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TPATPATPATPATPATEXASPUBLISHERSASSOCIATION
www.TheAustinVillager.com This paper canbe recycled
Vol. 47 No. 18 Phone: 512-476-0082 Email: [email protected] September 20, 2019
2019 BLACK MUSIC HONORSPAID TRIBUTE TO MUSIC ICONS
By Naomi Richard | VILLAGER Entertainment Editor
Xscape on Stage. Photo courtesy of Central City Productions(VILLAGER) - The highly anticipated 4th Annual
2019 Black Music Honors hosted by television andradio personality Rickey Smiley and Grammy®Award-winner and actress LeToya Luckett-Walkeris currently airing in national broadcast syndication.The star-studded show was taped live at The CobbEnergy Performing Arts Centre in Atlanta, GA.
Honoree Xscape, received the Urban MusicIcon Award presented by AT&T for the platinumselling quartet group’s 25 years in the industry.Chart-topping crooner, Freddie Jackson, whose ca-reer has spanned over 33 years, received the Leg-end Award, presented by State Farm. YolandaAdams received the Gospel Music Icon Award, andculturally-conscience eclectic group, Arrested De-velopment, received the Hip Hop Icon Award. Song-stress, Tamia, received the Soul Music Icon Award.
Leon Timbo and Major performed a specialtribute in honor of Rock and Roll Hall of Famer, BillWithers.
Many memorable performance tributes (PW:BMH) by Avery Wilson, Dee-1, Jade Novah, JaggedEdge, Jekalyn Carr, Naughty By Nature, June’s Di-ary, Keke Wyatt, Kelly Price, Le’Andria Johnson,
Melanie Fiona, 702, were met with standing ovations.Viewers can click Blackmusichonors.com/Airtime.htmlto check local airdates and broadcast times.
The night culminated with founder and chair-man, Don Jackson, expressing gratitude to the hon-orees, presenters and performers for making thenight unforgettable. He stated, “The Black MusicHonors gives us an opportunity to celebrate the ac-complishments of the trailblazers of African-Ameri-can music.”
The 4th Annual Black Music Honors show isExecutive Produced by Don Jackson, with JenniferJ. Jackson serving as Producer and Michael A.Johnson as Producer and Director. State Farm re-turns as the Black Music Honors title sponsor, inaddition to presenting sponsors: AT&T, Walmart,Chevrolet, Neutrogena Hydro Boost, Stellar TV andCentral City Productions, Inc.
For more information on Black Music Honors,visit www.blackmusichonors.com and connect onsocial media @blackmusichonors#BlackMusicHonors @JLMediaPr #JLMediaPR.
Latest Updates Air dates are updated fre-quently so check back often.
Joe Biden Gets Major Flak After SuggestingBlack Parents Need Help Raising Their Children
By Defender News Service(DEFENDER NEWS)
- Former Vice PresidentJoe Biden drew the ire ofthe Black communityand others when hemade what many havecalled “distasteful” com-ments about Blackparenting during thethird round of Demo-cratic debates.
Biden, 76, a Demo-cratic front-runner in therace for the WhiteHouse, was speaking onthe inequality African-American children faceat school when he madehis latest verbal gaffe.ABC News debate mod-erator Lindsey Davisbrought up the presi-dential hopeful’s pastremark on segregation
Joe Biden Angela Ryein schools and asked“What responsibility doyou think that Ameri-cans need to take to re-pair the legacy of slaveryin our country?”
Biden seemedcaught off guard by thequestion and struggledwith his response, bring-ing up his track record
on discriminatory poli-cies then abruptly shift-ing to talking about so-cial workers and recordplayers.
“Look, there’s insti-tutional segregation inthis country,” he started.“And from the time I gotinvolved, I started deal-ing with that. Redlining,
banks making sure thatwe are in a positionwhere — look, talkabout education. I pro-posed that what we takeis those very poorschools, the T itle Ischools, triple theamount of money wespend.”
Biden added thatteachers also need helpdealing with the issuesstudents bring fromhome because theyhave “every problemcoming to them.”
