Category: Opinion-OW

President Donald Trump’s proposed budget, titled “America First: A Budget Blueprint to Make America Great Again,” targets a number of programs for severe cuts or outright elimination—programs that often help poor, working-class and Black families.

The budget plans to cut almost $4 billion in Pell Grants. More then half of African American college students receive Pell Grant awards each year. Trump’s budget also eliminates Meals on Wheels, a program that delivers roughly 218 million meals to the poor and elderly each year, according to a Meals on Wheels fact sheet. Minorities account for nearly 30 percent of seniors that receive home-delivered meals.

Earlier this month, leaders from six civil rights groups met with Attorney General Jeff Sessions at the Justice Department to discuss a range of issues that are critical to the Black community.

The meeting was attended by Kristen Clarke, the president and executive director of the Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights under the Law; Sherrilyn Ifill, the president and director-counsel of the NAACP Legal Defense Fund; Marc Morial, the president and CEO of the National Urban League; Melanie Campbell, the president and CEO of the National Coalition on Black Civic Participation; Reverend Al Sharpton, the president of the National Action Network; and Wade Henderson, the president and CEO of the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights and The Leadership Conference Education Fund.

WASHINGTON, DC—On a day that honored a stalwart of the Black Press and saw a liaison of the Trump Administration walk out on a breakfast with members of the Black Press, it was the words of Representative Sheila Jackson Lee (D-Texas) in a university library that rang the loudest.

Rep. Jackson Lee delivered remarks on March 23 in memory of Lenora “Doll” Carter, long-time publisher of the “Houston Forward Times,” who was just enshrined in the National Newspaper Publishers Association (NNPA) Gallery of Distinguished Publishers at Howard University’s Founders Library. The enshrinement ceremony is one of the signature events of Black Press Week, an annual celebration in Washington, D.C., attended by NNPA members, partners, sponsors and Black Press contributors.

As I often say, weak people take strong positions on weak issues. Look no further than the lying mainstream media that has willfully ignored the context surrounding President Trump and his alleged Russian connections.

Anyone who has a base understanding of how intelligence works, knows that the U.S. is in the middle of one of the most public psychological operations (PSYOP) ever unleashed on America.

These operations have been part of the American fabric for decades, but never this public; and yes, America does the same thing all over the world.

Republicans haven’t shown any serious efforts of making Blacks an integral part of their party since the Nixon Administration of the 60s and 70s.
As former Nixon speechwriter Pat Buchanan stated in one of his columns, “In 1956, as vice president Nixon went to Harlem to declare, “America can’t afford the cost of segregation.” The following year, Nixon got a personal letter from Dr. King thanking him for helping to persuade the Senate to pass the Civil Rights Act of 1957. Nixon supported the Civil Rights Acts of 1964, 1965, and 1968.

Our heart is the engine that keeps our body running. That’s why problems with the heart—such as coronary artery disease, high blood pressure or heart failure—can significantly impact a person’s well-being, and, at worst, be life-threatening.
During February, American Heart Month, we were able to shine a spotlight on heart disease, the leading cause of death for men and women in the United States. For African-Americans, it’s also a time to raise awareness of how cardiovascular disease disproportionately impacts members of the Black community. Indeed, nearly half of African-American adults suffer from some form of cardiovascular disease, compared to about a third of Whites, according to the American Heart Association.