By Chinta Strausberg

Hundreds braved the chilly weather and attended the Chicago Voices For Peace rally Saturday held at the James R. Thompson Center where more than a dozen talented Spoken Word artists dissected violence along with Father Michael L. Pfleger and award-winning actor Harry Lennix who called for an end to violence and a restoration of peace.

Their melodious Spoken Word artists voices rang throughout the Thompson Center and did so in a very rhythmically way aimed at educating people about the importance of restoring peace to communities that are stifled by self-hated, misguided trigger-happy youth and draped with “landmarks” of yellow police tape, Teddy Bears and artistic signs of R.I.P.

Pfleger thanked the crowd for coming out in the cool weather but he said the children are worth the effort and the deceased should be honored and never forgotten.

“Maybe we should be a little cold. Maybe we should be a little bit uncomfortable because it’s a cold and uncomfortable day for parents today who buried their children. Every day is a cold and uncomfortable day, not just in the fall and the winter,” said Pfleger.“

“It’s a cold and uncomfortable day for the genocide that is going on in this country, not in Rwanda, not in Darfur, but right here in America where black and brown children are dying on our streets and nobody seems to care because they said it’s black and brown children,” he said “If ten children on the north shore were killed last week, there would be a different reaction in this country.

“It’s a cold and uncomfortable day for children who are afraid to go to school every day or back and forth to their classrooms and wondering if they would get home safely or even if they could be in their home and be shot that night,” said Pfleger.

“It’s a cold and uncomfortable day when so many of our neighborhoods their landmarks are Teddy Bears, yellow police tape and balloons where somebody got shot last week or last night or last month and we’ve seen our classroom desks empty where somebody used to sit. You talk about post-traumatic stress….

“It’s not just coming back from the war overseas. It’s a war that goes on here in America against our children. The only problem is because this is not declared money for it. If we declared that there is a war on our children or there is a war on poverty, if we declared that, we’d have some money put in to try and stop it in this country but we don’t care,” bellowed Pfleger.

“It’s a cold day and uncomfortable day for those last night that slept under bridges and viaducts on 18th Street and Lower Wacker,” he said. “The thing is after this is over with, we can go back home,, but the people who lost their children, their children ain’t coming home and the people under the viaduct don’t have a home to go back to,” Pfleger said thanking the audience for coming.

“We will not be silent. We will not be immune. We will not get used to children dying,” he led the audience in a chant. “We will fight. We will shout, and we will work until every neighborhood is safe, our children are safe and can grow up and become what God called them to be. Stop this madness. Stop the violence. Save our children,” Pfleger said. “We will not forget them. They were shot like animals in this country.”

A native of Chicago who grew up in South Shore and taught at the Bass Elementary School at 66th and Racine in Englewood, award-winning actor and producer Harry Lennix attended the rally to give the youth hope.

Lennix told this writer, “Every year we would lose a child through violence. Senseless violence in terms of random bullets at times scattering, shooting the crowd and kind of thoughtless, reckless disregard for life and I think that comes from a lack of knowledge….

“Anything that I can do to address that, anything that I can say to give a word of encouragement for people to feed the ability in themselves, that I think we ought to make every opportunity to do so and that is why I am here today,” said Lennix.

And, the Spoken Word artists echoed similar sentiments but in a very talented way. Introduced by Mack Julion, the M.C., the first act was the World Premier Team. Dressed in blue, the youth showed off their gymnastic talents. The others had a clear anti-violence message and a list of consequences they say will ensue if the shooting doesn’t stop.

Rhymefest  had just returned from L.A. to his community in Woodlawn.  In 10-days,  he said 9 people had been killed “outside of my doorstep, four of them right in front of my house. These are people who’re getting it on the backend. We can get justice on the front end,” hes aid.

Explaining how in the entertainment field a person can get paid on the front end or the back end,  Rhymefest said in life the front end ”looks like a good education. It looks like staying out of the prison industrial complex. It looks like family. A lot of us are harboring the person who is going to shoot the next person.

“Now, you know your son has a gun. You know your daughter is hanging with the drug dealer, but you’re not doing anything about it thinking it’s not going to affect you in your home but guess what you’re going to get it on the back end.