He continued: “Wehave to make sure thatevery single child does,in fact, have 3-, 4-, and5-year-olds go to school
See SIDE-STEP, page 7
(AUSTIN, TX) —South by Southwest®(SXSW®) Conferenceand Festivals (March 13–22, 2020) has an-nounced the initial Key-note and FeaturedSpeakers for the 34thedition of its annual Con-ference, which cel-ebrates the convergenceof technology, film, andmusic industries.
“We’re kicking offthe 2020 season with acaptivating group ofspeakers. From Key-notes Reggie Fils-Aimé,who oversaw Nintendoof America during itsmost successful era, andKim Gordon, a creativevirtuoso whose passionand achievements havepaved the way for oth-ers, to our diverse rangeof expert FeaturedSpeakers, these talentsprove that SXSW is thepremier destination forinnovation and creativediscovery,” said HughForrest, Chief Program-ming Officer. “We’vealso added new tracksand more programmingto the second half of theweek, as our eventevolves to reflect thecontinued convergenceof the industries whogather here.”
For more informa-tion, please visitsxsw.com.
To register for theevent, please visitsxsw.com/attend.
Churches documentJacob Fontaine’s
influence in Austin.See BELIEVE
Page 2
Trump alluded toinvestigatingthe Obamas.
See NETFLIXPage 7
Pflugerville’s growthpressures weigh onthe Mayor’s election.See GONZALES
Page 6
The HomelessProblem is
Out ofControl.
Our Homeless problemis one issue that our CityCouncil has been tryingto solve for many years.In the early days, Austinwas considered one ofthe most liberal cities inthe state for thehomeless. It became known asone of the more lenientcities in the state forpeople who had no placeto stay. The word gotaround that it was ok tocome to our city. Whileother cities in the statewere running them out oftown or locking them up,we extended open armsto that population. We soon found out thatwe were not equipped tobe so open and acceptableto these people in needwho had no place to go. For more than twentyyears now, we have triedto be helpful to those inneed. However, thecouncil did not have thesupport of the residents ofthe city. This populationpresented problems forthe downtown businessand entertainment district.So we tried to move themto other parts of town. At one point it wassuggested that we build ahomeless village outsideof town. But not only didthe homeless populationoppose this measure, all ofthe communities that wereconsidered for thesettlement opposed it. There have beenseveral suggestionsmade on how we cancontrol this rapidlygrowing population. Atone point it was madeillegal to congregate inseveral areas of the city.Locking up thispopulation became tooexpensive to continue. So we are back to thestarting line. At this time,there is no approved planof action to solve thisproblem. But, the councilcontinues to explore manysuggestions. They willneed all of our ideas tocorrect this problem,because the problem isgetting worse by the day.
Page 2 ~ THE VILLAGER/September 20, 2019 THE COMMUNIQUÉ www.theaustinvillager.com
Villager High School Football RevueBy John Harris Jr. | Villager Sports Columnist
(VILLAGER) - Newnames emerged amonglast week’s top highschool football perform-ers, including an explo-sive running back tan-dem that put up bignumbers in non-districtaction.
LAST WEEK’STOP PERFORMERSStony Point run-
ning backs Kendall Tho-mas and Jaden Leonard- This pair ran wild,combining for 382yards and six touch-downs in the Tigers’ 66-14 win over Leander.Thomas rushed 12times for 233 yards andfour touchdowns.Leonard took over inthe second half andcarried the ball nine
times for 149 yards andtwo scores, includingan 87-yard TD run.Stony Point has a byeweek before openingDistrict 13-6A playagainst Cedar Ridge.
Cedar Creek widereceiver/defensive backJavon Livingston -Livingston scored threetouchdowns - two viakickoff returns - in a 20-12 win overF r e d e r i c k s b u r g .Livingston returned aninterception 25 yards forhis first touchdown ofthe game. He laterscored on kickoff returnsof 95 yards and 92 yardsto provide the winningmargin.
