CASH IN THE APPLE FOR
08-31-16
By Cash Michaels
WHAT YOU
STAND FOR - Up until Monday morning when I was asked to comment on the Colin Kaepernick controversy, I was familiar with the story in
passing. A black NFL superstar quarterback for the San Francisco 49ers, who for the pass several exhibition games, has
refused to stand with the rest of the
stadium in honor and respect for the playing of the Star Spangled Banner, our
national anthem.
Needless to
say, when a multi-million dollar star athlete refuses to join the rest of his
countrymen in paying tribute to the nation that has given him the opportunity to be rich beyond anyone’s
dreams, that’s going to make news, and it has.
Just like
Colin Kaepernick wanted it to.
By now
you’re very familiar with argument against what Kaepernick is doing. As an
American citizen of some privilege, CK has the gall to disrespect the very
symbols of American freedom others fought and died for. This country has always
prided itself for standing for freedom no matter what trials and tribulations
it was going through…including slavery.
Being an
American was, and is, many maintain, the greatest blessing any human being can
be bestowed with, because no other country in the history of man has been a
beacon of freedom, justice and opportunity as American has been. Home of the
greatest military fighting force in history, home of the greatest democracy
ever, home of where, with hard work and sacrifice, an individual’s dreams can
come true.
How dare
Colin Kaepernick turn his back on America, refuse to bow down to its greatness
and blessings. He should be punished,
CK’s critics insist. He should be made to understand how selfish and unjust
he’s being.
But all of
that brings us to the other side of the argument…the side Kaepernick says he
represents.
CK says he hasn’t “turned his back” on America,
on his country, but rather his country has turned its back on him and people
like him.
True, America is the “land of promise,” but CK says his
country is not living up to its promise of freedom, justice and equality when
black people are being shot down in the street like dogs by police officers,
and our criminal justice system little to hold them accountable.
CK says its
hard to honor America’s promise, when the nation routinely refers to its
citizens of color as less than all other citizens, by calling them “minorities”
The word
“minority” has only one meaning – less than. Black, yellow and brown American
citizens are just that – American citizens, and nothing less. So why is it
acceptable to routinely remind everyone that there are less of them, and more
of whites, if everyone is a full citizen deserving of equal rights and
protection?
And CK says
despite lots of lip service about how blacks and Latinos have a fair chance of achievement
and accomplishment in American society, then why do many still find it almost
impossible to find meaningful employment, or assistance in opening small
businesses?
Yes,
refusing to stand in solemn silence is a slap in the face to other Americans,
but allowing one group of Americans to pass laws to deliberately deny another
group of Americans their right to vote and fully participate in this nation’s
democracy is also a slap in the face….to all Americans, and should not be so
readily accepted.
Colin Kaepernick says if his silent protest and high
visibility brings attention to these hypocrisies, then so be it. He’s willing
to take his punishment, just like Muhammad Ali did when he gave up his championship
title after refusing to serve in the US Army, or when Tommie Smith and John
Carlos stood strong with their Black Power salutes at the 1968 Olympics.
CK is making us think….what is the
value of citizenship if the same Americans who insist on standing at attention
for the pledge and national anthem out of respect for our war dead and ideals
of freedom, conveniently ignore the indignities and injustices burdened by other Americans, just
they’re “minorities” and don’t have the privileges of the majority.
And for the record, CK is free to
express his concerns in the peaceful manner that he chooses.
Afterall,
Colin Kaepernick is an American.
Cash in the Apple - honored as the Best Column Writing of 2006 by the
National Newspaper Publishers Association. Columnist Cash Michaels was also
honored by the NNPA for Best Feature Story Journalist of 2009, and was the
recipient of the Raleigh-Apex NAACP’s President’s Award for Media Excellence in
Sept. 2011.
Until
next week, keep a smile on your face, GOD in your heart, and The Carolinian in
your life. Bye, bye.
-30-
WOULD BLACKS BENEFIT
FROM
NONPARTISAN VOTING
MAP?