“We’re going to get what we deserve on the front end and the front end is staying away from the back end because the back end is going to prison. The back end is deaths in our community. The back end is losing our love ones. The back end is seeing a child, your sister, your brother die in the streets like a dog.

“We deserve justice on the front end,” said Rhymefest. “Justice on the front end does not come from the fifth floor of that building,” he said pointing to City Hall. “Justice on the front end starts in your house. Justice on the front end starts in your school, and stop calling your community your hood…. It’s your village and you have to walk through it like a village.”

Rhymefest said there are things that are happening in his community he doesn’t agree with like “selling Shisha Sweets out of the cheeseburger shop. That is disrespectful to our community.” While he says people tell him they don’t shop in the neighborhood, he said, “but you live in the neighborhood; so when your child dies from the conditions that are set in a neighborhood that you don’t do anything about, you are, in effect, responsible for your own child’s death.

“If you let that death happen on the front end, if you don’t do anything about the conditions on the front end, it’s always going to hit you in the butt,” he stated Other Spoken Word artists had a similar message.

Awthentik, a popular Spoken Word artist, broke it down saying, “It seems like our young boys can’t see they are still in slavery although they work long hours outside in the heat with cotton on their backs, big chains around their necks as they join together singing the latest Negro rap lyric, no education and living in a run down apartment shacks. You see, we’re a lost generation and understand nothing to the fullest and it’s sad because the only thing getting through these kid’s heads today is bullets.

“They come up with this American dream but how are we suppose to dream but how are we suppose to dream when our dreams got nightmares, when our hopes got insecurities…. How am I suppose to dream when I can’t even sleep because where I am from it’s hard to rest with police sirens fill the streets, when the yells and screams of hatred cloud our airways and tears come so often that they begin to drown in the face and the Statute of Liberty is drained…meaning justice and liberty to everybody with a fortune.

“And there are a lot of teenagers pregnant with dreams but life is handing out abortions….. “ While the rich gets richer, she said the poor “stay locked behind poverty bars. We get hated on, discriminated against because our income is too low.

“As I go through life watching suburban kids turn up their nose once I tell them I’m from the West Side of Chicago, school counselors tell me my performance in school is going to be affected because I’m from a one-parent household, crack heads come up to me because I’m 22 asking me do I smoke blows.  Naw, I’m selling dreams….
“And, I’m OK being from the dirty West Side because dirt is the only way a rose can grow and sometimes keeping my head up above water gets hard but water is the only way the ship can row. Many problems is the only way a human can flow and the percentage of black college graduates is low which is sadly because today the new style is you drop out of high school, get pregnant just to keep your daddy’s baby so I’ve come to give sight to a blind generation and to expose the truth of society and the nations…. “

“Today, the value of a woman is in her full hips and the man ain’t unless you pop the full clip….” Awthentik said it’s a risk to go to school because classes are cut
and we can’t move forward because this generation is stuck. These kids is X because some households have no moms and dads and we can’t live Dr. King’s dream because look at the war Willie Lynch had…..”

And, there were other Spoken Word artists like K-Love, Def Poet M’Reld, Deana Dean, Mel Rob, Celeste Che “Rhymefest” Smith, a Grammy nominated hip-hop artist. Also speaking was V-103’s Tony Schofield both of whom called for an end to the violence that is taking the lives of so many children.

The Urban Dolorosa, multi-cultural movement aimed at uniting Chicago’s communities especially those hot spots where children have been killed by violence. The purpose is to have a “memorial pilgrimage…to stand together to remember the children killed” by the senseless violence that is giving this city a black eye.

Memorial events to honor children killed by violence will be held on: Nov. 1st, 7 p.m. at Saint Sabina, 1210 W. 78th Place, Nov. 2, 5:30 p.m., Chicago Temple, 77 W. Washington, Nov. 3rd, 7 p.m., New Mount Pilgrim, 4301 W. Washington, Nov. 4th, 7 p.m., Holy Cross, 46th and Hermitage, and Nov. 6th, 5:30 p.m. at the Hyde Park Union Church, 5600 S. Woodlawn.

Photo Caption: “We will not be silent. We will not be immune. We will not get used to children dying,” he led the audience in a chant. “We will fight. We will shout, and we will work until every neighborhood is safe, our children are safe and can grow up and become what God called them to be. Stop this madness. Stop the violence. Save our children,” “We will not forget them. They were shot like animals in this country,” said Father Michael L. Pfleger.