Crockett runningback Andrew Jones -
Jones rushed 16 times for144 yards and five touch-downs in a 48-6 win overManor New Tech. Jonesscored three touchdownsin the first half and twotouchdowns in the sec-ond half.
GAME OFTHE WEEKLanier at Crockett,
Friday at 8 p.m. - Bothteams enter the District12-5A portion of theirschedules with identi-cal 1-2 records. Bothteams also enter theirdistrict openers comingoff impressive wins, soit will be interesting tosee if the Cougars andVikings can build on themomentum they estab-lished from last week’svictories.
New Exhibit: To Believe at Oakwood Cemetery ChapelFigure 1 Baptism in the
Colorado River nearAustin, Texas, July 1938,
Austin History Center,Austin Public Library,
PICT 30406,
(AUSTIN, TX) -Oakwood Chapel pre-sents “To Believe,” anexhibit with events heldin the Chapel from Sept.21 through Dec. 20,2019.
In collaborationwith interfaith groupsand East Austin commu-nity leaders, To Believevisits many approachesto faith and belief in con-temporary and historicEast Austin through
video, photography, digi-tal maps, and perfor-mance. A digital StoryMapof historic and presentdayEast Austin churches willdocument Jacob Fontaine’sinfluence in Austin.
Serving as the in-spiration for this exhibit,Fontaine was a manfreed from slavery at age57, who founded sixBaptist churches, mar-ried 111 couples, andcreated Austin’s first
black newspaper.This exhibit is a col-
laboration with Rever-end Daryl Horton, archi-tect Ben Heimsath andInterfaith Action of Cen-tral Texas. To Believealigns with The AfricanAmerican Presence in19th Century Texas, anexhibition of the GeorgeWashington Carver Mu-seum, Cultural and Ge-nealogy Center openingin October 2019.
ListenLive
Every Friday8 AM - 9 AM
TheBreakfast
Club
www.KAZIFM.org
)))
(BLACK PRESS) -Republican Dan Bishopnarrowly won a specialelection this week for aseat in North Carolina’s9th Congressional Dis-trict, which some politi-cal analysts point to as asmall boost to PresidentDonald Trump’s reelec-tion bid next year.
Virginia Harris,president of 100 BlackWomen Inc, cited that asan example of why vot-ing, specifically for Blackmales, is so important.
“I was very disap-pointed in the NorthCarolina election,” Har-ris said. “People did notshow up to vote. We doour very best educating,engaging and empower-ing young people to voteand then they don’tshow up and cast a bal-lot.”
Harris and othersspoke Friday about Blackmales voting at the Con-gressional Black CaucusFoundation’s 49th An-nual Legislative Confer-ence at the WashingtonConvention Center innorthwest D.C.
According to U.S.Census data, slightlymore than 17,000 Blacksvoted in the 2016 presi-dential election. In lastyear’s election, about15,200 voted, a nearly13 percent decrease.
Rep. Bennie Th-
ompson (D-Mississippi),who led the discussion,explained the best wayto make change alwayscome from voting.
“If you don’t en-gage [in] the process,then you let people getelected who might nothave your best interest,”he said. “In America, wedon’t fight. … We go tothe polls and vote. That’swhat we all need to en-courage our young menand young women.”
The talk became in-teractive when DamienHooper-Campbell, 40,chief diversity officer foreBay in San Jose, Califor-nia, asked young Blackmen in the room to sim-ply explain “what’s onyour minds?”
Instead of adultstalking to them, threestudents from the Uni-versity of Connecticutsaid some adults don’trespond to inquirieswhen they seek basic in-formation.
In addition, theyoung men said somesaid adults “talk down”to them, assumingthey’re too young andwouldn’t understandcomplex subjects.
“We’re on socialmedia and at a placewhere we receive infor-mation 24 hours a day,”said Mason Holland, 17,a freshman studying po-
litical science at Con-necticut fromHackensack, New Jersey.“Information is comingat us, but that is how weretain it and it is not allbad.”
Desmond Taylor,25, a 2016 Howard Uni-versity graduate fromHouston, said some ofhis peers must take theproper steps to intro-duce themselves to theirelders, partly by learningto accept constructivecriticism.
