On Wednesday morning, The Carolinian sent a request for comment to Mike Evans, Wake Schools Communications Director, asking for a statement from Supt. Tata regarding his reaction to the bin Laden mission as a retired US Army officer, and whether he had now changed his negative thoughts about President Obama, his leadership, and his relationship with the military.

         There was no comment from either by press time.
         UPDATE - Apparently Supt. Tata decided to speak to other news outlets regarding the bin Laden capture and killing.
         Tata interviewed with WTVD -11 and, not surprisingly, praised the US military's performance, but really said next to nothing about President Obama except that he could confirm bin Laden's death. So as far as I'm concerned, he's still not said anything lauding the president's leadership at all.
            SECOND UPDATE - N&O Education reporter T. Keung Hui had me "complaining" that Tata hadn't "praised" Obama. 
            For the record, I wasn't complaining about anything. I reported, verbatim, some of Tata's most outlandish past criticisms and personal attacks on the president regarding Obama's relationship with, and abounding respect for the US military, and his deep concerns about national security (Tony may want to check with Defense Secretary Gates and Gen. Petraeus on those points since he has such a hard time believing either to be true).
              I then afforded an opportunity for Tata to speak on the record about this. I would have printed every word. I would have even, if he didn't want to speak to me, invite him to write an op-ed for my paper so that folks could read his remarks without qualification.
             Neither Tata nor his office displayed the common courtesy to respond even with a "no comment." He could take a 10-minute break from work and speak to me on phone, since his contract says he can do what he wants on his time.
              We can even have lunch.
              Apparently I'm not worth speaking to, which means the readers of The Carolinian, many of whom have school children in Supt. Tata's school system, are not worth speaking to when tough questions about character and leadership on our school board come up.
             Funny, Chairman Margiotta and funnyman John Tedesco have chickened out in the past too. What a coincidence!
             But if Supt. Tata thinks for one minute that he can waltz into the African-American community with his "I'm all for diversity, I just can't do much about it" act, knowing that we know how much he hates our president, and expecting us to ignore it, I'm sorry, it doesn't work that way.
             Mind you, Tony Tata has a right to his own opinion. But we have a right to fully understand exactly who, and what is plotting the course for our children's education, especially when we're going to get more high poverty schools shoved down our throats!
               Has Supt. Tata done good work in the three months that he's been on board? So far, so good, given that he really hasn't done anything until his student assignment plan is adopted, budget absolutely finalized once we know how much money the school system will actually have, and we see what kind of plans Tata has to deal with our high poverty schools like Walnut Creek Elementary.
                Yes, we support Supt. Tata's good efforts to improve education in Wake County, but we also will NEVER forget who the real Tony Tata is - a Tea Party-lovin' arch-conservative who doesn't have the decency to admit that he was wrong about the true character, devotion and commitment to securing this nation from all harm, of the president of the United States!
              I'll repeat here what I say in my "Cash in the Apple" column this Thursday - if Gen. Tata has any REAL honor, as a man, he'll admit that he was wrong about President Obama!
               Period!

                                           -30-

MAJESTIC ON THE WRONG SIDE OF OCR TRUTH

       The Wake County Public School System has clearly adopted a strategy of "a good offense is the best defense" concerning the OCR meeting scheduled for Wednesday night at Martin Street Baptist Church in Southeast Raleigh.


      WCPSS has now gone as far as criticize how the OCR meeting, and where the OCR meeting, has been publicized in the first place.


      Check out this letter from Ann Majestic, WCPSS attorney, to OCR. In it, she not only rages how "unfair" it is that the meeting is being held at all, but that, "...we have been unable to determine how the event is being advertised other than appearing on the blog of Cash Michaels, a local journalist and advocate  who has been staunchly critical of the current board."


     With good reason, I might add.


     The truth is, Ms Majestic is not telling the truth, and given the corrupt bunch she works for, that's understandable.