HARRY LENNIX: “What our children need is knowledge.”

Mothers who lost their children to violence listened intently at more than a dozen Spoken Word artists who called for an end to violence and a restoration of peace.

Che ‘Rhymefest’ Smith:

“Now, you know your son has a gun. You know your daughter is hanging with the drug dealer, but you’re not doing anything about it thinking it’s not going to affect you in your home but guess what you’re going to get it on the back end,” said Rhymefest.

Photo Caption: By Chinta Strausberg

Chinta Strausberg is a Journalist of more than 33-years, a former political reporter and a current PCC Network talk show host.  You can e-mail Strausberg at: Chintabernie@aol.com.

“Ten years of war is ten too many,” say protesters. Speakers to include key field organizer for late Mayor Harold Washington

Chicago, IL – Peace protesters will kick-off the run-up to a noon protest on Saturday marking ten years of war in Afghanistan with a Thursday, October 6, press conference at 10:30 a.m., and a two-day pre-anniversary vigil at Obama national campaign headquarters, located at 130 E. Randolph in Chicago’s Prudential Building.

Speakers will include Black Agenda Report editor Bruce Dixon, who was a key field organizer in the late Chicago Mayor Harold Washington’s first successful bid for the city’s top elected seat, as well as Mary Dean of Voices for Creative Non-Violence who has recently returned from Afghanistan, lawyer Len Goodman, a Guantanamo defense attorney, and Vicki Cervantes of La Voz de los de Abajo.

Protesters are demanding an end to the Afghanistan war, which marks its tenth anniversary this month – the longest war in America’s history, and a conflict that has taken the lives of thousands of Afghani civilians and cost hundreds of billions of US tax dollars. Actions are being planned to mark the grim anniversary across the country and around the world, from London and Sydney, Australia to Washington DC and San Francisco. 

Polls show that most Afghanis want the U.S. to leave -– and most Americans agree. Activists decry the resources spent on the military to bankroll conflicts like the Afghanistan war – as much as the rest of the world combined,  67% of the federal budget, nearly double what was spent before 9/11, at the same time that politicians of both parties say government must cut Social Security, Medicare and public workers’ wages to fix the economy.

Protesters chose the Obama 2012 National Campaign Headquarters to jumpstart a two-day peace vigil calling for an end to the Afghanistan conflict because the Obama administration has moved slowly to end US conflicts in the Middle East, dramatically escalated drone attacks in Pakistan and Afghanistan, parroted the Bush administration’s repressive assaults on civil liberties, privatized the war in Iraq at little reduction in cost while leaving tens of thousands of troops on the ground, and constantly delayed withdrawal from Afghanistan – all broken promises activists say the country can neither afford financially nor tolerate morally.

More than sixty peace groups have endorsed the Saturday Chicago protest and march, including the Occupy Chicago protest in the heart of Chicago’s financial district, which was jump-started in solidarity with the Occupy Wall Street movement that began two weeks ago in New York. Protesters from Saturday’s march plan to join Occupy Chicago picketers at the conclusion of their action.

Springfield, IL – Illinois Republican Party Chairman Pat Brady said winning the Congressional seat being vacated by Rep. Jerry Costello (D-12) will be one of the party’s top priorities in 2012.

“The district has been trending Republican for several years,” said Brady. “With (Republican) Bobby Schilling defeating (Democrat) Phil Hare last year, the Illinois Republican Party has been making huge gains in downstate Illinois and, with Pat Quinn, Mike Madigan, John Cullerton and Barack Obama leading the Democratic Party, we will continue to do so.”

Schilling defeated Hare in the 17th Congressional District last year, a district that had not been won by a Republican since 1980. Additionally, Republicans won a state senate seat in downstate Illinois that had not been held by the GOP since 1975.

In 2010, Costello’s district was won by Republican Senate Candidate Mark Kirk and Gubernatorial Candidate Bill Brady and in 2004 by President George W. Bush. In 2008, Obama received a lower percentage of the vote in the district than Kirk or Brady did in 2010.

Noting that he was ready to move on, Congressman Jerry Costello (D-12) announced yesterday (10/4/2011) that he would not seek re-election to the seat next year. Costello has held the seat since 1988 and is currently the senior Democrat on the House’s Transportation and Infrastructure Committee.