Taylor, who doescommunity service workfor Houston MayorSylvester Turner, saidyoung adults should befrustrated if they don’treceive a response whenseeking internship, jobsor other inquiries.
“Sometimes, [poli-ticians] are over-whelmed — they’re hu-man, too,” he said.
So non-millennialsoffered a suggested tomeet with the younggeneration in theirneighborhoods andlearn from social mediainteraction.
“It’s about havingthat conversation andputting down that prideand saying, ‘we are bet-ter together,’” Hooper-Campbell said.
This article origi-nally appeared in TheWashington Informer.
ALC Panel StressesImportance of Black Male
Voter TurnoutBy William J. Ford and Black Press USA
We Want YOU!Advertise With
TheVILLAGER
www.theaustinvillager.com THE BULLETIN THE VILLAGER/September 20, 2019 ~ Page 3
Felix Bamirin, PastorGRACEWAY CHRISTIAN CHURCH
Experience Grace For LifeCall: 682.472.9073 l Email: [email protected] l
Visit: www.gracewaycca.org
JOIN US This SUNDAY / THURSDAY@ 12424 Scofield Farms Drive, Austin, TX 78758
SUNDAYS 10:30 A.M., THURSDAYS 7:30 P.M.
New Lincoln Missionary Baptist Church2215 E. 8th St.,
Austin, TX 78702Going to Higher Heights,
Trusting God along the way.Sunday School 9:00am
BTU: 10:00amMorning Worship - 11:00 amChurch Phone (512) 477-2714
Cell Phont (512) 585-0744Email: [email protected]
www.newlincolnmbc.orgRev. Darron E. Patterson
Pastor
(By Parmer Lane Baptist Church building,behind Wells Fargo)
Romans 5:1 Therefore, having beenjustified by faith, we have peace
with God through our Lord Jesus Christ
“This life, therefore, is notrighteousness, but growth in righteousness;not health, but healing; not being, butbecoming; not rest, but exercise. We are notyet what we shall be, but we are growingtoward it. The process is not yet finished,but it is going on. This is not the end, but itis the road. All does not yet gleam in glory,but all is being purified.” --- Martin Luther
GO YE EVANGELISTIC GOSPEL MISSION(Arena of Refuge and Liberty)
Venu: Super 8, 8128 N. Interstate 35Austin, Texas 78753
CHURCH WEEKLY ACTIVITIESSundays: Sunday Celebration 9am - 12 noon
Wednesdays: Systematic Bible Study 6pm-7:30 pmFri: “I Believe in Miracle” Prayer Meetings 6-7:30
Join Operation PUSH Prayerline Team EveryFriday @ 6:pm
REV. SAMUEL EHIMEN, Minister in-chargeTel: 512-506-1645
Olive Branch Fellowship of Austin / All Faith Chapel4110 Guadalupe St. Bldg #639 Austin, TX 78751
Sunday MorningWorship @ 11: am
Kenneth Hill,Pastor
Agape Baptist ChurchIn “The Centre” Bldg. F-15 7801 N. Lamar Blvd. (SE Corner of N Lamar and 183)
AGAPE is a chuch for all people. “Where Jesus Christ is Magnified and the loveHe exhibited is Exemplified.” Come, receive God’s unconditional lovefor you.
For there is no greater love!
Church ServicesSunday School 9:30 AMSunday Worship 11:00 AM
Mid-Week Service Thursday: Praise,Prayer and Bible Study 7:00 PMCall 454-1547 for Transporation
Website www.agapebcaustintx.comRev. H. Ed Calahan
Pastor
Imani Community ChurchDavis Elementray Auditorium
5214 West Duval Road
Sunday School - 9:00 A.M.Worship Service - 10:00 A.M.
Power Hour Bible Life Group - 6:00 P.M.
