Politics of Personal Destruction 10/31/2010

This political season has produced, arguably, the most outlandish attack ads in recent history and castigated candidates at unprecedented levels. And for some, the narrative hasn’t been about opposed political ideologies and policy, but rather charges of dabbling in witchcraft, worshipping the ‘aqua Buddha’ and identifying with Marxism – all attached to the formative years of candidates.

 

To what extent should a candidate’s youthful indiscretions be measured in order to determine if they are suitable for public office?

 

I considered this question after reading a recent article in the New York Times by Gail Collins. In the column, titled ‘Department of Childish Errors’, Collins deduced a candidate deserves to be able to throw a cloak of invisibility over their past transgressions committed in college and they not become permanent impediments to a professional career.

 

While my position, essentially, is in accord with Collin’s sentiment, we both logically ask to what limit should these innocuous acts of rebellion be excused? I believe they have merit and are relevant to the current political discourse.

The fight against breast cancer perseveres 10/31/2010

For Kourtney Thomas, everyday is a celebration. The 23-year-old is a breast cancer survivor and finds pleasure in sharing her story with others.

 

Thomas noticed a lump in her right breast in March 2009 while doing her regular monthly breast self-exam at home. “My grandmother was diagnosed with breast cancer so I was aware of the possibility since it runs in my family, said the Chicago native. “I have a wonderful nurse practitioner who constantly reminded me to always do a self-exam directly after my menstrual cycle and I’m glad that I did.”

 

Upon finding the lump, Thomas immediately sought a doctor to schedule an appointment for an ultra sound. “Three days after the exam, I was diagnosed with breast cancer,” she said. “I didn’t crumble when it was confirmed because I had already cried about it and prepared myself. My mother prayed and all I wanted to do was get it taken care of so we went ahead with scheduling the lumpectomy.”

 

With a 98 percent prognosis that the cancer wouldn’t return, Thomas opted to keep her breast opposed to having it removed and tackling chemotherapy. Instead, she began radiation therapy after surgery and will undergo treatment for the next four years. “I have to take a chemo pill everyday and it’s not easy especially with the side-effects but I have to do it and keep on moving,” she said.

 

October is breast cancer awareness month and advocates, such as Thomas and Roosevelt University are helping to commemorate the occasion.

Illinois candidates outline strategies for Chicago students 10/31/2010

Creating jobs, reducing a $13 billion state budget deficit, overhauling the education system and repairing a city that’s been tainted by violence and a corrupt governor were the recurring, leading objectives at the top of candidates’ lists running in November’s midterm Election.

 

Contenders for political office, including Republican candidate for Cook County Board President, Roger Keats, laid out their plans for the state of Illinois as a number of students from several Chicago colleges and universities sat attentively in the Chicago Forum at the University of Illinois on Friday.

 

The event, hosted by The Coalition of Chicago Colleges, provided students the opportunity to meet with the candidates and discuss concerns that are essential to them.

 

“Students are at a disadvantage if we sit back and let things happens without getting involved,” said Joel Rivera, an organizer for The Coalition of Chicago Colleges.

 

Rivera, a political science and economics major at Roosevelt, implores that students hold candidates responsible. “We held this event at the perfect time so that students, whether they plan to vote or not, can become engaged and educated about those who are running for office and will ultimately make decisions upon being elected.”

 

Naturally, many questions posed to candidates from students regarded the funding of higher education.

Elections important to politicians, students 09/20/2010

In what’s gearing up to be the most important midterm election in recent history, several hotly debated issues could affect college students, especially those ready to graduate soon.

 

A bid for governor, a U.S. Senate seat and 19 House of Representatives seats are all up for stake on Election Day Nov. 2.

 

With a mass amount of issues on the table, ranging from a dire economy to proposed tax cuts, the next generation of leaders and citizens are likely to be greatly affected by the result of the election.

 

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics Illinois’ 10.3 percent unemployment rate is among the highest in the country. This undoubtedly has significance on Roosevelt University students set to graduate and embark on the job market.

 

In attempting to stress that so many issues may affect them, Roosevelt’s Student Government Association plans to help educate and empower students through the campaign period.

 

SGA president Alexander Sewell said, “We’re partnering with Equality Illinois, Rock The Vote and a host of other non-profit organizations in an operation to reach out to as many students as possible.”

