Prince George's County veterans And The New Task force - Issue #10

Nov 12, 2021

Vietnam Veterans Memorial at Henry Bacon Dr. in Northwest, Washington, D.C. photo by Ryan Stone (www.ryanstonephotography.com) on Unsplash

One of the underlying realities of Prince George's County is that it has a huge veteran community. The Census Reporter shows that there are 50,604 veterans. There are more male veterans, 40,633, than women, 9,971. Most of these veterans, 15,297, served in the first Gulf War, under George H.W. Bush's administration. There are 13, 978 veterans living in the county who served in the second Gulf War, under George W. Bush's administration. Colin Powell served as Joint Chiefs of Staff during the first Bush administration, and under the second Bush administration served as Secretary of State. Powell was the first African American to serve in both positions. Powell gave the OKAY for the United States to invade Iraq (the second Gulf War) under the false pretenses that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction. Powell, who was laid to rest in D.C. last week, regretted that decision because there were no weapons of mass destruction found, and this was known before the invasion. There are about 596 World War 2 veterans, 2,275 Korean War veterans, and 14,135 Vietnam War veterans in Prince George's County. Martin Luther King, Jr., along with other activists, spoke against the Vietnam War, even though many African Americans joined the ranks to fight in a foreign country.

From the King Institute:

"To King, however, the Vietnam War was only the most pressing symptom of American colonialism worldwide. King claimed that America made “peaceful revolution impossible by refusing to give up the privileges and the pleasures that come from the immense profits of overseas investments." King urged instead “a radical revolution of values” emphasizing love and justice rather than economic nationalism."

We must not forget that after African Americans served in the military, they returned home to an environment that refused to see their humanity. Instead of celebrating their service to America, white men and women lynched Black men and women veterans.

"Very little has been done to acknowledge the thousands of Black veterans in the United States who were abused, attacked, or killed in this country because of their status as military veterans. Inspired to defend their country and pursue greater opportunity, African Americans have served in the U.S. military for generations."

By KELLY LIVINGSTON The Biden Administration has directed federal agencies to take new steps aimed at reducing suicide deaths among veterans in the United States. Veterans make up about 7.9% of the U.S. population, but account for about 13.5% percent of suicides in the country, according to the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention. “Just by …

Education

Earlier this week, Angela Alsobrooks, county executive, announced that she has put together a Task Force. "Over the last several decades, our board of education has continued to switch between an all-elected board, an all-appointed board and the current hybrid model, along with increasing in size, without achieving the intended outcome of having a board that functions collectively with the best interests of students, teachers and our entire school system at the forefront of all they do," Prince George's County Executive Angela Alsobrooks said, according to Patch.com. "The purpose of this task force is to study best practices regionally and nationally and deliver recommendations to county leadership that will guide us in creating a board structure that facilitates collaboration and helps us continue to move our school system forward."

Janna Parker, education activist, and policy associate at the National Farm to School Network, said Alsobrooks has failed to hold up to her end of the bargain to change the structure of the school board governance from a hybrid model to one where the board of education members is elected by the community. In an interview about education policy, Parker spoke about some of the concerns she had about the structure. "Right now we have a divided school board, mainly because the appointed chair and other appointed members are having a very public spat with the elected members. It is inappropriate for a community predominantly of people of color to be told they cannot elect their own officials to govern their school board by the other officials they have elected. It silences the voice of the voters and the people."

Context: In 2018, the year that Angela Alsobrooks campaigned for County Executive, Lori Morrow, now the first Parent Member of the Maryland State Board of Education wrote on a blog post about how some community members had problems with the Prince George's County Public School Board of Education's hybrid structure of governance (some elected and some appointed by the county executive).

There is an overwhelming sense that the system is failing in terms of transparency and accountability because PGCPS leadership is responsible to county politicians instead of residents.

Regardless of original intention, the current structure and concentration of power in the office of the county executive serves as a political distraction that prevents our system from moving forward. Board members who were appointed or elected with the support of the county executive are viewed as beholden to the county government and not fully trusted. Board members elected without the support of the county executive are labeled as rebels or dissidents, and marginalized in the operations of the school board. In either case, the power of the individual county residents has been diluted.

That same year, policy PG 509-18 was put forth to limit the County Executive from choosing the CEO of PGCPS and appointing board members. Obviously, that policy did not pass because since then Alsobrooks has appointed Dr. Monica Goldson to CEO and Dr. Juanita Miller to Chair of the Board of Education.

What is next for the Task Force:

The task force held an introductory meeting last week. (See here).
On Dec. 8, the task force will hold a meeting where community members can offer their concerns or ideas about BOE structure. I suspect that many will have concerns. However, there maybe some who may not have any concerns.
The group is expected to provide a report with recommendations sometime in January 2022.

Protest and Power

Howard University activists and organizers have been advocating for 31 days for better housing conditions at the HBCU. So far, administrators have not yet met the demands. The Afro News hosted a sit-down with one of the students. Micha Green, D.C. editor at The Afro Newspaper, talked with Autumn Hester, a student at Howard. Hester also mentioned that students don't have adequate WiFi.

Jonah Bryson @JonahLBryson

Channing Hill, NAACP Chapter President at @HowardU, speaking about the University’s President refusing to engage with the students on the disturbing living conditions at Howard. https://t.co/5lE6a20uJg

In the News

“A Maryland high school English teacher who has worked to open up college education for her students has won the $1 million Global Teacher Prize, the Varkey Foundation announced Wednesday. https://t.co/nATOHsFXuz”

The city of College Park is looking to rectify the damage done to the historically Black community of Lakeland in the 1970s.

Faced with a nationwide shortage of school bus drivers, some Maryland county executives and school district leaders are pumping more money to increase drivers’ wages, whose average starting salary is $19.45 an hour, according to the Maryland State Department of Education. That average starting salary is considerably less than any other commercial driver license holder …

Community leaders from across Prince George’s County gathered Thursday in protest of a new district map, calling it gerrymandering.

The head of the Maryland Energy Administration (MEA) tried to block a provision under consideration by the state’s Climate Change Commission on Monday that would strengthen green building standards in the state. Mary Beth Tung, director of the MEA, had contacted fellow members of the climate change commission and several state agency leaders by email …

Tech In Prince George's County

Maryland has chosen a new contractor who will resume construction of the Purple Line by next spring.

Administrators in a Maryland school district say they wanted help monitoring school safety — but sweeping surveillance could land kids in gang databases and families in deportation proceedings.

Prince George's County Business

If you want good pastries, try Baked And Brunched Bakery. The company is run by Owner and Pastry Chef Nakia Cheeks. "Cheeks who holds a Master’s degree in Business Administration (MBA) from the University of Maryland Global Campus, as well as a Bachelor’s of Arts degree from the University of Pittsburgh." You can find Nakia on Instagram. You can reach Nakia here: info@bakedandbrunched.com & 202|350.0889.