Imani Complex & Office,11800 Mustang at Duval
Austin, Texas 78727
Visit:imanichurch.comOffice: 512-343-9300
Rev. Dr. JacquelynDonald-Mims
Globalizing the Gospel
A Ministry That Ministers
Edward M. Fleming,Sr. Pastor
OLIVET BAPTISTCHURCH
Mount Sinai Missionary Baptist Church 5900 Cameron Road - Austin, Texas 78723-1843
(512) 451-0808 (512) 302-4575 Fax Web Site - www.themount.net
WORSHIP SERVICESSunday Worship - 7:45 a.m. & 11 a.m.Church School - 9:45 a.m.Bible Studies - Mon, 6:30 p.m. & Wed., 12 noonWednesday Night Worship - 7 p.m.
“Ministries For Mankind” Luke 4:18 A.W.. Anthony Mays, Senior Pastor
DOUBLE
GROCERY“R”
450l East Martin Luther King Blvd.*We cash ALL Tax Refund*Checks *Check Out
Country Boyz Fixin’s4140 E. 12th Street, Austin, TX 78721
Featuring Fish, Poboys, Hot Wings, Pork Chops,Homemade Gumbo, Shrimp and Alligator
DINE IN ORORDER TO GO
Mon - Fri: 11 am - 8 p.m.Saturday: 12 noon - 5 p.m.
Closed SundayCall (512) 928-5555
DAVID CHAPEL Missionary Baptist ChurchSUNDAY
Christian Education 9:15a.m. | Worship 10:30 a.m.Nursery Available
WEDNESDAY |Worship 1st Wed. monthly 7:00p.m. | Bible Study 7:30p.m.
Dr. Joseph C.Parker, Jr.
Senior Pastor
2211 East Martin Luther King Jr., Blvd.Austin, TX 78702
Office: 512-472-9748 Fax: 512-472-5399Website: www.davidchapel.orgEmail: [email protected]“A Church with a Heart
for The Community”
Pastor J. R. Roberson& First lady
Lillian Robertson
BETHEL-ST. PAUL UNITED BAPTIST CHURCH877 W. Hempstead, Giddings, Texas 78942
Weekly ScheduleSunday School 9:00 a.m.
Sunday Worship 10:45 a.m.Wednesday Night Bible
Study 6:00p.m.(979) 542-2784 Church(979) 540-6352 Home
1179 San Bernard Street,Austin, TX 78702, 512-478-7023
Sunday Morning Bible Study, 9:00 A.M.Sunday Morning Worship, 10:15 A.M.Visit our website @ www.obcaus.org
Do you have church news?Would you like to purchase
a monthly ad for yourchurch?
Inquire TODAY!Send your information to [email protected]
or call 512-476-0082
Hopewell Primitive Baptist Church690 TX-21 West, Cedar Creek, TX 78612
Sunday School9:30 a.m.
Morning Worship10:30 a.m.
Elder Carl E SheltonPastor Ph: (512) 626-3660
Hope thou in God -Psalm 42:11
Sweet Home – The Pinnacle of Praise Women’s MinistryAnnounces Upcoming Brunch and Fashion Show
(AUSTIN, TX) - The women of Sweet Home—The Pinnacle of Praise are pleased to announce theirupcoming brunch and fashion show and extend aninvitation to the community to share in their visionof Christ-centered engagement Saturday, October5, 2019, Brunch & Fashion Show at 11:00 a.m. lo-cated at 1023 Springdale Road, Bldg. 12, Austin,Texas.
Plan to engage in fellowship, fashion, and foodduring this gathering featuring keynote speaker Dr.Melanie C. Jones. Dress for Success Austin, an or-ganization that empowers women to achieve eco-nomic independence, will be the recipient of newmakeup items donated by the attendees. Rev.Melanie is a womanist ethicist, millennial preacher,and intellectual activist. She earned a bachelor’sdegree in economics and political science fromHoward University and a Master of Divinity with acertificate in Black Church Studies from Vanderbilt
University Divinity School and a Doctor of Philoso-phy degree from Chicago Theological Seminary(CTS) studying ethics, theology, and culture. Sheserved as the Theologian-in-Residence at SweetHome — The Pinnacle of Praise and is currently theinaugural director of the Katie Geneva Cannon Cen-ter for Womanist Leadership at Union PresbyterianSeminary in Richmond, Virginia. Tickets for theBrunch and Fashion Show are $30.
