| Author | Message | ||
     Sauna Queen Citizen Username: Goodneighbor Post Number: 46 Registered: 4-2004 |
So Dave... Same question as Southorangemom...Why is Wendy still posting? Huh Dave. | ||
| Dave Supporter Username: Dave Post Number: 9135 Registered: 4-1997  |
I'm sorry. I was reading some Hunter S. Thompson. Can you repeat the question? | ||
| Nohero Supporter Username: Nohero Post Number: 5292 Registered: 10-1999  |
Leaving aside all the back-and-forth about who insulted who ... Regarding the assembly and the presentations - We chatted at dinner tonight about them with our CHS student, who enjoyed them. After viewing them, our CHS-er wondered why there was such a controversy about "context", or whatever the reason was that they were not originally shown. | ||
| Phenixrising Citizen Username: Phenixrising Post Number: 1520 Registered: 9-2004  |
Nohero, We did the same. As I posted in another thread, my senior really enjoyed the presentations and did not know why there was so much controversy over showing these films. | ||
| joel dranove Citizen Username: Jdranove Post Number: 311 Registered: 1-2006 |
Dave: Maybe you go first. jd | ||
| Glock 17 Citizen Username: Glock17 Post Number: 489 Registered: 7-2005  |
Dave, MOL should put the videos on their server...does MOL have a server? Well if it does it would be nice for those of us who are unable to view them any other way. | ||
| Sauna Queen Citizen Username: Goodneighbor Post Number: 49 Registered: 4-2004 |
Anyone with doubts about the integrity of the principal of CHS, please read the following article in the news record today: http://www.localsource.com/articles/2006/04/06/news_-_record/news/local/doc44356 bf928234521232513.txt | ||
| ffof Citizen Username: Ffof Post Number: 4650 Registered: 5-2001  |
There is an awful lot in that article. What do you object or agree with? I did find the idea that 1600 kids stayed inside the school to be farfetched. One of my kids said that there might have been 400 kids at the walkout but there were definitely NOT 1600 kids inside the school. She said many many kids just left for the day. | ||
| Spanish Inquisitor Citizen Username: Sinq Post Number: 52 Registered: 4-2004  |
Don't you think it's possible people on both sides can be wrong? | ||
| mem Citizen Username: Mem Post Number: 5972 Registered: 5-2001  |
louie farrakhan was potrayed as an “exemplar"? Gross. He's a real nasty loon. | ||
| bettyd Citizen Username: Badjtdso Post Number: 184 Registered: 12-2005 |
I wonder what MLK would have thought of Louis Farrakhan. | ||
| bettyd Citizen Username: Badjtdso Post Number: 185 Registered: 12-2005 |
I didn't get to see the assembly. What movement was born there? | ||
| Sauna Queen Citizen Username: Goodneighbor Post Number: 50 Registered: 4-2004 |
The movie that she refused to show was the Chris Thorne video, not the Million March video. Both vidoes were produced with the assistance of AA and W students. This is the same video that was presented at the board meeting. I noticed the writer attempted to allow Renee to speak for herself..ie the quotes, maybe to insure she is not "taken out of context." This interview validated for me how irrational this principal is. I sympathize with what our students are dealing with daily. With 1 pending civil lawsuit against her and another in the administrative division,I can only see more coming. Its time for a divorce---its not cheaper to keep her | ||
| Glock 17 Citizen Username: Glock17 Post Number: 496 Registered: 7-2005 |
Malcom X. I'd like to know what Malcom X would've said. | ||
| joel dranove Citizen Username: Jdranove Post Number: 320 Registered: 1-2006 |
Spell my name correctly. jd | ||
| Glock 17 Citizen Username: Glock17 Post Number: 499 Registered: 7-2005 |
Pardon my double typo of Malcolm | ||
| mplwdian Citizen Username: Mplwdian Post Number: 128 Registered: 3-2003 |
If anyone is wondering what Louis Farrakhan is about you should read some of his vile statements at the web address below. I can't comment on the abilities of the CHS principal but I certainly agree with her that hateful figures like Farrakhan should not be glorified in our schools. I am disturbed that more people haven't spoken out about this in our community. http://www.adl.org/special_reports/farrakhan_own_words2/farrakhan_own_words.asp | ||
| mem Citizen Username: Mem Post Number: 5982 Registered: 5-2001 |
louie farrakhan is dangerous because not only is he violent and hateful, but he's stupid too. Stupid, manic lunatics can be very dangerous. | ||
| mplwdian Citizen Username: Mplwdian Post Number: 129 Registered: 3-2003 |
How pathetically ironic it is that he was a focus of the MLK day program. I am starting to wonder how tolerant our supposedly tolerant towns are. It our community tolerates outright bigotry like this then that's way too tolerant for me. | ||
| karen fabbo Citizen Username: Kfabb Post Number: 1 Registered: 3-2006 |
I, too was at the assembly. While I agree that the students were a good audience, I feel they were told only half truths about who the Black panthers and Louis Farrahkan are and what they stand for. Separatists have no place in this community. I was particularly disturbed by one of the teachers (who is white) who called the raciest whites who he grew up with "crackers" during the presentation. The same teacher says The Black Panters were non violent, but that violence was perpetrated on them. There is lots of information to support otherwise. Read David Horowitz's account of his membership into the panthers. I wish the program had included uplifting messages about the successes of our community, our faculty, and our students. I found most of the presentation politically motivated with a clear agenda. i think we did a great disservice to our students. | ||
