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OPINION/ FORUM Chronicle ERNKST H. PlTT Publisher Co I ouiklc'i K LAIN K Pi I T Business Manager \1 khaki. A. Pitt Marketing T. kl\ IN WaI.KKR Miiueinc I ditor A PA ? ^ortrt Caraiir*s \SH018l N*W?C*oer Orrss Assoc <?tio ? Puo?i?n?r6 Aa^ocwtion General Assembly leaders taking N.C. in wrong direction Gov. Bev Perdue Guest Columnist When the General Assembly convened on Monday, it marked the !O0th legislative da\ since Republicans took control in January. The new Republican lead ers are heading in a direction that is wrong tor North Carolina. I do not share their \ alues. I irst and foremost, the new leaders are moving back wards on our state's historic commitment to education. They've made sharp cuts to all levels of education: ? They made deep and shortsighted cuts to K - 1 2 schools that were as harmful as they were unnecessary. As a result, we've suffered the loss of thousands of teachers and teachers' assistant positions. ? Thev also made deep cuts to early childhood education, including SmartStart and NC Pre-K (formerly known as More at l our). In fact, their cuts to NC" Pre-K were so reck less that a North Carolina judge has ruled that they v iolate the state con Nl 1 1 111 It Ml ? And they slushed fund ing lor public uni versitics . including hi.s tori calls black colleges and universities, rhesc reckless cuts have forced the uni versity system to lay off more than 3.0(H) people. In addition to their harmful choices on education, the new Republican leaders have been wrong for North Carolina in other ways too: ? They passed a "voter ID" bill ? which I vetoed that would have unnecessarily and unfairly disenfranchised many eligible and legitimate voters. ? They passed partisan redisricting maps that unfairly Clustered African American voters and arbitrarily cut across county lines in an attempt to lock-in Republican control of the General Assembly . ? And their budgeting mistakes created a $139 million shortfall in Medicaid this year that could inflict painful cuts on services for the most vulnerable among us. As I said before. I have different values. I believe that we must invest in our public schools in order to ensure that all of our citi/.ens have the opportunity to get a quality educa tion. I developed "Career and College Promise" to provide high school student's w ith a clear and affordable path for success in college or in a career. The program gives eligible high school students the opportunity to earn either 44 hours of college credit tuition-lree. or valuable career training that will help them get a job after high school. Also. I have urged the General Assembly to reverse the deep cuts they've made to NC Pre-K. * I sent a letter to the General Assembly a few weeks ago in which 1 identified $30 million in existing funds that could be re -directed to NC Pre-K. This would enable us to serve an additional 6.3(10 at-risk students next year. These are existing funds, so we could serve these additional children without raising taxes, without putting the budget out of balance and without damaging other critical priorities This is an investment worth making: NC Pre-K is an aca demic program that prepares lour year olds to succeed once they get to kindergarten. It improves children's language, math and social skills, and it has been shown to help close the achievement gap. I hope the General Assembly will part ner with me to help ensure that all of North Carolina's chil dren enter kindergarten ready to succeed. These are challenging times; they call lor leaders who are focused on helping all of our citizens compete in the 21st century global economy, I will continue working every day on behalf of North Carolina's families. Correction In las t week's Ileal t lib eat briefs, a clip about Wake Forest Haptist Health's new Radial Lounge contained a photo of former School of Medicine Dean l)r. William H. Applegate, instead of one of Dr. Robert J. A pplegate, a cardiology professor who was quoted in the clip. The Chronicle apologizes far the error. Dr. Robert ,/. A pplegatc Quiet Powerhouse Marc Morial Guest C o I u m n i s t "Work is the only mean ing I've ever known. Like the nitui in the song says. I just gotta keep on keepin' on." - Joe Vncier Years ago in a I'hi l;tdel ph i a si aughterhouse. an aspiring young boxer trained in the early mornings by punching sides of beef. He would run up and down the steps of the Philadelphia Art Museum. The world associates these images with a fictional boxer. Rocky Balboa, but the\ were part of the fascinat ing life of Smokin' Joe I ra/ier. who ilied earlier this month at the age of 67. In many ways, the appro priation of F ra/ier "s early training days is emblematic of how. even at the height of his career, he was overshad owed b\ the slicker, brasher media favorite. Muhammad All. Although their animosity 1 1 ^ ? ? _ . defined an era of boxing. Fra/ier boycotted the 1^67 hca vy wei gh t elimination tournament to find a succes sor to Ali. and Fra/ier person ally petitioned President Richard M. Nixon to have Ali's license reinstated. While Ali was banned from boxing. Fra/ier lent him money to pay his bills. "I've never fought anyone J with a will so strong." Ali would say of Fra/ier. I've always been an Ali Ian myself, but the only time I ever rooted against Ira/ier was when he fought Ali. Prazier. in comparison, was a man of few words, who proved himself with hard work and action in the ring. He let his boxing speak for him. m many ways, rrazier s very life, more than anything he. said, defined the struggle of blaek America. He was self-taught and self-reliant. Fie rose from crushing pover ty in Jim Crow-era South Carolina, one of 14 children bom to struggling sharecrop pers. He worked the fields from the age of seven until he, like so many who are part of the Great Migrations of the 20th century, hopped a Greyhound bus to New York City before making his way to Philadelphia. After he retired from box ing. Joe Frazier's Gym became an important part of the Philadelphia neighbor hood. Though it's no