A Journalist’s Perspective on Media Law & Ethics 08/24/2010

Rhonda Gillespie always knew she wanted to be a writer even before she knew what a journalist or journalism were. She gleams while describing it as a natural fit and recalling her childhood days when she fancied pen and paper to a doll. It was that fervor for the craft, that she still possesses today, which led her to pursue a career in journalism at Chicago’s Columbia College.

 

The Chicago native sharpened her skills and attained the knowledge that’s necessary for a career in the hard-hitting news media. That especially includes her awareness to the standards of the law (in terms of media) and the ability to respond to ethical matters that may emerge and very susceptible to journalists.

 

While the 13-year writing veteran asserts that the best part of her job is the managerial role as decision maker; determining what news will be disseminated to the paper’s readership, that same input also allows her to influence how she and the editorial staff responds and approach concerns that relates to law and ethics.

 

Gillespie stepped away from her duties as the news editor at the Chicago Defender, a weekly publication that primarily focuses on the African-American community, to sit down with me and discuss the importance and adherence to law and ethics in the field of journalism.

Student Loan Legislation: What It Means For You 08/24/2010

The Obama administration has signed a new student loan overhaul into legislation that will expand college access for millions of young Americans and sure to impact Roosevelt students.

 

While the legislation doesn’t take effect until 2014, the revamping of the program will constitute three significant factors which include: the elimination of private banks as a way to finance college education; an expansion of more than 820,000 Pell grants that will assist low-income students; and place a 10 percent cap on the monthly repayment of student loans.

 

In today’s dire recession jobs are becoming less and less available as college graduates prepare to step out into the real world and pink slips are being distributed more often. This creates an influx of students immediately pursuing graduate school and adults making a transition from the workplace to the classroom.

 

The intervening of the government has generated the most buzz for the bill. According to a New York Times article, private banks and financial institutions such as Sallie Mae, the nation’s largest student lender, will no longer act as intermediaries in providing subsidized loans to college students. Rather, the federal government will regulate as borrowers and directly facilitate student aid.

 

The Obama administration expects taxpayers will save $68 billion in the coming years by eliminating the fees paid to banks and other companies. That money will then be allocated to assist with the other benefits of the bill; additional Pell grants and a reduced cap on repayments.

 

However, critics of the bill argue this will essentially hurt the economy by further attributing to the high unemployment rate. Sallie Mae already anticipates imminent layoffs as a result of the new legislation; foreseeing its work force being slashed to 2,500 from 8,600. In addition, questions are being raised about the U.S. Department of Education’s ability to lend to millions of students.

Inaugural of President Obama 08/24/2010

January 20^th, 2009 Washington DC

My earliest memory of a presidential inauguration is Maya Angelou’s lucid voice ceremoniously delivering “On The Pulse of Morning”. 1993, the year I turned nine and my interest with dolls took a backseat to my newly found fascination with books. In retrospect, I now realize that I didn’t fully grasp how much significance that moment held and was bigger than my naïve perception of my favorite author gracing the podium with words of encouragement for our newest leader. I would later learn to appreciate that day for reasons that were then inconceivable and beyond the psyche of a nine year old.

 

The appointing of a new president is a transition in history that generations for centuries would look back on. More importantly, it possesses the power to revolutionize America’s story unlike anything or anyone else. If never before was that true, this year would shed light on just how influential evolution really was.  In this year, the nation’s 44^th president would also be the first elected African American. Republican or Democrat, black or white, old or young, rich or poor … the world knew Barack Obama’s inauguration would be unprecedented and at the age of twenty four, fifteen years after my first glance of tradition that goes back to Abraham’s Lincoln own induction in 1865 where blacks would first be allowed to march in the parade, I now fully realized how profound a moment it would be and from it, I would capture much more just a few stanzas from a poem.

 

My journey to Washington would first begin with a bit of pessimism and setbacks that I would spend all morning trying to work through before making my way to DC. Initially brought on by inadvertent cynicism from radio and TV personalities coupled with people around me; the speculation surrounding the inaugural events were if you didn’t have a ticket, it’d be better to stay home rather than descend upon a city that was expecting over a million tourists and record cold temperatures for the month of January. While those forewarnings would raise red flags for many with much cause to adhere to, I’ve never been the one to back down from anything; my thought process has always been to make decisions I’d never come to regret.

A New America 06/16/2010

November 4th, 2008; The day America was revolutionized.