| efull Citizen Username: Efull Post Number: 1 Registered: 4-2006 |
As one of the parents who has been involved in this issue from the start. I feel that I must speak and give out the facts. What was stated in the news paper yesterday is at the root of our problem: deception and misleading comments. I’d like to try to correct them if I can: 1. The film about the million man march was not the film that was originally planned for the Black History Month Assembly it was War on Peace about the Black Panther party and that time in our country’s history and how we progressed into a hip hop culture. This film was the one that parents and students went to the BOE and petitioned to have shown. This film was the one she and the super said would incite violence.....??? That film was shown at a BOW meeting and several times around the towns. AT the BOE meeting it received a standing ovation. It has also been nominated for a National High School Emmy We found out this morning from a Maplewood resident and film maker that just last night it won an award in NYC for a teen’s film making festival. So I think it's safe to say this film was exceptional and anyone who attended the Black History Month program could see that the children were silent and engrossed in learning from it. Teachers participated in both films. 2. The film on the Million Man March- showed maybe all of ten seconds of Louis Farrakhan. He was by no means the focus. This is an attempt for the principal to try and twist the facts divert peoples attention from the real issues and use the media to give "snippets" of what has been going on. The film was about people from the community who went to the march and why the march was held. It is a historical event and it was approached in that manner. Nowhere in that film did anyone say they thought Louis Farrakhan was anything close to an exemplar. 3. This principal has sent emails and spoken to parents and all the while each story has been different. When I as a parent approached her about the issues and asked could we open up a dialogue, she mislead me by saying that the program had been planned months ahead, and we have since found out from students, and teachers that she ran around that day trying to put together a program, since she had rejected the one submitted by MLKA (which included only the film War On peace). On that day February 27, the CCN students then offered the Million March Film. How this film came to be part of the April 4th BOE mandated program is a good question, although I think it was a good film. * the fact that the BOE had to mandate that there be a program after they initally said no says there is much to this story.} 4. Plain & Simple - I feel we are wasting a lot of time on this issue when it comes down it effectiveness: How effective can someone who brings about all of these problems and controversy really be? Going to school shouldn't be a battle. Effective leadership would have opened up a dialogue and solved these problems (or maybe let the students have the beautiful program we saw this week and there would have been no problem) All of these horrible stories that have surfaced would have never been told. We would have gone on thinking the achievement gap is because kids don't want to achieve! Maybe its not strange that the Martin Luther King program has ten police cars and 2 ambulances called to just "standby". But now we can see that is not an isolated situation, it part of her mode of operation. Moderators I hope this is okay..... I used no names and stated only my opinion. I'm new so if there's an issue don't suspend me .. just tell me  | ||
| Glock 17 Citizen Username: Glock17 Post Number: 507 Registered: 7-2005 |
Karen Fabbo,you are saying that Black Nationalism has no place in THIS community...because you live in it? Or that it should just curl up at the feet of white opression and just die? | ||
| karen fabbo Citizen Username: Kfabb Post Number: 2 Registered: 3-2006 |
Glock 17, I am saying that as an integrated community that wants the best education for all its students , the separatists ideology has no place here. | ||
| crabby Citizen Username: Crabbyappleton Post Number: 555 Registered: 1-2004 |
She said "seperatists" not black nationalism. | ||
| bklyntonj Citizen Username: Bklyntonj Post Number: 633 Registered: 7-2003 |
"Seperatists"? The issue here is that negative images of black organizations are being the main focus. Sure there were negative issues in the Black Panthers and the Nation of Islam. There were positive issues too. No other black organization cleaned up more people and got them off the streets in the 60's than the Nation of Islam. Who do you think started the "headstart" program and bought breakfasts into schools? The Black Panthers. Who else other than Louis Farrakhan bought together more than one million AA men in one venue without any incidences? After the march, more black children were adopted, enrollment in community organizations increased, marriages among parents of out-of-wedlock children increased. Now, if we wanted to focus on other negative images like, who were the pilgrims and why did they come to America? How was Manhattan acquired? What about "Manifest Destiny"? I know some may compare the skinheads and/or the KKK to the Nation of Islam and the Black Panthers but what did they do positive for white people? | ||