longer a training facility, fans and for mer students Hocked to the building upon learning of I ra/ier's death. It had been a sale haven for young people, a center of the community. In contrast to the violence and sometimes hopelessness of ilxc streets outside, young people learned discipline and hard work, and their lives were changed forever thanks to Smokin' Joe. Mm M dried is the presi dent and CEO of the National Urbim League. The Legacy of Jesse Jackson George Curry Guest Columnist Al Sharpton has patterned his carecr so closely after the Jesse Jackson model that he could he justifiably charged with identity theft. Like Jackson, he began wearing a Martin Luther King medallion around his neck. Like Jackson, he started his own civil rights organization. Like Jackson, he ran for president of the United States. Like Jackson, he now has his own radio and television shows. And like Jackson, he has become a confidante of the man who occupies the White House. At a ceremony last week at Georgetown University to cel ebrate Jesse Jackson's 7()th birthday and a half century in the civil rights movement. Sharpton proved that he not only had studied Jesse Jackson, but the civil rights movement just as carefully. "We try to go from "68 to 'OK like we leapfrogged from Dr. King to the president of the United States, Baraek Obama." Sharpton explained. Much of the progress in Black economic and political devel opment between the time Dr. King was assassinated in Memphis and the election of Obama in 2<K)K should be largely attributed to Jackson, Sharpton suggested. Jesse Jackson was among the handful of top aides to Dr. King. When King was killed in Memphis. Ralph Abemathy succeeded King as president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, but it was Jackson who assumed the mantle as Black America's top civil rights leader. Jackson, who was selected by King to head Operation Breadbasket in Chicago, chal lenged major corporations to not only hire more Blacks, hut to expand opportunities for African -Americans to own automobile dealerships, last food franchises and provide good* and services to Fortune 5(H) companies. Sharpton listed Richard Parsons, former CEO of Time Wiimer. and American Express CEO Ken Chenault as benefi ciaries of Jackson's early work. "There would not have been iinybody in the corporate elite had it not been a move ment led by Jackson to say you can't put a glass ceiling on how far we can go." Sharpton explained. "It wasn't that Blacks weren't qualified to be chairman of major cor porations until the '80s. There was no movement that had broken the ceiling." Lifting the ceiling from national politics was also part of the Jesse Jackson legacy. Although other African Americans had run for presi dent - including Frederick Douglass, Shirley Chisholm and Dick Gregory - none were as successful as Jackson in 1984 and 1988. Georgetown University Professor Michael Eric Dyson, who organized the appreciation event with his wife, Marcia Dyson, who served as Operation PUSH Trade Bureau's first chief of stall, said what many in the audience were thinking: "Without Jesse Jackson, there would be no Barack Obama." The Jackson-Obama rela tionship turned sour after Jackson was recorded saying that the then-presidential can didate talks down to African Americans and he would like to dismember a certain part of Ohama's body. While i ha! crude comment hurt Jackson's standing among African Americans excited about the prospect of electing the nation's first Black president, it docs not alter the fact, that Obama would not be in the White House without Jackson's presidential cam paigns. Sharpton was uncharacter istically diplomatic in how he adkessed the relationship between Obama and Jackson, noting that after lit'. King hail helped Carl Stokes become the first Black mayor of Cleveland, he was excluded from the victory celebration. "The misnomer is that stu dents watching think because you weren't at the party that \ou hail nothing to iki with the achievement." Sharpton said. "Don't get confused by the invitation list to the party with those who created what you are celebrating." At the tribute to Jackson, he was celebrated for develop ing a long list of leaders, including Sharpton. Former Secretary of Labor Alexis Herman, political strategist Donna Bra/ile. activist Marcia Dyson. Assistant Agriculture Secretary Joseph Leonard, Black Leadership Forum Executive Director Gary I lowers. ACLU Washington Director Laura W. Murphy and Le/li Baskerville. president of the National Association For Fqual Opportunity (NAFEO). Rev. Freddie Haynes of Dallas, in what he called an oratorical thank-you note to Re\. Jesse Jackson, spoke about the impact of Jackson's presidential 'campaigns. l.ooking at Jackson, he recalled: "After your speech 1 was in the b;trber shop - and you know how we kick it in the b;u+ter shop in the "hood and some brothers were talk ing about . 'Did you hear Jesse'.'" Jesse. Jesse. Jesse. And I Wasn't feeling them disre specting Rev. Jesse Jackson like that. So I said. 'Do you know Rev. Jesse Jackson?' And the brother jumped right back at me and said. 'I don't know Jesse, but Jesse knows me.'" Sharpton said Jesse Jackson led the way in urging ch 1 1 i.bvii to spend less time in front of TV, curbing violence in the Black community and getting youth to believe that "1 Am Somebody." Sharpton stated. "In many ways. I would say that from the economic fights from the end of the decade he started in the '70s to the political empowerment that resulted in the first Black attorney gener al and the first Black president to the whole concept of coali tion building, he has defined the last part of the 20th centu ry and the llrsi part of the 21st century." Michael Fric Dyson put it this way: "Like Muhammad Ali. lie shook up the world." (ie<>w E. Curry . former vditor iu i hief of Emerge maf> c cine ttid the NNPA News Scnnc, i\ u key note speaker, modentor. and media awl). Re<uh him at www .xeaixeivny.com .
Winston-Salem Chronicle (Winston-Salem, N.C.)
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