SAMUEL LOGAN Publisher


A Real Times Newspaper 479 Ledyard – Detroit, MI 48201


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e-mail:chronicle4@aol.com August 18-24, 2010


An education crisis before our eyes


By David Stephen Beyond governance, corrup-


tion and even money, the city of Detroit and our public school system face a crisis so large that if we do not actively confront it, we will never be able to make long-term improvements to our schools. That problem is litera- cy.


Forty-seven percent of De-


troit’s adults are functionally illiterate. One in three, or 1.7 million people in Michigan, read below a sixth-grade read- ing level. Unless we deal with this epidemic, we will not have addressed one of the great- est causes of the failure of our school system which directly af- fects our quality of life.


most money into the classroom and give teachers and admin- istrators every resource they need, but without the active par- ticipation of the student in the learning process, the system will not work.


We are a city and state in a lit-


eracy crisis. Allocating greater funds to agencies that work to improve reading, writing and ac- ademic achievement should be a top priority to our local, state and federal elected officials. The LEARN Act (Literacy Education for All, Results for the Nation), is a bipartisan federal bill that speaks to this issue and every legislator from our state should support it.


David Stephen In a city where 50 percent of those out of


work have difficulty reading and writing, there are no jobs for these members of our city’s population. We are then challenged to address how a parent who is functionally illiterate and out of work can create a positive learning envi- ronment for their child and encourage them to learn in the home, where the learning process begins.


Once a child gets to school in the morning,


the foundation has already been laid for how active that child will be in the learning process. We can build the best buildings, allocate the


No city could benefit more from the grants and funding the


LEARN Act will create more than Detroit. It is true that one bill will not solve all of our educa- tion issues in Detroit, but it will help us find long-term solutions to our community’s unem- ployment, education and tax base issues.


We can reform our academic plan for De-


troit Public Schools, and we should. We can even balance our school budget deficit, and we should. But until we place substantial atten- tion on the need for a city where every Detroi- ter can read, we will continue to fail our com- munity, ourselves and, most importantly, our children.


EMU football coach Ron Eng- lish sets the record straight


Media reports on comments attributed to me


at the recent Mid American Conference Football Media Day have reached a point where I think it is important, as the head football coach at Eastern Michigan University, to clarify for the record my position and to shed a little light on my history.


A July 31st article in The Detroit News


quoted me as saying: “We wanted guys that had a father in their


background...Please don’t get me wrong, but the reality is you’ve got to teach that guy how to be taught by a man.”


The quote was an incomplete snippet of a


lengthy conversation with a pool of reporters on my thoughts on our recruiting class.


The comment was also made in the context


of me providing insight into the first year of our program and, the prospects for our upcoming season.


It was not a conversation about my thoughts


on the value of single parent mothers or the vitally important role father figures can play in not only those situations, but others as well.


Had it been a discussion on those topics, I


would have shared that my twin brother and I are products of being raised by our grand- mother, Mamie Blaylock. My mother (who was not married to my Father) passed away when I was 18 months old. In addition, I would have spoken about several coaches and other men who played an equally important role in what- ever I have been able to achieve as a person.


I hold a bachelor’s degree from the Univer-


sity of California and a Masters’ from Arizona State University.


In December 2008, this great university


(Eastern Michigan University) honored me by naming me its head football coach, making me only one of five African-American Division I head football coaches in America at the time (and one of only 13 today).


To suggest I would dismiss or negate the critical role played by single parent mothers


“I have been privileged to


not only have successfully coached several young men raised by their mothers, but to have personally been a father figure and mentor to many of them.”


have been privileged to not only have success- fully coached several young men raised by their mothers, but to have personally been a father figure and mentor to many of them.


As just one of many examples of which I am


profoundly proud of, Jimmy Verdon, a graduate assistant on our staff at EMU, comes particu- larly to mind. Verdon, who was raised by his aunt, overcame a learning disability and was re- cruited by and played for me at Arizona State.


He not only went on to receive his degree,


but enjoyed a career in the National Football League before joining our staff at EMU. In ad- dition to working with our student athletes, he is presently enrolled in a master’s degree pro- gram at our School.