| Glock 17 Citizen Username: Glock17 Post Number: 512 Registered: 7-2005 |
What have they done that has been positive in general? And integration is probably this country's most failed experiment. | ||
| Jim McLaughlin Citizen Username: Jmclaugh Post Number: 79 Registered: 3-2005 |
Bklyntonj "Who do you think started the "headstart" program & bought breakfasts into schools? The Black Panthers." Actually, the Head Start program was part of LBJ's War on Poverty (see his 1964 State of the Union message for more information), and was authorized by the US Congress in the Economic Opportunity Act of 1965. I think that hot breakfasts for students below the poverty line was established at that time too. "Who else other than Louis Farrakhan bought together more than one million AA men in one venue without any incidences? After the march, more black children were adopted, enrollment in community organizations increased, marriages among parents of out-of-wedlock children increased." The Million Man and Million More Marches were landmarks in AA history. Farrakhan deserves some credit, but don't forget the broad coalition of AA leaders and organizations that formed around it. Without that wide support, I doubt is would a have been successful. It succeeded not because of Farrakhan's influence and presence, but in spite of it. Farrakhan is a racist, hate-mongering bigot and unless he recants his hateful statements and actions, he should never be held as an exemplar of anything positive. I As recently as February 26, 2006 he was spewing this garbage: "These false Jews promote the filth of Hollywood that is seeding the American people and the people of the world and bringing you down in moral strength…It’s the wicked Jews the false Jews that are promoting Lesbianism, homosexuality. It’s wicked Jews, false Jews that make it a crime for you to preach the word of God, then they call you homophobic!” No amount of good works can ever negate that filth. Using that logic, we should applaud Mussolini for making the trains run on time, or Hitler for stabilizing the German economy. I am not defending Pollack. I really wish she would leave already. I'm not criticizing the MLK assembly. I was not in attendance, nor have I had an opportunity to view the documentaries (congratulations to the Emmy winner). I believe that CHS students are sophisticated enough to know that documentaries have specific points of view. I hope they had an opportunity to discuss those differing points of view. | ||
| campbell29 Citizen Username: Campbell29 Post Number: 401 Registered: 4-2002 |
Speaking as a SB parent, she doesn't seem like a good fit. The last thing we need over there is racial tension. | ||
| ffof Citizen Username: Ffof Post Number: 4652 Registered: 5-2001 |
bklntnj- Do you want to be taken seriously? | ||
| mamatamu Citizen Username: Mamatamu Post Number: 154 Registered: 7-2002  |
ffof- Do you want to be taken seriously? | ||
| N. Bonaparte Supporter Username: Wendy Post Number: 2301 Registered: 5-2001 |
I agree ffof with your question to bklyntonj. | ||
| Parkbench87 Citizen Username: Parkbench87 Post Number: 3998 Registered: 7-2001  |
"And integration is probably this country's most failed experiment.' Glock, It may seem that way through your prism but as some who has lived a bit longer I'm here to tell you that it wasn't an experiment, and it has been succesful. Not succesful in that everyone is holding hands and singing Kumbayah but succesful in that many people are willing to look at someone and judge them based on their actions and not any other genetic or birth factor. I have a whole album of wedding photos that will in a small way disprove your bleak analysis. | ||
| Sandi and Paul Citizen Username: Momsandi Post Number: 77 Registered: 10-2005 |
Many of our famous leaders had characteristics that were not admirable. Ben Franklin was a womanizer who belonged to an orgy club, Thomas Jefferson owned slaves, and a not so distant head of Israel has a clouded past with his treatment of the Palestinians. Does that mean we don't honor their accomplishments? If that were to be true we shouldn't study most of our early leaders who pushed the Native Americans off their lands and condoned slavery. If Louis Farrakhan was the main focus of the film, then I could understand the outcry, although I would still expect student filmmakers to have freedom of expression at the high school level. But the Black Panther Party was vilified to an extreme in the sixties and it is only in modern times that we have learned of their contributions. I applaud the film. | ||
| John James Leuchs Jr Citizen Username: Clairvoyant Post Number: 79 Registered: 8-2005 |