Sweet Home—The Pinnacle of Praise, underthe leadership of Dr. Dante D. Wright I, is one of thelargest and fastest growing black churches inWilliamson County guided by the mission to de-velop Christian disciples, through the Word, to in-fluence the world.
Sweet Home— The Pinnacle of Praise is locatedat 3200 Sunrise Road. Visit the web site at http://www.shbcpinnacleofpraise.org/ or call 512-823-2888.
NATIONAL EXPUNGEMENT WEEK (N.E.W.)AUSTIN EVENT TO BE HELD SEPTEMBER 28, 2019
AT HUSTON-TILLOTSON UNIVERSITY(DAVAGE-DURDEN STUDENT UNION)
(NEW YORK, NY) -The second annual Na-tional ExpungementWeek (N.E.W) will beheld from September21-28, 2019, with eventsin 30 cities throughoutthe country - includingAustin, TX. The N.E.WAustin event will takeplace on September 28,2019, 1 pm to 5 pm atHuston-Tillotson Univer-sity in the Davage-Durden Student Union.Events to be featuredthroughout the week in-clude free clinics to helpremove, seal, or reclas-sify eligible convictionsfrom criminal records(depending on local leg-islation), as well as pro-vide expungement edu-cation workshops andcomplementary ser-vices. A coalition ofmore than three dozenorganizations workingat the intersection of the
cannabis industry, racialequity, and reparativejustice, led by EquityFirst Alliance and Cage-Free Repair, conceivedthe week to highlight theneed to fully integratethose disenfranchisedby the war on drugswithin their respectivecommunities. N.E.W. ismade possible by Pre-senting SponsorsHouseplant and CanopyGrowth Corporation,dozens of local sponsorsand partners, and thetireless work of commu-nity-based organizationsdedicated to repairingharms of the War onDrugs.
N.E.W. events haveinspired teams of attor-neys, organizers, and ac-tivists nationwide tocontinue to increaseexpungement opportu-nities where possible,with over 40 events
scheduled to take placethroughout the week.Cities featuring partici-pating events havenearly doubled from 16in 2018 to 30 for thisyear’s events. The inau-gural N.E.W., which ranfrom October 20-27,2018, is credited withleading 298 people torecord clearing andsealing - resulting in apublic benefit of over $3million in its first yearalone. Over 400 peoplealso received relatedsocial services includingemployment resources,voter registration, andhealth screenings.Though expungementlegislation, especially inregards to cannabis con-victions, has gained ac-ceptance across the po-litical spectrum, the lawsthemselves present avirtual web of legal pro-cedures and restrictions,
solidifying N.E.W.’s pushto expand access andstreamline the use ofa u t o m a t e dexpungement.
N.E.W.’s launch onSeptember 21st coin-cides with Code ForAmerica’s National Dayof Civic Hacking, andCode For America’s vol-unteer Brigades havechosen to focus onrecord clearance thisyear. Many Brigades areworking with localN.E.W. organizers tocombine live events withtechnological solutions.N.E.W. also coincideswith National Voter Reg-istration Day, whichhighlights the need forvoting rights restoration,and the N.E.W. websiteprovides a link to anonline toolkit so com-munities can organizesuch events beyond thescope of the week.
Page 4 ~ THE VILLAGER/September 20, 2019 YOUTH BRIGADE www.theaustinvillager.com
Youth of TodayHope of Tomorrow
School Closings
Everyone is talkingabout the closing or con-solidation of schoolsmostly east of IH 35. Itmakes a lot of peoplequite upset. Most ofthem want to know whymostly are on this side oftown. I hear and readabout the many reasonwhy this must takeplace.
