Muncie Times, Muncie, Delaware County, 12 March 2009 — Page 31

The Muncie Times • March 12, 2009 • Page 31

News Briefs

continued from page 29 o Tax Cuts: This plan seeks to put money in the hands of consumers, as quickly as possible, through tax cuts for 95 percent of families. This is especially important for African Americans who have experienced a reversal of fortune in the gains in wages and salary reached during the 1990s, compared to others in the workforce. This immediate infusion of resources will not only allow them to purchase the items they need for their families, but also help rebuild our economy. o Job Creation: The unemployment rate for African Americans was 12.1 percent and had risen to 12.6 percent when new job numbers were announced Feb. 6. This plan will create jobs with its investments in rebuilding roads and bridges and retrofitting government buildings, while also working to help prepare job seekers for the 21st century economy with training for new “green jobs” and other emerging industries. The key is ensuring that African Americans have access to information about all of these opportunities. o Education: Right now 95 percent of African American children rely on public schools in America yet a great number of these systems lack the funding they need to deliver the education that

our children deserve and the facilities themselves are generally inadequate. This plan makes a historic investment in school modernization sufficient to renovate and modernize 10,000 schools, which also saves or creates jobs. * The plan also invests in our children's future by doubling the Early Head Start program which will provide additional pre-K services to more than 350,000 children and create at least 15,000 new teaching and teaching assistant jobs. Efforts are also being made to increase the Pell Grant maximum award to $500, making college affordable for 7 million students. * Finally, understanding that we are living during a time when tough choices have to be made, state and local governments should not have to cut education to make their budgets work. This plan provides resources so that potential education cuts can be bypassed in the immediate future. o Healthcare: African Americans suffer from higher percentages of chronic diseases such as heart disease, kidney disease and diabetes while also suffering from a lack of access to quality care. Therefore during a time when many who rely on receiving healthcare through their employers are losing jobs, access to quality healthcare is an even greater concern.

This plan offers a new tax credit to help families keep their health insurance through COBRA as well as a new option in Medicaid for low-income people who lack access to COBRA. Adjustments will also be made in funding formulas for state Medicaid programs so that Medicaid and SCHIP are not impacted by state budget shortfalls, protecting 20 million people whose eligibility might be at risk. o Public Services: Local governments are threatened with budget cuts that could impair services, including support from police and fire departments. No community that relies on these services to protect them should have to endure cuts in these areas. This plan invests $4 billion for state and local law enforcement funding. In the Feb. 5 call, LaHood said the Recovery Act would save or create millions of jobs each year, with many coming in building and repairing roads, bridges and transit lines. More than 90 percent of the jobs would be in the private sector, he said. It remains to be seen whether there will be any specific inclusion plan through the state and federal levels. However, days before inauguration Obama told the NNPA News Service that many such infrastructure projects are slated specifically for urban areas where a

majority of African Americans live and work. LaHood said, “The idea is getting money out of the door for projects, this spring, summer and fall.” Beleaguered N.Y. Post apologizes, sort of After days of protest and heated debate over a controversial cartoon of a bullet-riddled chimpanzee that some saw as a racist attack on President Barack Obama, the New York Post issued an apology Friday. The editorial read: “It was meant to mock an ineptly written federal stimulus bill. Period. But it has been taken as something else-as a depiction of President Obama, as a thinly veiled expression of racism. This most certainly was not its intent; to those who were offended by the image, we apologize.” But for many the partial apology was not enough. Movie director Spike Lee, Judge Greg Mathis and others said thehywill join the Rev. A1 Sharpton in front of the New York Post for another protest rally.. Hundreds showed up outside the paper's Sixth Avenue office last Thursday, demanding that cartoonist Sean Delonas be fired. But the New York tabloid stood by its cartoon, saying, the image was not intended to be racist but "meant to mock an ineptly written federal stimulus bill."

Civil rights activists including Sharpton were vocal critics of the cartoon. “The cartoon in today's New York Post is troubling at best given the historic racist attacks of African-Americans as being synonymous with monkeys,” Sharpton said in a statement. “Being that the stimulus bill has been the first legislative victory of President Barack Obama...and has become synonymous with him, it is not a reach to wonder: are they inferring that a monkey wrote the last bill?” "Hie illustration had opinions on the blogosphere and the streets questioning Post Editor-in-Chief Col Allen who, at. first, backed the cartoon by saying it was mere commentary. Jessie Hargrove, who was on her way back to the office, was not convinced the apology was enough. “No matter how they fix it, whether it was in Congress or whatever it was, it's just disrespectful and unnecessary,” said Hargrove, 57, who noted that Sharpton started a movement to have people withdraw their subscriptions from the Post. She added. “I can't imagine- that whoever s responsible for approving that kind of thing could with a good conscience, feel like they should defend that.” Deon Willis, who wa^ continued on page 32