New America Media

By Earl Ofari Hutchinson

This week, GOP presidential candidate Herman Cain dredged up the stock GOP racial attack canard that blacks are brainwashed into blindly backing the Democrats. Pat Robertson wasted no time in jumping in and agreeing with Cain. He added the other stock GOP hit piece that the Democrats practice a modern day form of plantationism by keeping the black vote in perpetual lock down mode.

Cain and Robertson’s point is that blacks have supposedly been so one dimensional in backing the Democrats that they are blind to the fact that the Democrats for the past nearly six decades have promised blacks everything, and delivered almost nothing.

Blacks still have the highest failed public schools, unemployment, poverty, mortality, and incarceration rates. The Congressional Black Caucus have certainly not been shy about prodding President Obama in the past year to do more, much more, to combat the colossal program of black joblessness and poverty.

But they can do that and know that they’ll still get a listen from Obama and the Democrats. Blacks know that the same can’t be said of the GOP.

The GOP’s long, blatant, and infuriating history of racial exclusion, neglect and race baiting, and polarization has insured that the door remains tightly slammed to any kind of dissent or complaint or appeals from blacks to address their issues. Endless foot-in-the-mouth, racially-insulting gaffes, racially-loaded campaign ads by Republican officials and politicians, and the refusal by mainstream GOP leaders to loudly condemn them, ignore, downplay, or worse defend them hasn’t helped.

The endless racist taunts, mockery, depictions, and ridicule of President Obama has been a textbook example of how a party that claims to want to break the clamp that the Democrats have on the black vote does everything to ensure that the Democratic clamp is even tighter.

Cain doesn’t help his case for de-brainwashing blacks. His positions on the issues are well-known: federal taxes and government services (virtually none), labor unions (further weaken their power), health care reform law (repeal it), Social Security and Medicare (massive privatization), education, (vouchers, school choice), and financial reform (calls it “deform” and says we should untie corporations’ hands).

For the majority of African-Americans, working class, and poor, this would ensure even more poverty, need, and even speedier erosion of their hard won gains of the past two decades. It doesn’t take brainwashing to realize this. This is pure, pragmatic self-interest, and that’s the driving force of politics.

Despite the shots they take at the Democrats for taking them and their vote for granted, most blacks still look to them to fight the tough battles for health care, greater funding for education and jobs, voting rights protections, affirmative action, and against racial discrimination. And then there is their retrograde nominees to the Supreme Court appointments — Clarence Thomas being the Gold standard of proof of that — that would roll back the civil rights clock, and peck away at affirmative action, civil rights and civil liberties protections.

The GOP understands the fundamental political axiom that self-interest rules politics as well, if not better, than the Democrats. Party leaders have long known that blue collar white voters, especially male voters, can be easily aroused to vote and shout loudly on the emotional wedge issues; abortion, family values, anti-gay marriage and tax cuts.

For months, they whipped up their hysteria and borderline racism against health care reform. This was glaringly apparent in ferocity and bile spouted by the shock troops that the GOP leaders in conjunction with the tea baggers brought out to harangue, harass and bully Democratic legislators on the eve of the health care vote. These are the very voters that GOP presidents and aspiring presidents, Nixon, Reagan, Bush Sr. and W. Bush, and John McCain and legions of GOP governors, senators and congresspersons banked on for victory and to seize and maintain regional and national political dominance.

Even in losing presidential election years for GOP presidential candidates Bob Dole in 1996 and McCain in 2008, Republicans would not have been competitive without the bail out from white male voters. The political facts for the GOP remain unchanged. Elections are usually won by candidates with a solid and impassioned core of bloc voters. White males, particularly older white males, vote consistently and faithfully. And they voted in a far greater percentage than Hispanics and blacks.

The November 2010, mid-term elections again proved that point with a vengeance. The Tea Party engineered a political palace revolt against the GOP mainstream establishment defeated some GOP incumbents in the primaries, and they did it with one message to the party: move even further to the right on the issues or suffer the consequences. The GOP mainstream leaders got the message. If Cain even dared utter anything that could remotely be considered a moderate position on Social Security, taxes or the unions, he and his candidacy would be DOA in the GOP.