By Cash Michaels
Contributing writer
On Monday,
several retired state Supreme Court justices and judges – co-led by former Chief
Justice Henry Frye of Greensboro - along with the nonpartisan advocacy group,
Common Cause, released their simulated version of what a nonpartisan
Congressional map of North Carolina could look like if state lawmakers stopped
using redistricting for partisan advantage.
The result
– the 13 congressional districts were fairer, and more competitive.
In the
simulation, Mecklenburg constitutes the 13th District. In the latest
legislative rendering, Mecklenburg is the Twelfth.
If state lawmakers employed the
nonpartisan approach to redrawing all thirteen voting districts for 2020, when
the next redistricting is scheduled, not only would NC’s congressional
districts be constitutional, but African-American voters would still be able to
elect black representation to Congress not only from the First and Thirteenth
Districts (which are covered by the 1965 Voting Rights Act), but possibly also
the Fourth District as well, says Bob Phillips, executive director of Common
Cause.
And that’s because all three
congressional districts, which would be predominately Democratic, would produce
black-white coalitions of voters that could readily elect an African-American
to Congress.
It could be done, Phillips says, if
the state legislature would adopt a nonpartisan redistricting commission to
draw the maps. Members of both parties have expressed interest in establishing
such a panel in the past, but the lure of controlling the redistricting process
exclusively for partisan goals has always won out in the end.
Several weeks ago, the US Fourth
Circuit Court of Appeals ruled the 2011 NC Congressional maps, drawn by the
Republican-led NC General Assembly, to be unconstitutional because the First
and Twelfth districts were drawn to “stack and pack” black voters, meaning that
they were moved out of swing districts in order to give white Republicans a
better chance of winning close races with white Democrats.
In doing so, Republicans were able
to dominate the North Carolina Congressional delegation 10 – 3 over Democrats,
with Rep. G. K. Butterfield in the First, Rep. Alma Adams in the Twelfth, and
Congressman David Price in the Fourth.
Because of the appellate court
ruling, the March congressional primaries had to be postponed until June with
no runoff races while the legislature redrew the maps supposedly to ignore
race, instead putting a premium on Republican partisanship, maintaining the 10
to 3 congressional ratio.
The 2016 map has also been
challenged, but will stand until the federal courts say otherwise, if they do.
According to Phillips, the First,
Thirteenth and possibly the Fourth are drawn to be Voting Rights Act [VRA] compliant
in the new simulated nonpartisan map. Black Democratic voters in those
districts control the primary process.
In the First District, black voters
are 42 percent; the Thirteenth blacks are over 34 percent, and in the Fourth,
blacks are over 31 percent.
Coalition voting is feasible in
these areas, as proven historically elsewhere prior to the 2011 redistricting
by the re-election of Sen. Dan Blue in Wake County and Sen. Floyd McKissick Jr.
in Durham.
In the
simulated version, because of how people are clustered across the state, says
Phillips, there are several congressional districts that are decidedly
Democratic, some that are predominately Republican, and possibly a handful that
are considered tossups, meaning candidates from either party could win.
“At least
that would be map that is more in line with where we are as a state,” says
Phillips.
Instead
lopsided congressional delegations like 10-3, congressional elections could
easily produce more even results like 7-6. But again, state lawmakers would
have to commit to establishing a nonpartisan redistricting commission.
Phillips
says the next step is to continue to educate the public about the possibilities
of nonpartisan redistricting, so various sessions will be held across the
state, in hopes of convincing lawmakers that this is something North
Carolinians want.
Republicans
may pay more attention, says Phillips, especially if Democrats this fall
successfully make considerable election gains in the state House and Senate,
not to mention other key offices. The GOP may not want to be targeted by
Democrats, Phillips says, the way Republicans targeted them when the 2020
redistricting rolls around.
-30-
KAINE HAILS NC
VICTORY
PETITION TO REOPEN
LENNON LACY CASE
by Cash Michaels
Contributing writer
Two months
after the Federal Bureau of Investigation closed its probe of the Lennon Lacy
hanging case, the latest in a series of online petitions is being circulated to
reopen the investigation.
