Page 4 Ms. Perry's Free Press December 8-14, 2011


 So the Herman Cain Timing is everything in Politics, President Obama
train has officially broke
down on the tracks and is
apparently being towed should Benefit from Republican Field and the Economy


back to Atlanta.
 I will not belabor the many
issues that Cain has faced over the
past several weeks; but someone
pressed the fast-forward button
and his 15 minutes of fame fizzled
out much quicker than expected.
 My personal advice to Brother
Cain comes from Lena Home. She
said, "It's not the load that breaks
you down, it's the way you carry
it."
 Politics is certainly a strange
monster. Take the Republican field
for example at one point
Michelle Bachman was the GOP
rock star; Then Mitt Romney was
the clear front runner. Then Gov.
Rick Perry, which didn't last long.
Then there was the Cain Train; and
now Newt Gingrich is considered
the front-runner for the GOP nom-
ination for president.
 And most of this movement has
happened within the calendar year.
 Now former Speaker of the
House Gingrich is the man of the


hour. The million dollar or several
million in campaign funds, ques-
tion is can Newt beat Obama?
 My high school football coach
would remind me Fullwood
that's why you play the game. Any
team can be beaten on any given
day.
 Well coach, I certainly agree, but
if I were President Obama I
would love to face Newt Gingrich.
Not only is he ultra conservative,
which will hurt him with moderate
Republicans and Independents, but
also he has more skeletons in his
closet than a haunted house.
 Even conservative pundits like
Ann Coulter has warned fellow
Republicans that the former House
speaker's past extramarital affairs
and other baggage make him a far
less formidable nominee than say a
more moderate conservative like
Mitt Romney.
 Not only does the unstable
Republican field help President
Obama, but the slowly rebounding


economy does as well.
 The unemployment rate, which
had hovered around 9 percent for
the past two years, fell pretty dras-
tically in November. This is great
news for almost everyone except
those Republicans wishing to
dethrone President Obama.
 The rate fell to 8.6 percent, the
lowest since March 2009, which
happens to be two months after
President Barack Obama was
sworn in. The experts or "talking
heads" seem to think that it's being
driven in part by small businesses
that finally see reason to hope and
hire.
 I feel like a broken record, but
the economy is often the barometer
that makes or breaks any president
- regardless of party.
 According to data released by
the Labor Department, the country
added 120,000 jobs in November.
Private employers added 140,000
jobs, while governments cut
20,000. What is even more impres-


sive is the fact that the economy
has generated 100,000 or more
jobs five months in a row the first
time this increase has happened
since April 2006.
 Again, this is great news for
everyone except Gingrich and
company.
 If you had asked me a year ago,
I would say that President Obama
will get re-elected, but it is going
to be a very tough battle. Now, I
think that it will still be a battle,
but clearly the economy and the
Republican field's instability helps
significantly.
 As a wise man once said, "The
essential ingredient in politics is
timing." I said a year ago that elec-
tions are marathons not sprints.
The presidential marathon is only
halfway finished it getting
tougher the closer you get to the
finish line.
 Signing off from Tallahassee,
 Reggie Fullwood


 i Newt Gingrich's




SWar on Poor People
-4..


 by George Curry
 Republican presidential candi-
date Newt Gingrich launched a
nuclear attack on the needy last
week by using ugly stereotypes to
argue that people are poor because
they are lazy and the solution to
widespread poverty is scrapping
child labor laws and putting poor
kids to work in menial jobs.
 He said in a speech in Council
Bluffs, Iowa: "Start with the fol-
lowing two facts: Really poor chil-
dren in really poor neighborhoods
have no habits of working and
have nobody around them who
works. So they literally have no
habit of showing up on Monday.
They have no habit of staying all
day. They have no habit of 'I do
this and you give me cash' unless
it's illegal."
 What planet does Gingrich live
on?
 My entire childhood was spent
in poverty and I can't remember a
time that my mother and stepfather
didn't have a job. In fact, I can't
remember a time when Mama did-
n't have at least two jobs. I've held
jobs since I was in the 6th grade,
jobs that included cutting the grass
of my elementary school principal,
delivering newspapers, washing
dishes at the University of
Alabama while I was a student at
Druid High School in Tuscaloosa,
and working as a waiter on trains
during Christmas breaks while
enrolled at Knoxville College in
Tennessee.
 Evidently, my experience was
not atypical. An analysis of Census
Bureau data by Andrew A.
Beveridge, a professor at Queens
College in New York, found that


most children live in a home where
at least one parent works. In fact,
three of every four poor working-
aged adults have jobs.
 The problem isn't that those liv-
ing below the poverty line are
unwilling to work. The problem is
that their jobs don't pay enough to
lift them out of poverty, which is
defined as $22,050 for a family of
four.
 According to the National
Center for CIludrent aa .^'.
"Nearly 15 million children in the
United States 21 percent of all
children live in families with
incomes below the federal poverty
level $22,050 a year for a family
of four. Research shows that, on
average, families need an income
of about twice that level to cover
basic expenses. Using that stan-
dard, 42% of children live in low-
income families."
 Gingrich falsely asserts that poor
children don't have a work ethic
except when it comes to illegal
activity. His solution is to repeal
child labor laws and put poor kids
to work as library assistants or
assistant janitors.
 Federal law already allows
young people to work.
 The Department of Labor notes,
"The Fair Labor Standards Act
(FLSA) sets 14 as the minimum
age for most non-agricultural
work. However, at any age, youth
may deliver newspapers, perform
in radio, television, movie, or the-
atrical productions, work in busi-
nesses owned by their parents
(except in mining, manufacturing
or hazardous jobs), and perform
babysitting or perform minor
chores around a private home."
 Republicans have a record of
railing against welfare, labor
unions and the poor as part of their
political strategy. During his 1976
presidential campaign, for exam-
ple, Ronald Reagan told the story


