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4A EDITORIAL AND OPINION/Charlotte $oat Thursday, August 24, 2006 Frazier Wlft Cljarlotte The Voice of the Black Community J53i Camden Road Charlotte, N.C. 28203 Gerald O. Johnson ceo/publisher Robert L Johnson co-publisher/general manager Herbert L White EorroR in chief OPINION Honoring the teachers who share their gifts with students November convention to honor Charlotte pioneer and train at-risk students to maximize potential By Brent Adams Mundt SPEC/AL TO THE POST The landmark Brown vs. Board of Education decision was handed down in 1954, the same year that the National Association for Gifted Children was foimded as a nonprofit ded icated to high potential leanrers. Fifty-two years later, upwards of3,000 researchers and prac titioners in the speciali2ed fidd of gifted children are headed to Charlotte for the 53rd annual convention of the NAGC November 1-5 with a very special new program in place. Among these experts are the nation’s leading advocates of under served gifted children who reside in poverty These «cperts know that there are promising learners in every class room. They also have thirty plus years of longitudinal data to support it. Their cause is to extend the legacy of the late Mary Frasier — a beloved past president who was a giant in this field. Throu^ generous support of her col leagues and the Wachovia Foxmdation, the tools developed and inspired by Mary Frasier will be tau^t to local teachers fix)m Title I schools. No sir^le person had more influence in the field of minority gifted children than the late Mary Frasier. Among her many accomplish ments, Frasier changed the state’s rule in Geoigia to use multiple criteria rather than straight IQ scores - and thus tripled the number of African Americans in gifted/talented programs during the period 1996 to 2004. After her success in Georgia, Frasier worked with the U.S. Office of CivU Rights to increase minori ty student access to gifted programs nationwide. Dr. Frasier consulted fiequently in North Carolina and is as loved for her kindness and strer^th as she is for her research and results. Addressing the “opportunity gap” that exists in gifted and talented programs has been a clarion call of the NAGC for decades - especially so during her tenure as presi dent fiom 1987-1989. It is especially important that the laimch of the program takes place here in Charlotte according to Dr. James Gallagher of the University of North Carolina, and a fellow past president of the NAGC. “There simply is no better extension of Mary’s legacy than this training of teachers .fiom Title I schools. Our commxmity will be left so much better on November 5.1 could n’t be more thrilled to welcome all of Mary’s colleagues from around the coimtry and together train our local teachers” said the renowned author, educator and contributing architect of Head Start under the Johnson Administration. Through generous support fiom the Wachovia Foundation, NAGrC will invest heavily in training local teachers to identify and serve students in Title I schools. The tools have been developed over the course of NAGC’s 53-year history but became especially prevalent in 1988 after the Jacob K. Javits Education Act was passed, fundir^ specific research in this area. Dr. Frasier's tool - the Frasier Talent Assessment Profile will be provided as orientation to a rigorous 38-session pro gram. After three days of intense training, the NAGC has arranged for follow-up visits with experts at UNC Charlotte. Data will be collected on how the training manifests in the classroom. “The ultimate goal is to reach the Idds. We can never take our eye off of that goal.” said Nancy Green, Executive Diiector of the NAGC. The coincidence of the Brown v. Board of Education decision and the founding of the National Association for Gifted Children is too stark not to notice. Thanks to the generosity of gifted experts and the Wachovia Foundation, these two sepa rate but interrelated 1954 evaits come together beautifully 52 years later in Charlotte, N.C. to honor an incredible Afiican American pioneer named Mary Frasier. BRENT ADAMS MUNDT is deputy executive director of National Association for Gifted Children in Washington, DC. No single person had more influ ence in the field of minority gifted children than the late Mary Frazier. LETTERS Must voting rights have a statute of hmitations? I jxist read the article on President Bush signii^ the voting rights extension on the White House lawn (Aug. 3, “A toast to voting rights victory”). I say he should have vetoed it until it is rewritten without an expiration time. In 25 years, the