A group
called “Tools for Change” started the petition earlier this week, saying that
Lacy’s family deserves answers. Thus far, approximately 500 people have signed
the online petition (https://www.change.org/p/fbi-reopen-the-investigation-in-the-death-of-lennon-lacy).
It is the latest seeking support since the case was closed.
Lacy was a
17-year-old black youth whose body was suspiciously found hanging from an
outdoor swing set August 29, 2014 in the Bladen County town of Bladenboro.
According to family members, he was last seen the night before in good spirits
because his high school football team was to begin its season the following day.
But when
Lacy’s body as found, he was not wearing his sneakers, but someone else’s. Many
people point to that fact as proof that the young man was murdered, and did not
commit suicide as local police, and eventually the FBI maintained.
The NC
NAACP joined with Lennon Lacy’s family in demanding that the Bladen County
District Attorney investigate, and by December 2014, the FBI took over the
probe after the US Attorney’s Office agreed to step in and make it a
federal civil rights case.
But in June
2016, th FBI advised Lacy’s family that their investigation was completed, and
they could find no new evidence to contradict earlier findings that the teen’s
death was a suicide.
According
to the petition, there are several unanswered questions in the case that
deserve another look. They are:
1. It took investigators less than five hours from the discovery of
the body to decide there was ‘no evidence of foul play’ and the cause of death
seemed like a suicide. Four days later Lennon's death was officially ruled as a
suicide although there was no suicide note and his family and friends described
him as being excited about life.
Question: What
was the criteria used for the quick rulings of no foul play involved and cause
of death was suicide?
2. The shoes
found on his feet at the scene were a size-and-a-half too small. There were no
laces and the shoes didn’t belong to him. The Coroner placed the shoes in the
body bag but the shoes were missing when the body was brought to the Medical
Examiner's office
Questions:
What happened to the shoes? Who did the shoes belong to?
3. The two belts used to create the noose
didn't belong to Lennon. Lennon was wearing sweatpants with elastic so he
didn't need belts.
Question: Who
did the belts belong to?
4. There was no
evidence found at the scene of anything Lennon could have used to kick away in
order to hang himself. There was no swing to act as a step to reach the beams.
He would have had to jump 21 inches off the ground, placing his head in the
noose during the jump if he didn’t use something to kick away.
Question: What
were the mechanics used to accomplish this self-inflicted hanging?
5. Question: Why
did the investigators refuse to let County Coroner Hubert Kinlaw
photograph the scene and threatened to confiscate his camera if he tried to
take photos?
6. Question: Why
was Lennon’s hands not bagged to preserve evidence?
7. Questions:
Why was no DNA collected from items found on Lennon but not belonging to him?
Why was there no DNA collected from under his nails?
8.
Question: Why didn’t the local police come to the house, search Lennon’s room,
look at his phone, inquire about the clothes he was wearing, the sneakers found
on his body or the belts used for the noose during the four days between the
discovery of the body and the conclusion of suicide?
9. A lady
cutting grass discovered Lennon’s body and called 911. She took the body down
from the noose although there were no secondary cuts found on the belts.
Questions: How
did a 52 year old woman of small frame get Lennon down? Did she untie the noose
or cut it? How was she able to hold the cell phone in her hand, talk to the
dispatcher and manage to take down a male who stood 5 feet 9 inches tall and
weighed 209 pounds? Why did she tell the dispatcher it was a suicide?
10. Undertaker
stated it seemed as if Lennon had been in a terrible fight and his body badly
beaten with facial indentations over both cheeks.
Question: Did
investigators look into the undertaker’s concerns about Lennon being beaten the
night before the hanging?
11. Lennon’s
mother smelled bleach on him when identifying his body. A lady of interest to
the family, concerning Lennon’s death, was on videotape nervously buying large
quantities of bleach at a convenience store around 1:00am on August 28th, 2014.
It was also reported by witnesses and social media postings Lennon had been at
the home of this lady late in the evening before the hanging.