Cain knows full well that a jibe here and there at blacks for their supposed slavish loyalty to the Democrats won’t change anything as long as the GOP remains the racial code spewing, government and labor bashing, and anti-civil rights party it has relentlessly been the past half century. But then again Cain wouldn’t be where he is if it wasn’t.

Atlanta, GA – (BlackNews.com) Reverend Dr. Joseph E. Lowery to celebrate his 90th Birthday with a musical tribute fundraiser featuring Stevie Wonder, Jennifer Holliday, Peabo Bryson, Tremaine Hawkins, Cicely Tyson and more.

The Joseph E. Lowery Institute for Justice and Human Rights presents “His Words – Our Gift”, a musical and theatrical experience, in celebration of the 90th birthday of legendary civil and human rights pioneer Reverend Dr. Joseph E. Lowery.

The event will be hosted by CNN anchor Soledad O’Brien, and will include performances by the Stevie Wonder, Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, Jennifer Holliday, the Blind Boys of Alabama, Cicely Tyson, Tramaine Hawkins, Peabo Bryson, Dawnn Lewis and other special guests.

Tickets are available for $100, $75 and $50 at the Woodruff Arts Center Box Office and online at www.loweryinstitute.org or call 404-733-5000. Event proceeds will benefit the Lowery Institute.

The event will be held Sunday, October 9, 2011, 6:00 p.m., at Atlanta’s Symphony Hall, Woodruff Arts Center, 1280 Peachtree Street, Atlanta, GA

The Joseph E. Lowery Institute for Justice and Human Rights joined by presenting sponsors Delta Air Lines, Coca Cola Company and Kia Motors, Inc.

About the Joseph E. Lowery Institute for Justice and Human Rights:
The mission of the Institute is to provide an opportunity for students, teachers, workers, professionals, managers, executives, advocates, elected officials, scholars, clergy, and laypersons to benefit from examples of nonviolent advocacy, and for exploration of the moral, ethical, and theological imperatives for justice and human rights for all people. www.loweryinstitute.org

Cook County State’s Attorney Anita Alvarez congratulates officers from the Sheriff’s Police Department who recently received a commendation from Cook County Crime Stoppers for their outstanding work in DUI enforcement.

Pictured, left to right, are:  Officer Tony Wasco, State’s Attorney Alvarez, Officer Paul Cox and Officer Bill Pelarenos.

The awards were presented at the Crime Stoppers Annual Awards Dinner where law enforcement officers are recognized for exemplary work.

Appointments to commission responsible for considering and authorizing charters on appeal

Springfield, IL – The Illinois State Board of Education (ISBE) has approved nine members to the Illinois’ newly-established State Charter School Commission. The commission is responsible for authorizing high-quality charter schools throughout  Illinois, particularly schools designed to expand opportunities for at-risk students.  

“These nine individuals  provide a diverse range of expertise and real world experience that will serve our state and schools well as they consider appeals for local charter schools,’’ said Illinois State Board of Education Chairman Gery J. Chico. “These Commission members will help ensure that Charter School applicants receive thorough consideration and review and that the most high quality Charter schools are established for students across the state. 

The State Charter School Commission, established in legislation passed earlier this year, will be primarily charged with considering the appeals of charter agreements and proposals that have been denied, revoked, or not renewed by a local school board and authorizing quality charter school applications and denying inadequate applications. Additionally, the commission must monitor the performance and legal compliance of charter schools authorized by the commission and determine if each school merits renewal, nonrenewal or revocation.

“I am excited the Governor and Illinois State Board of Education have moved expeditiously to appoint Commission members and look forward to the beginning of this critical work,” said State Senator Heather Steans, D-Chicago, sponsor of the legislation that established the Commission.

 The following members have been approved by the ISBE Board to serve on the nine-member commission:

1. Glen Barton, former Chairman and CEO, Caterpillar Inc., Peoria

1. Sean Denney, lobbyist, Illinois Education Association, Evanston

1. Jaime Guzman, Chief Advisor to the Board of Trustees, City Colleges of Chicago, Chicago

1. Mike Jacoby, Executive Director, Illinois Association of School Business Officials, DeKalb 

1. Greg Richmond, President & CEO, National Association of Charter School Authorizers, Chicago

1. Angela Renee Rudolph, Program Officer, Joyce Foundation 

1. Paul Swanstrom, former Superintendent, Joliet Township High School District 204, Crete.

1. Patricia Van Pelt-Watkins, Executive Director, TARGET Area Development Corp., Chicago

1. Rudy Valdez, General Manager – Asia Programs, Hamilton Sunstrand Corp., Rockford

The State Charter School Commission is currently unfunded but may charge a school that it authorizes an administrative fee, not to exceed three percent of the revenue provided to the school. The commission is also charged, on a biennial basis, with producing a report on best practices in charter school authorizing, including evaluating applications, oversight and renewal of charter schools.