     Majestic didn't see the announcement on my blog, where it first appeared. She, and the rest of the wider public, saw it on T. Keung Hui's WakeEd blog in the News and Observer. I know this for a fact because on April 26th, shortly after getting the notice from the NCNAACP, I sent it to Hui TO MAKE SURE THAT IT GOT WIDER PUBLIC DISTRIBUTION!


     Majestic, and the rest of the public, saw the OCR notice there first, NOT my blog! Otherwise, she wouldn't have seen it at all because I doubt she spends time visiting this blog unless someone tells her to.


    So these WCPSS people are trying to intimidate the feds to back off the racial bias complaint filed by the NCNAACP. I don't know if what they're doing is working, but clearly the Republicans on the Wake School Board are afraid of something.


   By the way, that OCR public meeting to hear the complaints and concerns of parents, students and the public concerning the WCPSS is scheduled for Wednesday, May 3rd, 2011, 7-9 pm at Martin Street Baptist Church, 1001 East Martin Street, Raleigh.


    The Wake School System has had  something to say. Now it's YOUR turn!


    'nuff said!

PRESIDENT OBAMA ANNOUNCES OSAMA BIN LADEN KILLED BY U.S.

THE WHITE HOUSE

Office of the Press Secretary

________________________________________________________________

For Immediate Release                              May 1, 2011

REMARKS BY THE PRESIDENT

ON OSAMA BIN LADEN

East Room

11:35 P.M. EDT

     THE PRESIDENT:  Good evening.  Tonight, I can report to the American people and to the world that the United States has conducted an operation that killed Osama bin Laden, the leader of al Qaeda, and a terrorist who’s responsible for the murder of thousands of innocent men, women, and children.

It was nearly 10 years ago that a bright September day was darkened by the worst attack on the American people in our history.  The images of 9/11 are seared into our national memory -- hijacked planes cutting through a cloudless September sky; the Twin Towers collapsing to the ground; black smoke billowing up from the Pentagon; the wreckage of Flight 93 in Shanksville, Pennsylvania, where the actions of heroic citizens saved even more heartbreak and destruction.

And yet we know that the worst images are those that were unseen to the world.  The empty seat at the dinner table.  Children who were forced to grow up without their mother or their father.  Parents who would never know the feeling of their child’s embrace.  Nearly 3,000 citizens taken from us, leaving a gaping hole in our hearts.

On September 11, 2001, in our time of grief, the American people came together.  We offered our neighbors a hand, and we offered the wounded our blood.  We reaffirmed our ties to each other, and our love of community and country.  On that day, no matter where we came from, what God we prayed to, or what race or ethnicity we were, we were united as one American family.

We were also united in our resolve to protect our nation and to bring those who committed this vicious attack to justice.  We quickly learned that the 9/11 attacks were carried out by al Qaeda -- an organization headed by Osama bin Laden, which had openly declared war on the United States and was committed to killing innocents in our country and around the globe.  And so we went to war against al Qaeda to protect our citizens, our friends, and our allies.

Over the last 10 years, thanks to the tireless and heroic work of our military and our counterterrorism professionals, we’ve made great strides in that effort.  We’ve disrupted terrorist attacks and strengthened our homeland defense.  In Afghanistan, we removed the Taliban government, which had given bin Laden and al Qaeda safe haven and support.  And around the globe, we worked with our friends and allies to capture or kill scores of al Qaeda terrorists, including several who were a part of the 9/11 plot.

Yet Osama bin Laden avoided capture and escaped across the Afghan border intoPakistan.  Meanwhile, al Qaeda continued to operate from along that border and operate through its affiliates across the world.

And so shortly after taking office, I directed Leon Panetta, the director of the CIA, to make the killing or capture of bin Laden the top priority of our war against al Qaeda, even as we continued our broader efforts to disrupt, dismantle, and defeat his network.