legislators will have to go through this ridicu lous extension again. Who ever heard of giving civil rights that expire? Do the Bill of Rights and the Constitution expire? Mary Cuthberlson Compton, California ®(i 4 WMTRACTofe i/p pmM Eliminate daily obstacles in AIDS war TORONTO - For the moment, set aside the talk about microbicides, pre-ejqxi- sure prophylaxis, post-ejqxi- sure prophylaxis, combina tion therapy and HAART - Highly Active Antiretroviral Tteatment. Throw out all of the acronyms associated with the deadly alphabets of HIV and AIDS. Once one moves pass all medical jargon, the reahzation sets in that regardless of the scientific progress that has been made and is yet to be made, many of the obstacles I associated with preventing HIV and halt ing the spread of AIDS are everyday issues that mvist be addressed as irrgently as the scientific quest to develop an effective vaccine. First, there is the simple issue of not having enough health care workers. The World Health Organization, often referred to by the alphabets 'WHO, estimates that more than 4 million global health workers - including doctors, nurses and midwives - are needed to deal with pubhc health threats. There is a chronic shortage in sub-Saharan Africa. “With 11 percent of the world’s population and 24 percent of the global burden of disease, the region has only 3% of the world’s health workers commanding less than 1% of world health ejqjenditure,” according to a recent WHO publication titled, ‘Taking Stock Health Worker Shortages and the Response to AIDS.” It continues, “By contrast, the 'WHO Region of the Americas, with 10% of the global burden of the disease, has 37% of the world’s health workers and spends more than 50% of the world’s health financing.” Health workers, particular ly those working in Third World countries, also say that while HIV/AIDS is an impor tant issue, it must be placed in a larger health care con text. ‘Unless we start looking at the factors, the root causes that drive health disparities - in other words, why some of us get sick and some of us don’t — broadly within our communities, we will be always treating one iUness, while the ‘patient’ dies of another,”Gregg Gonsalves, an AIDS activist fiom Cape Tbwn, South Africa, told the delegates to this year’s inter national convention here. “It’s no coincidence that these multiple epidemics exist among marginalized commimities across the globe, among the poor, women, drug users, sex work ers, gay men, prisoners, migrants - the social, eco nomic and political pohdes that create this marginaliza tion in the first place also push us into the path of oncoming epidemics,” Gonsalves said. ‘Yet, we con tinue to place our hopes in prevention programs that narrowly construct risk aroTond individual behavior or in some new technology that will save us. The UN General Assembly’s Pohtical Declaration on HIV/AIDS declared there is a direct link between AIDS and agricul ture and nutrition. He called for “sufficient, safe and nutri- tioTis food” as part of an over all mV/AIDS strategy In many impoverished counties, the cost of life-sav ing drugs is prohibitive. Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) has introduced a bill that woiold allow U.S. generic drug firms to manufacture low-cost • generic versions of patented medicines for export to needy nations if a voluntary agree ment cannot be reached between the patent-owning and ,the generic manufactur er. Pharmaceutical companies •are not the only culprits. In many coimtries, the govern ment is responsible for thou sands of deaths. Human Rights Watch, for example, noted that in Zimbabwe, “Three thoiosand people die each week due to governmen tal policies that create formi dable obstacles to accessir^ life-saving treatment.” It’s also tough, if not impos sible, to get around many of the customs in male-oriented societies. President Bush has insisted that at least one-third of U.S. funds to fight ADDS must go to the ABC program —“Abstain, Be faithful, use Ccndoms.” In a speech to the conven tion, Bill Gates noted, “Abstinence is often not an option for poor women and girls who have no choice but to many at an early age. Being faithful will not protect a woman whose partner is not faithful. And using con doms is not a decision that a woman can make by herself; it depends on a man.” There are also the issues of stigma and discrimination. And the chxorch, as the fore most defender of moral and social norms, has been com- plicdt in condemning those afflicted with AIDS. “We raise our voices to call for an end to silence about this disease - the silence of stigma, the silence of denial, the silence