Newspapers / Winston-Salem Chronicle (Winston-Salem, N.C.) / July 31, 2003, edition 1 / Page 6
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OPINION ! - ' The Chronicle Ernest H. Pitt Pu bl i sher/Co- Fou nder ; [iaimi Pitt Business Manager ' Eaicka Asbuky Office Manager r f. ki?in WaIKER Managing Editor Kay Stuitz Production Supervisor ? North Carolina ? Amalgamated ? National Newspaper Praaa Aasoclatlon ot Circulation pubilahara, Inc. Publishers Association Child poverty needs attention Akilah IMonifa Guest Columnist Child poverty is at shame ful. epidemic levels in the Unit ed States, especially for black and Latino kids. The Children's Defense Fund recently released a study that revealed that the number of black children under 18 in extreme poverty was at a record high. The organization, using cur rent U .S. Census figures, found that the number is the highest it has been in the 23 years since the statistics have been kept. "Extreme poverty" is defined as a family whose after tax income is less than half of what the federal government defines as the poverty line. In this stud y, the "extreme pover ty" line for a family of three was a mere $7,1)64 of disposable income. " Although the -study also showed that overall poverty is down in this country, that is not the case for extreme poverty of black. Latino and white chil dren. There were nearly 932,(XX) black children in extreme pover ty in 2001. the latest year the statistics art available. That is up 50 percent from 622.000 in 1999. Latino children in extreme poverty numbered at 733.IXX). an increase of 13 per cent from 1999. And white chil dren in the same group num ^ bered at I X million, up 2 per cent since 1999. I We may like to think that poverty is something that exists only in some so-called Third World country. But these statis tics should force us to focus on extreme poverty right here in the United States. Too many of us are ignorant of, or indifferent to, the plight of poor and minor ity kids. As Congress debates pro posed tax cuts and whether to renew the 1996 welfare legisla tion - including cuts of Head Start programs and child health programs - policy-makers should consider the study care fully before enacting laws that could have detrimental conse quences on the well-being of millions of children. The startling figures should force us all to Jake action. We can no longer afford to sit idly by as large tax cuts for the wealthy few supersede the day to-day needs of those in extreme poverty. Congress should increase the childcare supplements, and the welfare reauthorization bill should specifically direct more money to job training. Addition ally, states should offer wage supplements to women in mini mum-wage jobs. Filling these '?> holes in the "welfare-to-work safety net" would benefit par ents as well as to their children. In the richest nation in the world, we should not measure our success in economic wealth, but in the social condition of our downtrodden-especially our children. Akilah Monifa is a free lance writer living in Oakland. California. She can be reached al pmproj@pressive.org. I Submit letters and columns to: Chronicle Mailbag, P.O. Box 1636, Winston-Salem, NC 27102 Please print clearly. Typed letters and columns are pre ferred. If you are writing a guest column, please include a photo of yourself. We reserve the right to edit any item sub mitted for clarity or brevity. You also can e-mail us your letters or columns at: news@ wschrdnicle. com NCLB has many drawbacks To The Editor: "Our children, our future, our schools" should become a rallying cry for every parent in the Winston-Salem/Forsyth County School System in light of the "No Child Left Behind" federal dictate which has no financial incentives for the classroom educator, but public scorn for not meeting a guide line set in Washington. D.C.. 1 am especially appalled at the nerve of a federal law that gives a report card on the suc cess of an educational envi ronment based on so many loosely defined sub-groups. It is educationally invalid to measure a child's most pre cious life-time opportunity to learn with a single test or for that matter with two test. All research based on any deco rum of common sense would measure a child's entry abili ties when the child arrives at school to a child's exit skill abilities at the end of a specif ic time period. The level of progress that a student achieves should be based on an individual criteria of accomplishment for that stu dent alone. At least give the student a pre-test and a post test on a certain level of mas tery. If the student is able to improve from a level of 1 to a level of 2, that student has progressed. Celebrate the stu dent's growth and thank the school's more for shaping our future, our children. When will parents really say in a loud voice that the learning environment in my child's classroom consist of a caring teacher, an inviting , stimulating classroom where every child is encouraged to do their individual best and learn how to truly respect themselves and others in the same way that they expect to be respected and appreciated? We need more support for teachers to establish genuine relationships with their stu <Wv lCT dents instead of another test dictated by the government that has no real understanding why little Johnny or Rashad can't read. It is essential that all par ents become more active in our children, our future, our schools. I am a father of five children, four of whom matriculated from this school system and have successfully continued their education in college and graduate schools. I am not convinced that this federal mandate (NCLB) would have prepared them for their career choices. The key to their success has been car ing teachers who saw the strengths that they had that no test could have measured. I strongly encourage every par ent. especially the African American parents to commit to challenging these mandates when they impede on the nec essary assets that every child needs to succeed. I invite you to become involved in a com munity organization that has your child's interest at heart. You choose the organization. but you cannot afford not to get involved. Our future is at stake. Fleming- El- Amin, Co-Convener, Black Leadership Roundtable Thoughts on nationalism To The Editor: " I cannot accept the think ing thatnationalism transcends morality. Morality is the embodi ment of mans love for his fel lowman. Nationalism