Most of the thingrelated to eastsideschool seems alwaysnegative. I have heardthat they are low per-forming. I read that onlya few are rated four orfive star schools. Theyare under-utilized. ForSome reason all theschools had ongoingmaintenance problems.Some call it deferredmaintenance. Althoughmost of the schools aresupposed to be prettyold. These schools I'mtold are in low income
minority areas. The let-ter grading systemmakes it seem evenworst. No one to get an"F" score.
I was told to look uphow each school isfunded. There I learnedof a term called "atten-dance-base funding. Itstated that this really af-fects poverty areaschool. Every time a kidmiss a day of school theschool is docked money.If the school was de-signed to have a certainamount of students andenrollment is far belowthat amount they startout at a loss. There aresome bad and violentkids that need to bekicked out or sent to spe-cial school. Someschools just bring themback because of atten-dance-based funding. Ithink no school shouldbe under-funded.
The other thingthat bothers me is thatlow income studentdon't mean they can'tlearn. Those end of yeartesting I think are unfair.Test on acquired knowl-edge do not measurecreativity or how smartyou are. Some peopleare not good test takers.I was told that most ofthe great men in Ameri-can history were skilledone or more field.
Tyler AllenGus Garcia YMLA
Lacee JohnsonConally High School
Les Misérables PSAT Test Time
As a sophomorethe process for prepar-ing for college seems toreach closer eachmonth. You start to re-alize the need to preparefor key dates like takingthe PSAT, SAT and ACTtests. I hear these acro-nyms being thrownaround so much butnever have actually wor-ried about taking thesetests until now. I amnow in the testingmindset because thePSAT test is just onemonth away.
The PSAT test isgiven during your sopho-more year. The test doesnot directly go towardscollege admission appli-cation process but itdoes qualify you for theNational Merit Scholar-ships, basically meaning
a handful of the highestscoring students canearn scholarship money.The PSAT test is also use-ful for preparation foreven more major admis-sion tests that count to-wards your college ad-mission as well as aca-demic summer campsand programs.
How am I prepar-ing, I was gifted withsome great study booksthat give basic and com-plex hints on how to stayconsistent with ques-tions which can add upto a higher test score.The books are filled withpractice tests; writing,English and vocabularyexercises.
My school, ConallyHigh School offer testingresources in the library.To register for the testyou must see your as-signed high school coun-selor.
With the test beingless than a month awayI need to get busy. I amlooking forward to get-ting this test behind meso that I can see whatsubjects I need to focusmy attention. I want tofeel comfortable andprepared for the SAT andACT test next year.
Quinn LangfordCedar Ridge H. S.
Ruby GeorgeCele Middle School
Active-Shooter Drills in Schools?
On Saturday, Sep-tember 14th, I went to seethe musical LesMisérables at Bass Con-cert Hall. Based on the1862 novel by Frenchwriter Victor Hugo, LesMisérables chronicles thestory of a former prisonernamed Jean Valjean whobreaks his parole but de-cides to start a new life ofhonesty after a bishopshows him mercy. Theplay also dives into thelives of some of the otherpeople Valjean interactswith throughout his life,emphasizing how the po-litical turmoil of 1830sFrance affected all of them.
I had already seenthe movie version of LesMisérables, but seeingthe live rendition defi-nitely did have value. Thesinging was so incrediblethat it gave megoosebumps. In themovie, Anne Hathawayplays Fantine, a characterwho has to sell everythingshe has, including herhair. Although Hathawayshows more emotion inher facial expressions, theactress in the play couldconvey a larger range of
emotion with her voice.She could obviously hit allthe high notes, but shealso went lower than I’veever heard any woman gobefore.
In addition to thesinging, the set was alsoimpressive. Thereseemed to only be twomain structures, but thestage crew moved themall over the place to cre-ate a variety of differentlocations throughout thecity of Paris. They also dida great job utilizing thegiant screen at the back ofthe stage. At one point, agiant wagon was dis-played on the screen,growing larger and largerto create the appearancethat it was coming closer.It was so misty and darkthat it was hard to seeexactly what was goingon, so when a real wagonbegan moving across thestage, it looked like it hadpopped right out of thescreen.