of fear,” declares a 2002 statement from Ar^hcan Primates on AIDS. “We confess that the ChTirch herself has been comphcit in this sil^ce. When we have raised our voices in the past, it has been too often a voice of condemnation. We now wish to make it clear that HIV/AIDS is not a punish ment fiom God. Our Christian faith compds us to accept that all persons, including those who are Hv- ing with HIV/AIDS, are made in the image of God and are children of God.” GEORGE E. CURRY IS editor- in-chief of the National Newspaper Publishers Association News Service and BlackPressUSA.com. Web site, www.georgecurry.com. ‘Unimaginable loss of Hfe’ is relative As the actual events and details surrovmding the alleged terrorist plot to blow up commercial airliners unfold, the fear and forebod ing that has lived within many of us since 9/11 resur faced. Yet, in the initial Describing the alleged plot, this official went on to say that the outcome of such bombings would be an imim^inable loss of life. Before going any further, let me be clear that as far as I am concerned, any attack on non-combatants is criminal and ^ould be condemned. Yet, in thinking about the comment by the British offi cial, my first and continuing response was: Unimaginable to whom? The probable numbers of people who would have been killed might have gone as high as 15,000 (a very rough guess). As someone who just flew back from the West Coast, I would not look for ward to flying on a plane that was the target of a terrorist attack. Nevertheless, in today’s world, 15,000 dead civilians is not an unimagin able figure, unless, of course, one means 15,000 dead civil ians from Western Europe, the United States or Canada. I do not wish to be harsh or unsympathetic, but let’s cormt a few numbers and you tdl me what conclusions you come to. Since 1997, approx imately 4 nullion people have been IdUed as a result of the civil war (and foreign inter ventions) in the Congo. That comes down to approximately 444,000 per year or 37,000 per month or about 1,200 per day I would call that figure unimaginable (even thou^ it happ^ed), or perhaps incon ceivable in the sense that thio planet has permitted 4 mil lion people to die with very little international attention. Or, a few miles to the north, in the Sudan, over 20 years, more than 2 million people were killed in the north/south dvil war that recently ended. In the Darfur region of the Sudan, more than 400,000 people (not part of the 2 mil lion) have died as a result of the government-backed geno cide, and this number starts around 2003. Or, if we wish to be more mod^t, we can see the more than 1,000 Lebanese dvilians killed as a result of Israel’s collective punishment of that coimtry, a collective punishment that has specifically targeted dvil ians and civilian targets, this from an allegedly dvihzed nation. Should I mention Iraq? More than 2,600 U.S. person nel dead and by most reports more than 100,000 Iraqis dead as a result of an illegal war (by the way, that is more than 30,000 dead per year or about 80 dead per day). This does not count the hundreds of thousands of Iraqis who died as a result of the US/British sanctions against pre-war Iraq. So, I found myself wonder ing about this term “unimag inable loss of Hfe.” The poten tial tragedy of a terrorist attack on civUian aircraft woiild deserve condemnation shoiild even one pa^n die as a result. But telling us about an unimaginable loss of Hfe when the government of Britain, let alone tiie United States, has been prepared to sit back and watch or partici pate in the massive loss of Hie in countries of the global South is nothing short of disingenuous. This returns us to an issue that I have raised in previous columns, i.e., the relative importance or unimportance of the fives of differait peo ples. Four million dead in the Cor^ is absolutely unimag inable. It is difficult to ev^ count to 4 million sitting in the same place. It is unimag- inable that so many people could lose their fives and yet the Congo has to fight to get the attention of major news media in Western Europe, the United States and Canada. Short of a titillatir^ inci dent or an obvious and gross atrocity the loss of 1200 peo ple per day does not seem to merit our consideration. Perhaps I have a diffs^nt imagination? BILL FLETCHER is a Washington, DC-based writer and activist involved with labor and international issues. A formep president of TransAfrica Forum, he is now a \^siting Professor in Political Science at Brooklyn College-CUNY, He can be reached . at papaq54®hotmailcom.
The Charlotte Post (Charlotte, N.C.)
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