Originally published in The Chattanooga Times Free Press
Remember those playground rumbles after school? “You’re wrong!” “No! I’m right and everybody knows it.” In case you’re wondering, this back-and-forth wasn’t between a couple of kids arguing over kickball. This was the former President and Vice President arguing over the United States constitution. Will this conversation be quoted by future generations? Who knows? Maybe it’ll sound like Shakespeare given how the Republican National Committee (RNC) is trying to redefine the violence of the Jan. 6 Capital riot.
The RNC condemned the House select committee investigating Jan. 6 and censured Liz Cheney (R-WY) and Adam Kinzinger (R-IL) for participating in the almost 400 interviews about the “Stop the Steal rally” that day. The investigation was called a Democrat-led persecution of ordinary citizens engaged in “legitimate political discourse”.
Continue reading Playing the political discourse game – By Deborah Levine
Groundbreaking STEM Women
KALLIE MARIE is a recording engineer and record producer who has worked with a variety of artists and bands. She is also an award winning composer, whose work with MPath Tracks won a Broadcast Production Music Award. She has written music for film, TV, choreographers, and has a strong interest in creating music for video games. She is also a freelance writer for Sonic Scoop, as well as a published author with Routledge Taylor Francis, and her latest title with Rowman & Littlefield.
Christopher Johnson is the President of Global Financial Services at Pitney Bowes, where he manages the financing and lending businesses, as well as the consumer and merchant payments and risk management functions across the company. Christopher also holds leadership responsibility for Pitney Bowes Bank, a state chartered industrial loan company.
Andrew documents the history of the Rosenwald schools program which transformed education for African Americans in the first half of the twentieth century. The founders were Julius Rosenwald, born to Jewish immigrants, who rose to lead Sears, Roebuck & Company and Booker T. Washington , born into slavery, who became the founding principal of Tuskegee Institute. In 1912 the two men launched an ambitious program to partner with Black communities to build public schools for African American children. Andrew examines the role of education as the onramp to the American middle class as well as the past, present and future of the Black/Jewish progressive alliance.
Luis Martinez-Fernandez is a Professor of History, University of Central Florida teaching Latin American and Caribbean history. He is a multiple-award winning author who has recently reinvented himself as a syndicated columnist at Creators Syndicate.
CEO Bettie Kirkland, has led Project Return for 10 years. Founded in Nashville in 1979, Project Return is a Tennessee nonprofit dedicated to helping people successfully return to the community after incarceration and avoid recidivism. It has helped thousands of men and women find employment and establish stable lives, all while maintaining its inclusive, productive relationships with its program participants, employment partners and supporters. In 2021, Project Return program participants had an 82% job acquisition rate with only a 13% recidivism rate compared to state and national averages exceeding 50%.
When Project Return, recently opened a new office in Chattanooga, the milestone was celebrated with a reception featuring these remarks its CEO.