Question: Why
was the lady never questioned in the death of Lennon Lacy?
12. The son of
the lady who reportedly brought the bleach told investigators Lennon had
planned on killing himself by suicide. The male also stated he was best friends
to Lennon. The home of the woman and her son was never searched although the
Lennon family had been suspicious of them from the beginning. The mobile home
has since been removed.
Questions: Why
didn’t the best friend who didn’t attend the funeral report that Lennon was
planning on hanging himself to authorities or Lennon’s family? Why was he with
Lennon the night before?
13. Questions:
Who was the person allegedly arrested for desecrating Lennon’s grave after his
burial? How come there is no arrest report pertaining to the crime?
14. Question:
What happened to the new pair of Jordan sneakers Lennon was wearing when his
family last saw him late on the night of August 28th?
15. Lennon’s
girlfriend, a 31 year old Caucasian woman, has publicly stated she had been
warned about seeing Lennon. The man who warned her was boyfriend to the woman
who brought the bleach and stepfather to the allegedly best friend who said
Lennon was planning on killing himself. They all lived together in the trailer
behind Lennon’s home. One of the leading investigators on the scene during the
morning of the hanging is cousin to the man who told Lennon's girlfriend to
stop seeing him.
Questions:
How come the man was never questioned? Why was the trailer Lennon was at
the night before the hanging never searched? Why has the trailer been moved?
Where is the trailer home now?
There has been no indication by federal, state or local
authorities that they intend to reopen
the Lennon Lacy case, unless compelling new evidence is determined.
-30-
.
AGAINST VOTER ID
By Cash Michaels
Contributing writer
If there
was any doubt about the importance of North Carolina as a battleground state in
the upcoming presidential election, Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.) has come here to put
all doubts to rest.
Not only
has the state changed demographically since the 2012 presidential contest that
saw Pres. Barack Obama lose by just 100,000 votes to Republican challenger Mitt
Romney, but Sen. Kaine, the vice presidential running mate with Democratic
candidate Hillary Clinton, made it very clear recently in an exclusive
interview that the campaign is paying very close attention to the recent US
Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals ruling striking down North Carolina’s voter
photo identification law, which the three-judge panel made clear in its ruling
was geared by GOP lawmakers to suppress the African-American vote.
Republican
Gov. Pat McCrory has petitioned the US Supreme Court to stay the appellate
ruling and allow voter ID to be reinstated for the November general elections.
During their many visits to the state, both GOP presidential candidate Donald
Trump and his running mate, Indiana Gov. Mike Pence (who as in Winston-Salem
Tuesday) have come out in favor of voter ID.
Right after
the appellate ruling, Sen. Kaine, who visited Asheville, Fayetteville and
Greensboro earlier this month, said given his 17-year experience as a civil rights
attorney in Virginia and year as a Jesuit missionary under the military
dictatorship in Honduras, he was very sensitive to the voting rights struggles
of African-Americans in North Carolina.
During the interview, it was clear Kaine
has been following North Carolina’s voter ID case very closely.
“The thing that is very disturbing
in North Carolina and in many states is this concerted effort, especially since
Pres. Obama was elected in 2008, to really curtail [black voter] participation,
whether its erecting new challenges with respect to IDs, or making it harder to
register [to vote], reducing early voting,…when you see these things happen,
it’s tragic.”
Sen. Kaine, who has litigated
voting rights cases, was impressed with the appellate court’s unusual North
Carolina ruling.
“When you get a court to declare
its striking down voting restrictions because there was an intentional effort “with
surgical precision” to put up barriers [to voting] in front of
African-Americans, that is such a rare factual finding by a court. In this
case, they made a finding that it was intentional discrimination.”
Sen. Kaine said he’s been telling
North Carolina audiences “…if anybody
tells you your vote doesn’t matter, you should tell them, “it sure matters to
the other side.” A lot of folks are working hard to make it harder for you to
vote. Please value your own vote as much as somebody else values trying to stop
you.”