Commission members will serve on staggered terms of office beginning with initial 2-, 3-and 4-year terms (after which all terms will be 4 years). Their terms are scheduled to begin November 1, 2011. The ISBE Board recommended that Greg Richmond chair the Commission.

Will call the Cardinal if Father Atoyebi is a no show 

By Chinta Strausberg

Residents are anxiously awaiting a Saturday, October 15^th Greater Chatham Alliance meeting where they’re hoping Father John Atoyebi will keep his promise and explain why he “secretly” and without their knowledge or consent placed an alternative school inside of the St Clotilde Elementary School which is causing a quiet storm in this middle-class South Side neighborhood.

There are still more questions than answers for residents of Chatham who are still doing a slow burn after Father Atoyebi, who heads both the St. Clotilde Parish and the Holy Angels Church, placed the Richard Milbourn alternative school, located in the 8400 block of South Calumet, inside of St. Cotilde without first meeting with them.

According to Alderman Roderick Sawyer (6^th), the alternative school accepts students from the 6-12^th grade, had moved into St. Clotilde Elementary School located on the 8400 block of South Calumet. Sawyer said he was not contacted by the administrators of the school prior to its placement inside St. Clotilde School.

Echoing similar sentiments was Roosevelt Vonil, president of the Greater Chatham Alliance, who said the meeting will begin this Saturday at 11 a.m., 8000 S. Michigan Avenue, and that anyone can attend, but he emphasized the importance of Father Atoyebi’s presence at that meeting.

“My concern is that this move was done in a secretive manner, and I’m concerned about the type of students enrolled in this school,” Vonil said. He said since no one including Ald. Sawyer knew about the move, “it was apparently a secretive move and we are already experiencing crime and break-ins right now. We are concerned about the quality or kind of students who could contribute to that factor.

“Everybody I talk to say the same thing about Father Atoyebi that he does what he wants to do and do so with an arrogant approach. Whether that is true or not, that is the perception people have of Father John. He needs to be at this meeting Saturday to explain why didn’t he touch base with the people who are affected by this move before he placed this alternative school in our community,” said Vonil.

“It was Father John who did this which is why he needs to be present at this meeting,” he said. “He would not have done this in Hyde Park, in Bridgeport or Beverly; so why would he try to make a move on us like this without first talking to us? Chatham is no community to do this to. We are high vote getters. We actively care about our community.

Making his position crystal clear, Vonil said, “No one is against a second chance for a child. We know anybody can make a mistake, but it’s like bringing somebody to my house and leaving him there when you know this is a trouble child. We are upset about it and rightfully so,” Vonil stated.

“Bringing this alternative school to Chatham just potentially compounds this problem,” he said. ‘We have had problems with crime like garages broken in; homes broken into one time while the occupants were inside. We’ve had people steal our air-conditioners, and one police officer’s home has been broke into twice within a three-year period. One of those times, a neighbor held the person until the police came.

“I hope Father John has the courage to come to this meeting” said Vonil. “I think they realize this is a problem and may not have known the amount of opposition to this alternative school. This is a thesis done without the research by CPS because someone should have at least checked with the alderman. Father John and the Archdiocese should have run this first by the community.”

Vonil asked, “Why didn’t they put a charter school there? If Father John doesn’t come to this meeting, then I will be in contact with the Archdiocese and the bishop,” said Vonil. “The word is among the people involved that this behavior he has towards the community” is unacceptable and “he will not get away with that in our community.”

“We’re trying to see if this school is being properly monitored, but we also want to make sure this never happens again. If it presents a problem to our community, then there will be a showdown,” he vowed.

“Doing this to our community is like the Archdiocese throwing mud into the face of the parents who have and are sending their children to St. Clotilde. This was the Archdiocese’ membership base in Chatham. They are betraying the same people who were part of the whole (Catholic) system,” Vonil said.