In a millisecond, we all can recall where we were the night Barack Obama was elected President. Just as my grandmother can quickly bring to mind her whereabouts the day Martin Luther King declared he had been to the mountaintop and saw the promise land. Two moments. Two generations. Two men. But somehow, so closely related.

On March 31, 1870, Thomas Mundy Peterson of Perth Amboy, NJ, became the first African American to vote in an election. The provisions of the Fifteenth Amendment under the Constitution allowed him to do so. Two years later, Frederick Douglass would become the first African American nominated as Vice President on a political ticket. For the next 100 years, moments alike would be written into American history that would revolutionize the country and have an even greater impact on the landscape of African Americans in politics. Moments before my time that I would only read about.

Moments such as the one in 1944 when Adam Clayton Powell was sworn in as the first African American congressman and in 1965 when civil rights activist Martin Luther King Jr. looked on, elated, as President Lyndon Johnson signed the National Voting Rights Act. Those moments further propelled into Carl Stokes being elected the first African American mayor of a major city (Cleveland) in 1967 and Shirley Chisholm, not only becoming the first African American woman candidate for President in 1968, but also the first elected to Congress in 1972. Change was brought about in each of these sectors but there was still a somewhat unspoken skepticism about the possibility of an African American attaining what Lincoln, Roosevelt and Kennedy had; the highest office of any land – the presidency. Despite the qualms that existed, one couldn’t help but visualize how profound a moment it could be and the emotions it would stir. But sooner than we knew, our imaginations would no longer have to envision that great possibility.

Essence Young Women Leadership Conference 06/16/2010

Saturday, November 1 2008; Atlanta, GA

One of the many reasons I love Essence magazine is because their connection with the African American woman is sometimes hard to find on a newsstand flooded with what seems to be everything we can’t relate to. Whether it’s an auto magazine introducing the latest invention for men to make a fuss about, the image of a sultry vixen flaunting her goods on the cover of KING magazine for men to salivate over or even America’s most celebrated athlete adorning eight gold medals on the cover of Sports Illustrated. While the latter gives reason for any American to celebrate, it still lacks the ingredients of a full recipe for a black woman’s taste. Essence is able to fulfill our appetite because their offerings are endless and goes beyond the cover  and inside pages. Essence is building an infrastructure that transcends from just a publication but to a social foundation where women find a common ground and a spiritual connection that cultivates within our own community.

When my college friend Kim called to inform me about the Essence Young Women Leadership Conference, it didn’t take a “Let me get back to you” before I agreed on the 3 1/2 hour drive from Columbia, South Carolina to Atlanta, Georgia. Without the slightest regard to what I may have had scheduled that weekend, I quickly went onto Essence.com to register for the conference leaving no room for hesitation. In this unstable economy, some would say that $35 could have gone in my gas tank but while gas depreciates in a matter of days, the invaluable information I knew this conference would afford me was infinite. Just as I know I’ll open my mailbox every month to find the latest issue that is worthy of my subscription, I knew this conference would fit the bill. More than that, it lived up to the name; the Essence name and the brand it has become.

Economy creates more students 06/16/2010

Bernard Cox spent the past eight years in Philadelphia as a branch manager in the banking industry. However, he always had the intention to return to school when the time was right, Cox said.

 

When his fiancé was offered a job in Chicago, Cox resigned from the company, relocated and enrolled at Roosevelt University; he is pursuing a Master of Fine Arts degree and plans on becoming a teacher. While returning to school for some might seem like a big risk,

 

Cox said the economy’s downturn also affected his decision to enroll: “I knew it was a good time when people started getting laid off.”

 

Cox is just one of many working professionals taking action against the cloud of uncertainty by returning to school. According to the Bureau of Labor, job openings for Ph.D. holders are most likely to witness significant growth, a 21.6 percent rise in a 10 year period from 2006 to 2016. Demand for Master’s degree holders is expected to rise by 18.7 and 18.9 percent, correspondingly, during the same period.

 

For a working professional juggling several commitments, the primary factor that creates a daunting attitude about returning to the classroom is financial stability. That’s understandable considering the majority of higher education is financed by loans. This possibly means plunging into further debt post graduation. For Cox, debt was a concern but he also took the necessary measures to avoid that happening. “Prior to moving from Philadelphia, we saved. Not only for a home but also to assist with funding my education,” Cox said. Cox’s approach is just one of the many options to consider for this transition.