As we work each day to give Eagle Nation,


the football program, its students, faculty, ad- ministrators, donors and alumni what is so richly deserved, be assured we will continue to attract the very best student athletes for this institution who meet our standards of deco- rum and personal responsibility, regardless of the demographic of the households they were raised in.


Sincerely, Ron English Head Football Coach Eastern Michigan University


or, men who serve as mentors in young men’s lives, would contradict the very way I was raised (which would be absurd).


Throughout my 18-year coaching career, I


Did WDIV escape the wrath of Mike Cox?


By Tim Skubick There is one TV station in


town that is breathing a sigh of relief that Mike Cox did not get the GOP nomination for gover- nor. Suffice it to say, had he nailed down the nomination, WDIV-Local 4 may have been in deep doo-doo.


For those of you who missed


it, the station ran an explosive story, one week before the Aug. 3 primary, about Mr. Cox alleg- edly being at an alleged party at some mansion in Detroit. It ob- tained a sworn statement sug- gesting the state attorney gen- eral was not only at the alleged gig, he got a lap dance to boot.


blessing which is why everyone in this town took notice when the two giants blessed Mr. Cox for governor.


“What were they smoking?”


was a common reaction among the players in this town.


In an ill-fated lunge at being


a King maker, the groups defied logic and rolled the dice with Mr. Cox.


Make no mistake, Cox ran a Tim Skubick When the Cox folks got wind that the story


was in the works, it went into overdrive and pleaded with the station for an opportunity to respond to the thing.


If you took a vote among political journal-


ists, it’s a pretty good bet that the vast majority would have concluded that Mr. Cox, with his political career potentially hanging in the bal- ance, deserved the right to be in the first story that ran.


He was not. It was subsequently reported that the person


who swore he saw Mr. Cox at the supposed event was a convicted felon and let’s just say his credibility was in question.


Which is why the Cox guys might have made


life uncomfortable for the station had he gotten the nomination.


While on that subject and its impact on the


Cox bid to be governor, it’s difficult to quan- tify how many voters made their decision not to vote for him based on the aforementioned alleged “party” which he found to be an “urban legend.”


But there were telling signs out on the cam-


paign trail that signaled that impact was huge. In a series of appearances on the rubber


chicken circuit, the question was asked of every audience, “Raise your hand if you believe there was a party.”


The hands shot up like rocket ships. Recall there was not a scintilla of evidence,


but after seven years of rumors, virtually ev- eryone in the room, except those from another state, believed it happened.


Bottom line: Mr. Cox had a huge credibility


problem which he was unable to overcome. As for his take on all this, after the fact, “I’ll


let the pundits comment on that.” The pundits are also commenting on the war


between the special interest groups in both the Republican and Democratic parties.


Let’s just say that the Michigan Chamber of


Commerce and Michigan Right to Life did not have a good day on Aug. 3.


For years those two bastions of GOP politics


have tossed their weight around. Nobody ever won the nomination for governor without their


very good campaign. He raised the money, ran some effective TV spots, worked day and night and was always in the hunt. Yet he had that baggage discussed above.


The Chamber guys were obviously aware of


that but concluded, “We did not want to deny someone the endorsement based on a story that was never proven to be true.”


It was a noble gesture. But when did nobil-


ity ever trump the political facts of life? Over at the anti-abortion group, Right to Life


was faced with four candidates with a perfect record on the issue. Yet instead of a blanket blessing of Pete Hoekstra, Mike Bouchard, Tom George and Mr. Cox, they got cocky and went for broke and lost.


Some rank and file RTL types were not


amused. Some felt Cox did not deserve the en- dorsement because he had been unfaithful to his spouse.


The three who did not get the endorsement


were forced to divert time, money and energy into proving they were on the right side of the issue.


“We got calls all the time asking, what is


your stance on abortion?” reveals one of those former candidates.


The residue from all this has not only left


a bad taste in lots of conservative mouths, the status of the RTL organization has gone down a couple of notches and the long-term impact of the mis-endorsement could have a lasting effect.


Meanwhile on the Democratic side, the spe-


cial interests there were collectively “pleased as punch” as Hubert Humphrey use to say.


Organized labor, in particular, had a lot


riding on the outcome. Their guy, Virg Bernero, won going away over the lackluster effort by House Speaker Andy Dillon.