If the Chris Thorne video was banned, why was I allowed, many years ago, to perform Macbeth with my fourth graders. After all, what about Shakespeare's portrayal of Shylock in The Merchant of Venice? It seems to me that we examine Black leaders under a microscope and gloss over or ignore the failings of Caucasion leaders and writers. As far as integration, there are still many towns in New Jersey where they don't allow Black families to buy homes. I can understand the anger the led some of the Black leaders like Malcolm X to want to secede from the Union. An interesting project would be to have students project the economic, political, social, and moral consequences if the states that he mentioned had been allowed to form a separate country. The biggest factor for me in choosing South Orange-Maplewood as the community in which to teach is the diversity and harmony. Our nation still has a lot of bigotry and we still have many racial issues to resolve in these two towns. We have to keep working at them in order to keep the nice balance that we have. | ||
| bklyntonj Citizen Username: Bklyntonj Post Number: 634 Registered: 7-2003 |
Jim, Black Panthers were also known for battling hunger Posted: Nov. 21, 2005 In January 1969, the Black Panther Party began a free breakfast program in Oakland, Calif., that spread throughout America, including Milwaukee, as federal and local governments grappled with issues of hunger. Nik Heynen, an assistant professor at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, argues that the group's efforts to feed the hungry were the impetus behind the creation of the Hunger Task Force, Wisconsin's most important food bank. Heynen, who spoke on the topic this month at UWM's Golda Meir Library, 2311 E. Hartford Ave., talked to urban affairs reporter Leonard Sykes Jr. recently. Q. How did the Black Panthers get involved with the problems of hunger in America? A. It really goes back to the fact that there was such a need. Bobby Seale (a co-founder of the Panther Party) noticed it when his children started pointing out that their friends were hungry. Feeding them seemed like a logical thing to do, and also there would be some political benefits from helping people out in that way. Bobby felt so strongly about it that he made it mandatory for all the other Black Panther chapters and branches - there were 45 - to provide free breakfast programs for children. Q. Did those programs have a direct influence on Head Start and other programs that began providing free meals for needy children? A. As far as I can tell from the USDA, they had a pilot program back in 1966 . . . and it had a kind of very limited exposure. But in California, when Ronald Reagan was governor, he felt so much pressure from the Panthers and the fact that many people were turning to them to meet these amazing needs that (the state) took it on and started implementing free breakfast programs in many of the schools . . . and that spread throughout the country. Everyone I've talked to so far, and this is sort of my argument, feel that Panthers breakfast programs were sort of both the model and the impetus behind all federally funded free breakfast programs. As far as the Million Man March, Farrakhan had nothing but a "lack of support" from other AA leaders until they saw how much attention it was getting and how many AA men showed interest. THEN they jumped on the bandwagon and started supporting it. Since I was involved in the march, I know this firsthand. As far as integration, I won't say whether it worked or not but think of this; before integration, blacks owned 16 million acres in the US, now they own 4 million. The literacy rate was higher and the family unit was stronger (more families stayed together). Do I want to be taken seriously? ffof, you or anyone else can take me seriously or not. I speak from experience and a black perspective that represents more AAs than you care to know. I'm not doing anything but speaking from actual facts. I love Maplewood/South Orange because it allows people to live the way they want to instead of how they have to. Actually, I'm helping give whites a better understanding of how most blacks feel. | ||
| bklyntonj Citizen Username: Bklyntonj Post Number: 635 Registered: 7-2003 |
And another thing, why must every fact I write need validation? Is what I write that hard to believe or accept? And why don't you listen to all of Farrakhan's speeches that you choose to find these "hate quotes". I challenge you to find someone who's harder on black people than Farrakhan. Believe me, he lets us have it. Dialogue has to be real and sincere to bring about change. I speak realistically, not avoiding the facts. I would be more than happy to sit down with or participate in any steps to bringing all races together. This I mean sincerely. Oh, that's right, I can't be taken seriously. | ||
| mem Citizen Username: Mem Post Number: 5994 Registered: 5-2001 |
"These false Jews promote the filth of Hollywood that is seeding the American people and the people of the world and bringing you down in moral strength…It’s the wicked Jews the false Jews that are promoting Lesbianism, homosexuality. It’s wicked Jews, false Jews that make it a crime for you to preach the word of God, then they call you homophobic!” Pathetic. I hope this twisted, filthy freak ends up in jail and throw away the key. Just like many caucasian loonies as well. | ||
| LibraryLady.. Supporter Username: Librarylady Post Number: 3272 Registered: 5-2001  |
Hamas feeds the poor too! | ||
| Montagnard Citizen Username: Montagnard Post Number: 1931 Registered: 6-2003  |
Pat Robertson and Louis Farrakhan. Two sides of the same coin. | ||
| Glock 17 Citizen Username: Glock17 Post Number: 525 Registered: 7-2005 |
Parkbench. If so...why is the general black population still in such a state of despair? |