Ald. Sawyer emphasized that no one is trying to throw these students out of school but added, “The people who made the decision should have been forthright about what they did.”

After receiving more than 50 calls from irate constituents, Ald. Sawyer said he met with Father Atoyebi and when asked why he didn’t run this idea by him and/or the community, said, “he told me that based on his prior experiences with the Chatham community, he didn’t think they would support his plan.”

What ever the rationale was for moving the alternative school into St. Clotilde, Sawyer said, “It was done with total disrespect to the community. We should have been given a heads up even if I could not have stopped it.”

Since the move, Sawyer said the Chicago Public School (CPS) “was very apologetic” and had explained that the move was an emergency. Sawyer said CPS officials would be at Saturday’s meeting.

“I am satisfied that it is progressing,” said Sawyer. “These kids are trying to make their lives better. I don’t want to blame the school or the students but rather the people who made this decision.”

Ald. Roderick Sawyer (6^th) was shocked to learn that an alternative school that accepts expelled students had been secretly moved into a Catholic school located in his ward without his knowledge, but he confirmed the administrators responsible for this move have agreed to attend the upcoming community meeting to give a “full accounting” of their actions.

The controversial move from Holy Angels to the St. Clotilde Elementary School, located in the 8400 block of South Calumet, will lead the topic of discussion at the Saturday, October 15^th meeting of the Greater Chatham Alliance headed by Roosevelt Vonil who is the president.

Having just arrived home from a vacation around September 2^nd, a stunned Sawyer said his chief of staff gave him the startling news. “I was only gone for four-days and nobody told us anything,” said Sawyer. “The neighbors caught wind of the move and called his office. “We didn’t have a clue” about the placement of these students into St. Clotilde, said Sawyer.

After contacting a few community representatives in the ward, Sawyer said they too didn’t know that the Richard Milbourn School, which is an alternative safe educational facility that according to Sawyer accepts students from the 6-12^th grade, had moved into St. Clotilde Elementary School located on the 8400 block of South Calumet.

“An Alternative Safe school is a school for students who have been expelled from their primary school, but have not yet exhausted their options for returning to their home school,” wrote Sawyer in a letter to his constituents and the media.

“This facility keeps these students anywhere between 45 days and 2 years.  The school had approximately 35 students when I met with the Administrator on September 12^th, and can potentially house as many as 115 students.  The middle school aged students are bused to and from the school and the high school age students must take public transportation to get to the school.  Security officials are posted at the bus stops in the morning.”

Having learned that Father John Atoyebi had approved the move, Sawyer reached out to the priest and toured the facility.  While Sawyer has no fault with the school, he said, “I am not at all faulting the school or the administrators of the school. The problem is the way in which it was done. It was done with total disrespect to the community.

“Even if you felt this was what you were going to do, at least give us a heads up so that we can inform the community what was coming even if I could not have stopped it. I would at least like to know what’s coming into our community so the neighbors would have an opportunity to know as well,” said the alderman.

Sawyer said Father Atoyebi feared the community would not be supportive of him having once been “nasty” to him when he once tried to put a school at St. Clotilde. “I told Father Atoyebi he would have been wise to let me know.” Sawyer just wanted to know who was running the school and its program.

The alternative school was moved from Holy Angels to St. Clotilde headed by Father Atoyebi who heads two parishes.

Father Atoyebi did not return this writer’s calls.

Chinta Strausberg is a Journalist of more than 33-years, a former political reporter and a current PCC Network talk show host. You can e-mail Strausberg at: Chintabernie@aol.com.

By Chinta Strausberg 

All are invited to Rev. Jesse L. Jackson, Sr.’s 70^th birthday party, dubbed “Milestones and Memories,” Saturday, October 8, 2011, 9 a.m. to 11 a.m. at the Rainbow PUSH Coalition headquarters, 930 E. 50^th St., Chicago, Illinois, where he will re-launch a ‘War on Poverty.’

Besides birthday cake for the 70-year-old civil rights leader, officials from the Greater Chicago Food Depository will be on hand to distribute 500 food baskets for those labeled “food insecure” based on data released from the Depository.

Rev. Dr. Attorney Janette Wilson, executive director of PUSH, is asking the public to mobilize 70 people who are “food insecure” to receive a food basket this Saturday.

