The Myth Of Government Funding

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Andrew Young ‘at home resting’ after cement truck falls on car

Former Atlanta Mayor and U.N. Ambassador Andrew Young was taken to a hospital as a precaution after a cement truck fell on his vehicle in Atlanta on Monday.

Young's spokeswoman, Kelley Jackson, confirmed he was in the crash at Hemphill Avenue and 14th Street shortly after 5 p.m. Monday. He was treated on the side of the road by emergency personnel and taken to a hospital, Jackson said.

At about 10:30 p.m., Jackson confirmed that Young had been released and was "at home resting."

Atlanta police spokesman Sgt. Greg Lyon said Young was a passenger in one of two vehicles on which a cement truck fell.

Another injured man was transported to a hospital with head and hand injuries, Atlanta police said, and a cellphone video obtained by Channel 2 Action News shows him being rescued from his Lexus by several good Samaritans.

In the video shot by viewer Jameel Cornelius, several men- their attire ranging from T-shirts to business clothes- join police officers gathered around the car before one man climbs on the vehicle's hood to help others lift out the bloody but alert male victim.

The gathered crowd applauds as the unidentified victim is carried from the scene.

Lyon, the police spokesman, said the cement truck driver was cited for disobeying a traffic control device and driving too fast for conditions. Police said about 25 gallons of diesel fuel were spilled during the crash.

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They dug up a Malcolm X speech that predicted so much of what's going on today. Creepy.

VIDEO BELOW

It was 50 years ago.

Whenever Americans talk about race, people can get uncomfortable. We don't want to feel like we're part of the problem, and we try in our lives not to be. But talking about it can be painful because it reminds us that there are experiences we can't fully understand because they haven't happened to us.

In this half-century-old speech, you can hear the anger and disgust in Malcom's voice. And it's amazing that he could've been saying this last week.

What he's talking about rings so true to us in 2015. In a democratic country "of the people," we expect police to be on our side, working with us. But in recent events in Ferguson, Missouri, and elsewhere can shake a person's belief in the system. Malcom X's faith in it was certainly shaken.

So let's make this stop already.

When Malcom X gave this speech, he was speaking about an awful experience that his audiences had seen in their own lives. They'd seen it over and over for years- it's not like this just started 50 years ago.

Maybe things are more fixable than they seem.

Really, it's hard to know how often someone is assaulted by a cop because it often occurs away from the cameras. On the other hand, there have to be thousands of cops that have great relationships with their communities. How much progress have we made, if any? We can't know. We just know that it should not happen ever, anymore, not once.

But, heartbreakingly, what Malcom X described does still happen.

It's a turning upside-down of fairness, with the victim being the only one to suffer if investigations by law enforcement conclude that the attacker's actions don't merit prosecution. When no charges were filed against Ferguson's Darren Wilson or against NYC's Daniel Pantaleo, who took Eric Garner's life, we were stunned all over again. How can this be fair?

We can only wonder why so little has changed. Maybe it's because, while things have gotten better in broad strokes, power on a local level- being less visible- can more successfully resist change. It can get away with holding onto old abusive cultures while the rest of the country moves forward.

Our news media are no help, more interested in drama than a solution.

On one hand, it's important that these stories get told, and more news coverage is a big help.

But way media frames it all by oversimplifying people's positions is so dangerous. Reducing the problem to the police-versus-the-world may make great TV, but it's doing real damage to our country and getting us nowhere.

There are two different cultures that see two different things. 

Given what intense job they have, it's no surprise that police don't want to be put in the position of not standing by each other, even when they don't agree with what a fellow officer has done.

But because of the unique demands of their jobs, and shared experience, police inhabit their own culture that can prevent them from seeing what everyone sees as so obvious. And at the same time, they're baffled by what we can't see that's so clear from their perspective. Cops who would never be involved in situations like these feel insulted and under appreciated.

We're stuck.

Being a cop must be really hard. You wonder why someone would go into that line of work. Some for power, sure, but probably far more to do something good.

We know e need police. We just need to be clearer as we speak out against police brutality that we can see the difference between the officers who see themselves as part of their communities and the cops who see themselves as above the people they're charged with serving.

And we need to partner with the many cops who surely want to see this brutality stop, beginning with the understanding that life looks different from different sides of a badge.

We need to stop arguing and start figuring this out.

50 years ago.

Here's Malcom X's prescient speech.

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John Lewis tells his truth about 'Selma'

By John Lewis

Alabama state troopers swing nightsticks to break up the "Bloody Sunday" voting march in Selma, Ala., on March 7, 1965. John Lewis, front right, of the Student Non-violent Coordinating Committee, is put on the ground by a trooper. (Associated Press)

The role of art in our society is not reenact history but to offer an interpretation of human experience as seen through the eyes of the artist. The philosopher Aristotle says it best: "The aim of art is to represent not the outward appearance of things, but their inner significance."

The movie "Selma" is a work of art. It conveys the inner significance of the ongoing struggle for human dignity in America, a cornerstone of our identity as a nation. It breaks through our too-often bored and uninformed perception of our history, and it confronts us with the real human drama our nation struggled to face 50 years ago.

