4 The Hampton Roads Messenger Editorial
Thank you to HU and Dr. Harvey for 150/40 Years of Service only
a beacon of hope to people and institutions
Tere is a saying, “If you don’t know, then you better ask somebody.” Who better to ask almost anything than Dr. William R. Harvey who has served as president of Hampton University for 40 years? Tankfully one does not have to seek a personal meeting with Dr. Harvey to learn his
BY ANGELA JONES I am oſten asked why do we
have so much information in the Hampton Roads Messenger about Hampton University. Other than the fact that they have an expert University Relations team who realizes the value in marketing to our readers, Hampton University is a phenomenal institution of higher learning that deserves recognition.
Tere are only a few organizations
in Hampton Roads that have been around longer than Hampton University. Anyone who
has had
anything to do with running a business can appreciate what it takes to stay in business for over a decade, let alone for a century and a half. And for a predominately African American organization to overcome all of the obstacles that Hampton University must have had to endure throughout its history in order to survive, can be mind boggling to even think about.
Biennial Budget FROM PAGE 1
good faith, with our goal always being to do what’s best for Virginia. We still have important work left to do and I look forward to more big accomplish- ments that will improve the lives of all Virginians.”
The today: Day Fund
Increases deposits to the Rainy and
the new Revenue
Reserve Fund, bringing the total deposits to nearly $1.0 billion by the end of the biennium.
Adds $189 million in new general fund resources for behavioral health and developmental services, including $84.1 million for community mental health services and $67 million to expand services for people with developmental disabilities.
budget legislation signed
has graciously provided a road map for institutions and individuals to follow in his footsteps up the ladder to success, in his book, "Principles of Leadership: Te Harvey Leadership Model." Anyone who can read, can learn from this treasure trove of knowledge. Te book is engaging, easy to read and it has the power to transition the reader into an overnight success. You do not have to be a university president to benefit from reading this book. Te book also contains a good amount of historical information.
institution like Hampton University in our own backyard. If you have not taken the opportunity to visit this historical campus, you are truly depriving
its beauty, it is almost completely surrounded by water, you will be inspired by the Emancipation Oak under which freed slaves studied. You will also enjoy visiting the Hampton University Museum that is currently featuring the Pathways to Education exhibit. Tere
great deal to see and experience at Hampton University.
is a
Includes more than $530 million in general funds for K-12 education, and $131 million for a three percent pay raise for state-supported teachers and support staff, effective July 1, 2019.
percent pay raise for state and state- supported local
Includes $87 million for a two employees,
and
another $38 million for a two percent merit raise for state workers with at least three years of service. The budget also provides $49 million for targeted pay raises for direct care staff at our state behavioral health facilities; corrections officers at our Department of Corrections and Juvenile Justice facilities;
and marine deputy sheriffs.
Adds $350 million to advance planning and engineering requirements and to fund capital projects to widen and dredge the Norfolk Harbor Channel and Elizabeth River.
police and yourself. Aside from We are blessed to have an secrets to success. Dr. Harvey throughout it has
Hampton University has not survived,
thrived as the world.
Volume 12 Number 9
June 2018 BY MEL GURTOV
Trump’s War on the Poor: An Impeachable Offense Were it not for the source, it
a myth, especially
would hardly be news to learn that the United States can’t take care of its most needy—that it may be the richest country, but it is also increasingly, appallingly, unequal in how its wealth and opportunities are shared. When the various dimensions of human security are examined, critics have long noted that the US falls short, whether in treatment of children, poverty rates, income gaps between rich and poor, or even life expectancy. All this has been amply documented in annual reports of the United Nations Development Programme.
But now comes an update from a distinguished international legal scholar who is the United Nations special rapporteur for extreme poverty and human rights. Philip Alston visited several deep pockets of poverty, from Los Angeles to West Virginia and Detroit to Puerto Rico, at the end of 2017. His report (UN General Assembly Doc. A/HRC/38/33/ Add.1, May 4, 2018) is a devastating indictment of the government that underscores the large and growing contradictions between the American Dream and reality. Alston told The Guardian that Trump’s policies amount to “ a systematic attack on America’s welfare program that is undermining the social safety net for those who can’t cope on their own. Once you start removing any sense of government commitment, you quickly move into cruelty.”