She’s also asking for donations from $100 to $1,000 to buy food for the 500 needy families. During the broadcast, many will praise Jackson for his long civil rights record and to show his life and works during a 50-year span.

Rev. Jackson was born on October 8, 1941 in Greenville, S.C., he attended the University of Illinois on a football scholarship but later transferred to North Carolina A&T State University where he graduated in 1964. Jackson went on to attend the Chicago Theological Seminary and joined the civil rights movement in 1965 as a full-time participant working with Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

On June 30, 1968, Jackson was ordained by Rev. Clay Evans who headed the Fellowship MBC. Jackson earned his Master of Divinity degree from the Chicago Theological Seminary in 2000.

With 50-years of public service under his belt, Rev. Jackson is still going strong, still fighting for justice for all people, still battling for human rights and economic justice nationally and globally and still one of the nation’s greatest civil rights leaders in America.

We thank Rev. Jackson for the many personal sacrifices he has made on behalf of this nation and the world sacrifices like: being arrested many times in 1960 fighting for equal accommodations in the south including being arrested for trying to use the library which was part of his work as a lead organizer for the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) and for his work as Special Envoy of the President and Secretary of State where he worked for the promotion of democracy in Africa.

We thank you, Rev. Jackson for negotiating the release of Navy Lt. Robert Goodman, Jr. who along with Lt. Mark Lang, was shot down in Beirut, Lebanon. Lang died and Goodman reportedly suffered three broken ribs and other injuries.

Despite a reluctant White House and President Ronald Reagan being against Jackson’s trip to Syria to negotiate the release of Goodman, Jackson went anyway and won his release after taking to President Assad. Goodman was the first Prisoner Of War (POW) since the ending of the Vietnam War. Ironically, President Reagan greeted Jackson and Goodman at the White House on January 4, 1984.

Jackson went on to secure more prisoners from various countries throughout his life including in 1999 when he and then Rep. Rod Blagojevich traveled to Yugoslavia to negotiate the release of three U.S. POW’s.

Thank you, Rev. Jackson, for running for president of the United States in 1984 where he racked up more than 3.5 million votes and registered more than 1 million new voters. That helped to elect more Democrats who regained control of the Senate in 1986 along with the election of other Democrats across the nation.

We thank Rev. Jackson for running again for the presidency in 1988 where he won more than 7 million votes and this time registered more than 2 million voters. Rev. Jackson made history by coming in either first or second in 46 out of 54 presidential contests.

Thank you, Rev. Jackson for being elected in 1990 as the U.S. Senator from Washington, D.C. better known as a Statehood Senator but a senator that by law has no vote in congress.

And in the spirit of Rev. Jackson, besides celebrating his 70^th birthday, Jackson will be talking about poverty in America.  According to Rev. Wilson, here are the poverty statistics for Cook County alone. 

• In Cook County 30% of the persons that are food insecure are not eligible for federal nutrition programs.  Riverdale (40.8%), Washington Park 34.0%, Englewood and North Lawndale (31.2%); while in Ford Heights (55.5%), l Robbins (45.0% and Dixmoor (38.7% had the highest rate in the suburbs.

• 1 in 4 children—23.5 percent—are food insecure in Cook County. 

• After school cafes provide hot meals for children at 67 locations in Chicago.

Often called the “Conscience of America,” Jackson, the author of “Keep Hope Alive” and “Straight from the Heart,” is also a columnist for the Chicago Sun-Times and a talk show host on WVON. He continues to raise the issue of poverty, unemployment and labor problems in America.

And, this Saturday, Jackson will be joined by his family, wife, Jacqueline Livinia Brown whom he married in 1963, and his children, WVON’s talk show host Santita Jackson, Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr., Chicago State University Professor and businessman Jonathan Luther Jackson, Yusef DeBois Jackson, a businessman, daughter Jacqueline Lavinia Jackson and all of his grandchildren.

All are invited to Rev. Jackson’s 70^th birthday party and on a personal note as a birthday wish to Rev. Jackson, I hope all of those POW’s will attend his birthday bash and just say ‘thank you.’

Chinta Strausberg is a Journalist of more than 33-years, a former political reporter and a current PCC Network talk show host. You can e-mail Strausberg at: Chintabernie@aol.com.