The political scribes had drafted a death


notice for the movement, but it was never print- ed because labor delivered.


The new honcho over at Solidarity House


was especially relieved. The last thing Bob King wanted to do was to


start his tenure as UAW president by finishing last in the contest for governor.


The death notice, however, has not been


deleted, pending the outcome of the contest between “the Nerd” and “America’s Angriest Mayor.”


Fishburne and the price of living in a highly sexualized society


By Tonyaa Weathersbee The 19-year-old aspiring actress and daughter of Laurence


Fishburne, a Tony Award winner and Oscar nominee, believes she has found her path to acting success.


But she’s not pursuing that path by studying the way her


father delivered his lines in “Othello” and in “What’s Love Got to Do With It?” Rather, she’s doing it through imitating the gyra- tions and groans of reality television star Kim Kardashian.


Back in 2007, Kardashian and her then-boyfriend, R&B star


Ray J., filmed themselves having sex. Somehow that tape, as did the tapes of other vapid, voluptuous women before her, was leaked to the porn company Vivid Entertainment.


Since then, Kardashian’s sex tape — a tape that she sued


Vivid over and ultimately settled with — has been making the rounds. Also since then, Kardashian has gotten herself a reality show, a modeling career, a stint on “Dancing with the Stars” and a string of professional athlete boyfriends.


But aside from a bit part here and there, what the 29-year-old


hasn’t gotten is anything that resembles a real acting career. So Montana Fishburne’s decision to follow Kardashian’s example — who, by the way, didn’t adopt a porn name and go straight to Vivid — is puzzling and sad.


Here you have a young Black girl who, judging from what she


has said in interviews, claims to be close to her father. Here is a young Black girl whose father is a prominent actor who can probably help open some doors for her.


Heck, Laurence Fishburne even has plans to produce a film;


you’d think she could finagle a spot in it. Yet Montana Fishburne’s role model is … Kim Kardashian? A


woman whose only real time acting on film was on a leaked sex tape?


Montana Fishburne and Lawrence Fishburne.


Something is terribly wrong here. But the fact that Montana is following the Kardashian route


tells me she isn’t looking for fame as an actress. What she’s seeking is notoriety as a celebrity.


Notoriety and fame are two different things, but in an age of


reality shows and YouTube, many people can’t tell the differ- ence.


In these times in which many young people place more of a


premium on instant gratification than on hard work and sac- rifice, it’s not all that surprising that a young woman who is looking to make it big in film would pick the easiest — and the sleaziest — route.


What is sad, though, is that Montana Fishburne chose that


route, because what it says is that even her father’s credentials and example weren’t enough to influence her otherwise.


And if someone as successful as Laurence Fishburne can’t


provide a strong enough influence to block out all the craziness that led his daughter to have sex on film, imagine how hard it is for non-famous Black parents who struggle to blunt out the bad ideas that emanate from the airwaves and streets and fill their children’s heads.


It’s also tough because we live in a highly sexualized soci- ety. That’s why you have girls lying about their age to dance in


strip clubs. That’s why you have young women who come out in frigid weather with short-shorts and platform heels, and celebri- ties making sex tapes that will invariably be pilfered and wind up at Vivid.


Of course, there’s the chance that this could, indeed, wind up


being a savvy career move for young Montana. She is, after all, the daughter of a renowned actor, and that fact alone will likely be enough to generate interest in her porno debut.


But while it may lead to more porn roles and maybe even an


appearance on “Larry King Live,” chances are it won’t lead to much else. And the one thing that Montana Fishburne is for- getting is that Kim Kardashian is White — and society tends to excuse White celebrities’ transgressions as them being con- fused, while Black celebrities’ missteps often get them labeled as being pathological.


My hope is that Montana Fishburne learns all of this soon


because it’s still not too late to follow her father’s example. That example has led to enduring fame for the 49-year-old Laurence Fishburne.


If she follows Kardashian’s example, however, she’ll be washed up long before that.


JACKIE BERG Chief Marketing Officer


BANKOLE THOMPSON Senior Editor


CORNELIUS A. FORTUNE Managing Editor


JOHN H. SENGSTACKE


Chairman-Emeritus 1912-1997 LONGWORTH M. QUINN


Publisher-Emeritus 1909-1989 Page A-4


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