When asked why he feels there is a
clear choice between Clinton/Kaine versus Trump/Pence, Sen. Kaine says he boils
it down to three questions – 1) In terms of the economy, do Americans want a
“You’re hired president” or a “You’re fired president” when it comes to who has
the better plan to grow the economy and create 300,000 more jobs in North
Carolina; 2) On the international front, “do you want a trash-talker or bridge-builder?”
Clinton, as a former secretary of State and diplomat, already knows how to
build alliances with foreign leaders.
“Trump is
trash-talking everybody but [Russian Pres. Vladimir] Putin,” Sen. Kaine
maintained, noting the only foreign leader the Republican president speaks
highly of
Finally,
Kaine says character is also a deciding factor between Trump and Clinton. “Do
you want a kids-and-family first president, or a “me first president?” Kaine
asks rhetorically, noting that Clinton has been involved with children and
family issues long before she entered public life, while during his business
career, Donald Trump has rarely identified himself with a family cause or issue.
The first of three presidential
debates is Monday, Sept. 26th, followed on Tuesday, Oct. 4th
by the only vice-presidential debate between Sen. Kaine and Gov. Pence. Each
debate is scheduled to be carried live by the four major broadcast networks,
PBS, C-SPAN and the three major cable news outlets.
-30-
STATE NEWS BRIEFS FOR 08-31-16
ENROLLMENT AT
ELIZABETH CITY STATE UNIVERSITY FALLS
[ELIZABETH CITY] UNC System
President Margaret Spellings is moving quickly to address the spiraling student
enrollment at Elizabeth City State University, publish reports say. Fall enrollment
ECSU is just 1350, below the target goal of 1500. The student population there
dropped by almost 60 percent since 2010. Pres. Spellings has appointed a
working group, led by Chancellor Thomas Conway, to help ECSU rebuild its
enrollment.
FORMER HEAD OF
CHARLOTTE TEA PARTY SENTENCE FOR CHILD PORN
[CHARLOTTE]
Then former conservative leader of the Charlotte Tea Party movement, Christian
Hine, will spend two years in the S.C. Dept. of Corrections after pleading
guilty to the possession and distribution of child pornography. His attorneys
say Hine had an addiction to porn. Hine once served as the executive director
for the North Carolina Young Republicans in 2000.
GOV. PENCE SAYS THAT
“TRUMP WILL LEAD ON THE WORLD STAGE”
[WINSTON-SALEM]
Calling his running mate, Republican presidential candidate Donald trump a
“truth-teller,” Indiana Gov. Mike Pence, the GOP vice presidential candidate,
told a Winston-Salem audience Tuesday night that Trump
“will lead on the world stage” and “make America great
again.” Pence blasted President Obama for his “weak foreign policy” and
Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton for alleged corruption
through the charitable Clinton foundation.
-30-
TRIANGLE NEWS BRIEFS FOR 08-31-16
FEDERAL JUDGE DENIES
REQUEST TO REOPEN FILING PERIOD
Despite a
request by a sitting Wake County commissioner to reopen the candidate filing
period for Districts 4, 5 and 6 because she missed the deadline, a federal
judge has refused to do so, saying that the Wake Board of Elections on’t have
the time to do so before the November 8th elections. Commissioner Carol Sullivan wanted to run for
re-election fo her current district, 4. She originally filed to run for a
“super- district” the Legislature had created in Wake, but that was done away
with when the US Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled the Legislature’s
redistricting plan for Wake was unconstitutional. Sullivan says she’s now
studying her options.
FEDERAL JUDGE PROHIBITS UNC SYSTEM FROM ENFORCING HB
2
A federal judge has prohibited UNC System
schools from enforcing the controversial House Bill 2, which required people to
only use the restroom of their gender birth. Judge Thomas Schroeder ruled that
HB 2 violated
Title IX, the federal law that prohibits sex discrimination
in educational institutions. Despite their win, the three plaintiffs are
appealing to the US Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals to have all transgender
citizens of North Carolina protected
under the ruling.
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