Author: Carma Henry

Nunnie on the Sideline

     The countdown to the TJ Reddick Bar Association’s 32nd Annual Gala is officially on! With less than one month left until the big event, we are proud to recognize and honor the outstanding achievements of our members who have exemplified leadership, service, and commitment to the legal profession and our community. Please join us in celebrating this year’s distinguished awardees:

     The Power of Prevention conference was hosted by the United Way of Broward County, Commission on Behavioral Health and Drug Prevention in collaboration with Broward Behavioral Health Coalition (BBHC) and Florida Department of Children and Families. They were undergirded by several categories of sponsors, ranging from Diamond and Platinum to Scholarship Sponsors supporting the conference.

     High school students, according to research, should be particularly concerned about their ninth grade or freshman year, identified as a critical transition period, which can be especially challenging for 14-year-old Black girls, who face unique obstacles. To address this, Michelle Hollinger, CEO of The Institute for Worthy Living, has created PrepHERation, a seven-week group coaching program designed to equip Black girls with essential tools to thrive in their freshman year.

     Health disparities continue to plague marginalized communities across the United States. Narrow into the southern region of the country, and jarring statistics persist to paint a jarring picture of what is happening in our communities, and it’s not being amplified enough. 

   According to Michael Kimmel (2013), “When America’s white men feel they’ve lived their lives the ‘right way, worked hard and stayed out of trouble and still do not get economic rewards, then they must blame somebody else.” Consequently, angry white males’ have resorted to violence, sometimes deadly.

     Today, by contrast, many of us are oblivious to our history or have simply forgotten it, which poses a huge danger: that of sleepwalking our way into a nuclear war with catastrophic consequences for our country and all of humanity.

      Although Donald Trump, as president, proclaimed in his 2020 State of the Union address that he had produced a “blue-collar boom” in workers’ wages, the reality was quite different. Using his control of the executive branch of the U.S. government, Trump repeatedly undermined the wages of American workers by blocking raises and imposing wage reductions.

      The Biden administration has been working on a package deal with Saudi Arabia that would guarantee a path to a Palestinian state in return for a permanent cease-fire and establishment of Saudi-Israel relations. But the Saudis want more for themselves: a U.S.-Saudi mutual defense pact and cooperation on a civilian nuclear program in the kingdom. Those are steps too far: They risk bringing the US into a war with Iran and contributing to a “peaceful” nuclear program that could evolve into a Saudi bomb program.

     As Israeli troops continue their assault in Rafah, increasing the death toll and displacing – yet again – hundreds of thousands of Gazans, there’s much to be learned from recalling Dr. Martin Luther King’s visionary words on Vietnam 57 years ago. Breaking his silence on a war that by then had claimed over 20,000 American and hundreds of thousands of Vietnamese lives, King declared that the war in Vietnam was swallowing “men and skills and money like some demonic, destructive suction tube.” It was blocking, he said, whatever progress the nation had been making toward economic and racial justice.