Then, last August, after years of painstaking work by our intelligence community, I was briefed on a possible lead to bin Laden.  It was far from certain, and it took many months to run this thread to ground.  I met repeatedly with my national security team as we developed more information about the possibility that we had located bin Laden hiding within a compound deep inside of Pakistan.  And finally, last week, I determined that we had enough intelligence to take action, and authorized an operation to get Osama bin Laden and bring him to justice.

Today, at my direction, the United States launched a targeted operation against that compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan.  A small team of Americans carried out the operation with extraordinary courage and capability.  No Americans were harmed.  They took care to avoid civilian casualties.  After a firefight, they killed Osama bin Laden and took custody of his body.

For over two decades, bin Laden has been al Qaeda’s leader and symbol, and has continued to plot attacks against our country and our friends and allies.  The death of bin Laden marks the most significant achievement to date in our nation’s effort to defeat al Qaeda.

Yet his death does not mark the end of our effort.  There’s no doubt that al Qaeda will continue to pursue attacks against us.  We must –- and we will -- remain vigilant at home and abroad.

As we do, we must also reaffirm that the United States is not –- and never will be -– at war with Islam.  I’ve made clear, just as President Bush did shortly after 9/11, that our war is not against Islam.  Bin Laden was not a Muslim leader; he was a mass murderer of Muslims.  Indeed, al Qaeda has slaughtered scores of Muslims in many countries, including our own.  So his demise should be welcomed by all who believe in peace and human dignity.

Over the years, I’ve repeatedly made clear that we would take action within Pakistan if we knew where bin Laden was.  That is what we’ve done.  But it’s important to note that our counterterrorism cooperation with Pakistan helped lead us to bin Laden and the compound where he was hiding.  Indeed, bin Laden had declared war against Pakistan as well, and ordered attacks against the Pakistani people.

Tonight, I called President Zardari, and my team has also spoken with their Pakistani counterparts.  They agree that this is a good and historic day for both of our nations.  And going forward, it is essential that Pakistan continue to join us in the fight against al Qaeda and its affiliates.

The American people did not choose this fight.  It came to our shores, and started with the senseless slaughter of our citizens.  After nearly 10 years of service, struggle, and sacrifice, we know well the costs of war.  These efforts weigh on me every time I, as Commander-in-Chief, have to sign a letter to a family that has lost a loved one, or look into the eyes of a service member who’s been gravely wounded.

So Americans understand the costs of war.  Yet as a country, we will never tolerate our security being threatened, nor stand idly by when our people have been killed.  We will be relentless in defense of our citizens and our friends and allies.  We will be true to the values that make us who we are. And on nights like this one, we can say to those families who have lost loved ones to al Qaeda’s terror:  Justice has been done.

Tonight, we give thanks to the countless intelligence and counterterrorism professionals who’ve worked tirelessly to achieve this outcome.  The American people do not see their work, nor know their names.  But tonight, they feel the satisfaction of their work and the result of their pursuit of justice.

We give thanks for the men who carried out this operation, for they exemplify the professionalism, patriotism, and unparalleled courage of those who serve our country.  And they are part of a generation that has borne the heaviest share of the burden since that September day.

Finally, let me say to the families who lost loved ones on 9/11 that we have never forgotten your loss, nor wavered in our commitment to see that we do whatever it takes to prevent another attack on our shores. 

And tonight, let us think back to the sense of unity that prevailed on 9/11.  I know that it has, at times, frayed.  Yet today’s achievement is a testament to the greatness of our country and the determination of the American people. 

The cause of securing our country is not complete.  But tonight, we are once again reminded that America can do whatever we set our mind to.  That is the story of our history, whether it’s the pursuit of prosperity for our people, or the struggle for equality for all our citizens; our commitment to stand up for our values abroad, and our sacrifices to make the world a safer place. 

Let us remember that we can do these things not just because of wealth or power, but because of who we are:  one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

Thank you.  May God bless you.  And may God bless the United States of America.

         

                        END               11:44 P.M. EDT