of a woman from Chicago's South
Side who had 80 aliases, 30
addresses, 12 Social Security
cards, collected veteran's benefits
on four non-existent husbands,
received Medicaid, got food
stamps and collected welfare under
each of her fake names, netting her
tax-free income of more than
$150,000. It was later determined
that the woman resided only in
Reagan's head.
 Like IReagan, Gingrich has
sought to .eliminate many federal
programs that assist poor people.
 In 1994, he proposed kicking
young mothers off of welfare and
using that money to create Boys
Town-like orphanages. The New
York Times observed in an editori-
al, "The party that professes to sup-
port family values seems exces-
sively eager to yank poor children
away from their mothers and dump
them in institutions."
 He also opposes extending
unemployment benefits for those
unable to find a job.
 In an Aug. 12, 2011 e-mail to
supporters, Gingrich claimed "the
extension of unemployment bene-
fits has given people a perverse
incentive to stay on unemployment
rather than accept a job."
 The only thing perverse is
Gingrich's inability to understand
that most people do not choose to
be either poor or unemployed.
 In an attempt to smear President
Obama, Gingrich has repeatedly
called him "the most successful
food stamp president in American
history."
 Gingrich asserted, "We have
people who take their food stamp
money and use it to go to Hawaii."
 First, what was known as food
stamps has been called the
Supplemental Nutrition Assistance
Program, or SNAP, since October
2008. Instead of using old paper
food stamps, recipients are issued a


plastic card similar to a bank debit-
card to make grocery purchases.
Second, the program has specific
limitations of what can be bought
with the funds, excluding such
items as beer, liquor and wine.
 The average monthly "food
stamp" benefit is $133.49. That's
not enough to purchase an airline
ticket to Hawaii on Southwest, Jet
Blue or any other cheap carrier.
 We should not be surprised by
anything Gingrich says,.This is the
same person wo ,claimed he
"helped balance the federal budget
for four straight years [1998 to
2001]." He wasn't even in office
those last two years.
 Gingrich will say anything, even
if he knows it is a lie.


 FAMU is Obviously


 Different from Penn
 Special to the NNPA from the Florida Courier
 As a 19-year-old Georgia State University student, I became a member of
my fraternity's pledge club. As a pledge, I was beaten unmercifully, ridiculed,
taunted and more as was the tradition in a variety of campus groups.
 Once I crossed "the burning sands," so to speak, and became a founding
member of the GSU chapter of the fraternity, I was elected founding president
by my founding brothers.
 One of my first acts as president was to prohibit hazing! Yes, my brothers
put stress on future pledges, but more often than not we required them to wash
cars, run errands, do homework, raise money or volunteer in the community,
for instance.
 Hazing everywhere
 If you don't know, hazing is a crime. Despite that fact, hazing goes on essen-
tially at every college campus in every state and in most cities.
 You tell me the name of any former or current college student that has ever
been a part of a fraternity, sorority, band, athletic team, military unit or secret
campus society that has not been hazed or does not know if hazing exists! You
don't even have to be a college student to know that hazing possibly exists.
 Earlier in 2011, a criminal act was allegedly committed at Pennsylvania
State University. Once it was learned that university officials and administra-
tors were aware of suspicious acts involving possible crimes against a young
person, the athletic director was fired, coaches were fired, assistant coaches
were fired and even the president of Penn State University was fired.
 'Convenient' termination
 The only person fired so far in the aftermath of the FAMU hazing tragedy
has been the university band director. How convenient.
 The band director almost immediately demanded his reinstatement on
grounds that he went to proper administrative channels, informed university
officials that hazing was taking place in the band. But the fired band director
said no one sought to terminate hazing or suspend or expel students involved
in hazing from the band or from the school.
 Who is responsible in a court of law when hazing results in a death?
Obviously the school and the state that operates the school are liable, but there
is a limitation on damages injured persons can received from the state. Any
amount over the limitation must come in the form of a "claims bill" and be
voted on by state legislators and signed by the governor.
 Real money
 The deepest pockets involved in universities most likely are the pockets of
the members of university boards of trustees.
 What do trustees have to do with it? University faculty, staff and adminis-
trators must be trained on ways to protect students by preventing activities that
could be criminal or harmful to the students that attend the school.
 Seems to me, if university trustees vote on university budgets and part of
that budget contains dollars for training, the trustees should have no problem
discussing in court whether state-funded training dollars were used for the
necessary and required training on how to recognize and stop hazing!
 If hazing was allowed to persist because university employees were not
trained on stopping hazing, perhaps the university trustees are personally
liable for lack of institutional control of public taxpayer dollars or voting for
training budgets when employees were inadequately trained. (Interested
lawyers can review the 1992 federal case of Brown vs. City of Oakland, Cal.)
 Crime 'pecking order'?
 If a crime has been committed and no one is liable or responsible for the
death of a student, should we be concerned? Or is there a pecking order of col-
lege crime where some crimes are reported to police, some crimes are ignored,
some are covered up and some are just bottled up for years by silent accom-
plices?
 At Penn State, people with knowledge of possible criminal activity along
with ultimate responsibility at the school, and those administrators that had the
biggest university paychecks, were fired.
 But not all schools are alike.


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December 8-14, 2011


Page 4 Ms. Perry's Free Press