Harsh language to be sure, but not a novel observation. A good deal of the critique applies to previous US administrations. Let’s remember that the “war on poverty” began in 1964! What makes Alston’s report stand out is his contention that the Trump administration has deliberately targeted the most vulnerable in society, kicking away every ladder of social wellbeing in order to serve
Trump’s rich
supporters and his alt-right agenda. So it’s not just that this government can’t take care of the poor; it won’t.
Here are a few items from
Alston’s indictment that strike me as being particularly onerous—that is, criminal in intent and consequences.
• Debasing civil society:
Supporting limits on voting rights with specious arguments about voter fraud and “covert disenfranchisement” such as gerrymandering and various ID requirements.
• Giving huge millionaires tax breaks to and big corporations
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while about 40 million people live below the poverty line—among them, 23.8 million considered in extreme or absolute poverty. The richest 1 percent of Americans now account for 20 percent of national income, double the percentage in 1980. “The proposed tax reform package stakes out America’s bid to become the most unequal society in the world,” says Alston in a separate statement.
• Putting new limits on basic
anti-poverty measures such as work requirements for welfare, food stamps, subsidized housing, health insurance, and veterans’ benefits.
• Limiting opportunity: United States now has one of
“The the
lowest rates of intergenerational social mobility of any of the rich countries. . . . The equality of opportunity, which is so prized in theory, is in practice
for minorities
and women, but also for many middle-class White workers.”
• Promoting racist stereotypes
that seek to stigmatize non-whites as being mainly poor, lazy, and unworthy of uplifting.
• Tolerating the highest rate of
infant mortality, the highest rate of youth poverty, and the highest income inequality among all rich countries.*
• Treating Puerto Rico as a
colony, and imposing fiscal discipline that fails to take into account people’s need of social protection. (The mayor of San Juan says it all: Trump’s total neglect has to be called [out]. The United Nations says that when people are denied the right to access to basic human services — like electric power, like water, like food, like appropriate medical care — that it is a violation of human rights.”)
Except for The Guardian, I don’t
believe any major news outlet has reported on Alston’s work. Only a few liberal
politicians have bothered to
comment. We evidently are so steeped in the mythology of exceptionalism that we refuse to believe we’re in decline in the most important measure of national security, namely, human security. We thus take comfort
in
being number one in military spending and the number of billionaires while also believing we can turn away from global affairs that affect every American: environmental protection, immigration
reform, trade equity,
and adherence to UN human-rights conventions.
(Also relevant to the assault on
low-income people and racism is a report of the World Justice Project, a multidisciplinary US organization devoted to advancing the rule of law. Its latest report [2017-2018] shows that on two components of a lawful society—criminal
justice and civil
justice—the US lags well behind Germany and other Western European peers and ranks only 19th overall out of 113 countries surveyed. Civil justice
includes the categories of
accessibility and affordability, and no discrimination; the US rank here is
particularly low. Likewise under
criminal justice, the US scores are very low compared with Europe for no discrimination and due process of law.)
The Alston report’s findings are an indictment of the Trump administration and should become an article of impeachment. In terms of ethics and democracy, Trump’s actions may be more consequential than his currying favor with the Russians— not just because they debase and violate so many of our citizens, but also because they make a mockery of traditional (and worthy) American values such as lawfulness, community, and tolerance—values that once upon a
time respect. This president has put himself
and his cronies first and the rest of the country last. He has behaved in the manner of many Third World dictators: enriching his inner circle, paying off loyalists, giving the military everything it wants, attacking the key institutions of democracy and the rule of law, and marginalizing the masses. He must be confronted, and his author- itarianism must be decisively rejected.
commanded international
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