is a product of man's invention. It may vary from century to century. Just as a nation may be an ally for a decade then become our enemy for the next decade, all depending on the politics of the time. But humanitarianism has both good and permanent signifi cance. It is the concept by which we measure love for our fellowman. Every man is I somebody, a living part of his creator, and should be recog nized and respected as such. This philosophy in no way diminishes our love for our country. We exercise free will ^ to do our best to be good citi . zens, and if circumstances dictate, we make the ultimate sacrifice and give our lives for our country. I believe that morality transcends nationalism because God and creation are all that is good and perma nent. Our love for mankind is the necessary criteria for. being a good American. All nations, when formulating their foreign policies, and deciding what is in their vital interest, should give high pri ority to the moral implications of that policy and how result ing actions will affect people around the world. When mankind is able to compre hend that morality and humanitarianism must be civi lizations guiding principles, then maybe we will see an end to war. ' J. Raymond Oliver f OK, fAWBE \ Q W TROOP* m \ 7 VtRETCUE.D A ) \ UTTlE TMH?' / Felon vote ban stains democracy Earl Ofari Hutchinson Guest Columnist Florida recently took a grudg ing step toward righting one of the nation's most blatant out rages when it restored the voting rights to more than 100,000 ex felons. While the action was wel come, it won't do much to boost black voting power. It only applied to those ex-felons released between 1992 and 2001. Human Rights Watch estimates that the ban in Florida and Alaba ma, one of the six other states that permanently bar ex-felons from voting, prevents one out of three black men from voting. Most of the states that perpet uate this morally and legally indefensible practice are South ern states. The South has had a long and deplorable history of devising an arsenal of politically abusive tactics including poll taxes, literacy laws, and political gerrymandering to drive blacks from the voting booths. This thinly disguised relic of the South's Jim Crow past has done much to drastically dilute Mack political strength. In the 19% and 2000 presidential elec tions more than 4 million black men voted. If the tens of thou sands of black men on parole, , and thus permanently disenfran chised because of their past crim inal record, had been allowed to vote it might have made a crucial difference in deciding some close contests in swing and toss-up states. Florida is the best example of this. The black ex-felon vote, most of which almost certainly would have gone to Democratic presidential contender. A1 Gore, since blacks voted nearly 9 to 1 for him in the state, would have tipped the vote total and the White House to him. With the march upward again in the incarceration rate in state and federal prisons, black disen iitiin111nciiiciit win piuuauiy uci worse. According to recent FBI figures, blacks make up nearly half of the more than two million prisoners in the nation's jails, and forty five percent of prisoners who will serve sentences longer than one year. The Sentencing Project, a Washington D.C. based criminal justice advocacy group, estimates that at the present rate of black incarceration upwards of 40 per cent of black men could be per manently barred from the polls in the vote restricted states in the next few years. And since most state officials are scared stiff of being publicly branded as soft on crime, state legislatures have either ignored the issue or stonewalled legislation that would end the archaic policy. Congress hasn't been any better. A bill, which would restore vot lllg I ipIIS IU CX-1 eiUnS Hi icucrai elections, has languished in the 1 House for the past few years. Conservatives passionately 1 defend the policy of ex-felon dis- ! enfranchisement. ' They claim that in barring criminals from voting society 1 sends the strong message that if 1 you break the law you should 1 pay. and continue to pay dearly. The argument might make sense ' if all or most of the disenfran- ( chised ex-felons were convicted ? murderers, rapists, or robbers. 1 And they were denied the vote 1 beca use of a court-imposed sen tence. This is not the case. None of the states that bar ' felons from voting in near perpe- ' tuity require that judges strip 1 them of their voting rights as part ' of their sentence based on the 1 seriousness of the crime or the severity of the punishment. The 1 najority of ex-felons were jailed or non-violent crimes such as Irug possession, passing bad rhecks. or auto theft. In most nstances they fully served their ;entence and in theory paid their iebt to society. ? . Most of the convicted felons vere young men when they com nitted their crime. The odds are that most of hem won't become career crimi tals. but will hold steady jobs, aise families and become esponsible members of the com nunity. Yet imprinting these ex elons with the legal and social aigma of hereditary criminals ind banning them from voting intil death makes politicians and nany Americans seem like the ?vorst kind of hypocrites when hey say they believe in giving prisoners a second chance in life. The, Sentencing Project and -lumari Rights Watch have Jenounced the exclusion of ex elons from voting as a racially rigoted. blight on society. But hey have been lone voices .creaming for change. Though he ACLU, and the Florida Con "erence of Black State Legisla ors forced Florida to partially lift he ban. civil liberties groups and :ivil rights organisations -have tiostly taken a hands-off stance >n the issue and Filed few court .hallenges or mounted any sus ained lobbying campaign in Congress or state legislatures to jet this discriminatory voting law .hanged. That the right to vote for housands of black American cit /.ens is still an issue decades tfter the end of slavery and legal segregation is worse than a trav :sty of justice. It's a stain on the lemocratic process. Florida took t small step toward wiping away he stain, other states should do he same. Earl Ofari Hutchinson is an mthor and political analyst. Visit 'tis news and opinion website: www.thehutchinsonreport.com He is the author of The Crisis in Slack and Black IMiddle Pos tage Press). EItutch i344@ aol. com
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