And "Selma" does more than bring history to life, it enlightens our understanding of our lives today. It proves the efficacy of nonviolent action and civic engagement, especially when government seems unresponsive. With poignant grace, it demonstrates that Occupy, inconvenient protests and die-ins that disturb our daily routine reflect a legacy of resistance that led many to struggle and die for justice, not centuries ago, but in our lifetimes. It reminds us that the day could be approaching when that price will be required again. But now this movie is being weighed down with the responsibility it cannot possibly bear. Its portrayal of President Lyndon B. Johnson's role in the Selma marches has been called into question. And yet one two-hour movie cannot tell all the stories encompassed in three years of history- the true scope of the Selma campaign. It does not portray every element of my story, Bloody Sunday, or even the life of Martin Luther King Jr. We do not demand completeness of other historical dramas, so why is it required of this film?

"Lincoln," for example, was a masterpiece, a fine representation of what it takes to pass a bill. It did not, however, even mention Frederick Douglas or the central role of the abolitionists, who were all pivotal to the passage of the 13th Amendment. For some historians that may be a glaring error, but we accept these omissions as a matter of perspective and the historical editing needed to tell a coherent story. "Selma" must be afforded the same artistic license. Were any of the Selma marches the brainchild of President Johnson? Absolutely not. If a man is chained to a chair, does anyone need to tell him he should struggle to be free? The truth is the marches occurred mainly due to the extraordinary vision of the ordinary people of Selma, who were determined to win the right to vote, and it is their will that made a way. As for Johnson's taped phone conversation about Selma with King, the president knew he was recording himself, so maybe he was attempting to verbally stack the deck about his role in Selma in his favor. The facts, however, do not bear out the assertion that Selma was his idea. I know. I was there. Don't get me wrong, in my view, Johnson is one of this country's great presidents, but he did not direct the civil rights movement.

This film is a spark that has ignited interest in an era we must not forget if we are to move forward as a nation. It is already serving as a bridge to a long-overdue conversation on race, inequality and injustice in this country today. It may well become a touchstone, a turning point for another generation of activists who will undertake the next evolutionary push for justice in America. It would be a tragic error if Hollywood muted its praise for a film because it is too much a story and not enough an academic exercise.

Whenever I have a tough vote in Congress, I ask myself what would leaders of courage do? What would King and Robert Kennedy do? What is the right thing to do? What is the fair and honest thing to do? The people have already spoken. They are marching to the theaters, arrested by the drama of this film, moved by ideas too long left to languish, driven to their feet and erupting in enthusiastic applause. 

Rep. John Lewis (D-Ga.). one of the leaders of two of the Selma marches, is portrayed in "Selma." He has been a member of Congress since 1987.

Actor David Oyelowo, right, greets Rep. John Lewis, a civil rights icon, at the Washington premiere of "Selma" on Dec. 11. (Olivier Douliery / TNS)

School Named For Ku Klux Klan Leader Nathan Bedford Forrest To Be Rebranded

A Florida high school whose name commemorates a leader of a white supremacist group known for lynchings and other violent acts against blacks is to be renamed, officials said on Monday.

 The Nathan Bedford Forrest High School in Jacksonville, Florida, founded 54 years ago, will change its name from that of the Ku Klux Clan's first grand wizard from the start of the next school year in August.

 A new name will be proposed in January.

 "We recognize that we cannot and are not seeking to erase history," said Constance Hall, a board member for the Duval County school, where more than half the students are black.

 "For too long and too many, this name has represented the opposite of unity, respect, and equality," Hall said in a statement.

 With its roots in the U.S. Civil War era, the Ku Klux Klan has long been associated with hooded, white-robed night riders who menaced blacks with cross burnings, lynchings and other acts of violence.

 The honoring of Confederate heroes and emblems has been a divisive issue in the United States, with proponents saying it pays homage to regional history and opponents saying it amounts to racism.

 Memphis, Tennessee in February this year dropped Confederate names from three city parks - one was named after Forrest, a slaveholder before the Civil War and a general during it.

 The Florida name change comes after incidents that sparked racial tension in the southern U.S. state.

 In July, white former community patrol guard George Zimmerman was acquitted of murder charges in the 2012 killing of unarmed black teenager Trayvon Martin in central Florida.

 Also last year, a federal lawsuit alleged civil rights violations in a west-central Florida school district after two black women who scored well on an adult skills test were accused of cheating. Omotayo Richmond, who moved to Jacksonville from New York, wrote in a Change.org petition that garnered more than 160,000 signatures in support of changing the school's name that doing so would go toward healing "so much racial division" in Florida. "African American Jacksonville students shouldn't have to attend a high school named for someone who slaughtered and terrorized their ancestors one more school year," Richmond wrote.

 The 1,300-student public school, which became racially integrated in 1971, had voted some five years ago to keep the name, but those officials had been replaced, the petition said. (Reporting by Eric M. Johnson, editing by Elizabeth Piper)


 CORRECTION: This story has been updated to correct the spelling of "Ku Klux Klan."