I love the story of LesMisérables because tome, there’s no bottomline or main point. I thinkthat each character’s indi-vidual story has its ownunique life lessons, sothere’s a message some-where in the musical foreveryone. I had plannedto read the Les Misérablesnovel this summer, but Iwas too busy. However,after seeing the play, Ihave decided that thenext book I will read forfun will be Les Misérablesbecause I want to take acloser look at the motiva-tions of each characterand hopefully learn evenmore life lessons.
A lot of schoolshootings have been oc-curring. Most parentsand students wantAmerican schools to havean active-shooter drill.The students would liketo feel more sure aboutwhat to do. Most schoolshave a rule aboutphones. After the firstday of school at Mark T.Sheehan High School inWallingford, Conn,Mackenzie Bushey, a 15-year-old junior, camehome upset that ateacher enforced a no-cellphones policy by con-fiscating students’phones before class. Sheneeded her cell,Mackenzie told her fam-ily last month, to notifypolice should a gunmanattack her school.Mackenzie’s mother,Brenda Bushey, blamesher daughter’s fears onmonthly active-shooter
drills at Sheehan High. “Iunderstand they’re try-ing to think about thechildren’s best interests,’’Ms. Bushey said in an in-terview. “But you can’thelp but think of how it’saffecting them.” I thinkthat students should beable to have theirphones, but not poweredoff. Just in case there is anemergency, they shouldbe able to open theirphone quickly so thatthey can call 911 or con-tact family members.
Nearly every Ameri-can public school nowconducts lockdown drills— 96 percent in 2015 and2016 — according to theEducation Department’sNational Center for Edu-cation Statistics. Law en-forcement officials andmany school administra-tors say they are crucialfor preparing and safe-guarding students, butmethods vary widely andnow include drills thatchild trauma experts saydo little more than terrifyalready anxious children.
After the shootingat Marjory StonemanDouglas High School inParkland, Fla., nearly 60percent of Americanteenagers said they werevery or somewhat wor-ried about a mass shoot-ing at school, a similarproportion as parents,according to a survey bythe Pew Research center.
Chess Club
Montrae NelsonFour Points M. S.
Hello everyone, to-day I wanted to talk aboutme being in chess cluband how much I've en-joyed it so far. I've beenin high school for 4 weeksnow and I've been going toa lot of clubs recently. Ihave been in school longenough to know that youneed to take club to makesome new friends. I havebeen taking chess clubwith my friend Isaias andwe go to the club everyday.We will go there and par-ticipate in contests and seewho can get the top 5 inthe chess club for prizes.
What I like the mostabout the club is thatwhen you go againstsomebody random, sowhen you're going upagainst the person youneed to know each othersnames and say goodgame whether you win orlose. Chess is a game thattakes strategy and time,you must know the pieceand the moves of it aswell. There are 16 pieceson each side for the 2players. The object of thegame is to capture theopposing pieces accord-ing to the rules.
Once you have mostof the opponents piecesyou have to take out his/her king and say check-mate if they can't makeany more moves. Thatswhat I love about thegame its a challenge tolearn and play but is re-ally fun once you get thehang of it. Chess club isamazing and an great ex-perience it can get con-fusing at first instill youstart to understand it andwant to play it more.Thank you for reading!!
Representation Matters!
We can’t argue oth-erwise, discriminationagainst LGBTQ+ peopleexists. It's true that thereare more people talkingabout this topic nowthen there were before.Discrimination againstmembers of the LGBTQ+community is somethingthat has been going onfor hundreds of years,but has only beenbrought to lightrecently.This discrimina-tion started with samesex couples being acrime all around theworld, and the people inthe community were of-ten stoned to death.Even though the society
seems to be moving for-ward this punishmentstill exists,as do manyother forms of harass-ment and discriminationbut there are many waysto fight it. Representa-tion is one of the meth-ods that could be usedto fight all kinds ofdiscrimination.Somepeople don't even knowthat the what theLGBTQ+ community is.Putting characters inbooks and TV shows thatare a part of this com-munity could helppeople learn . Incorpo-rating people of thiscommunity into litera-ture and media is benefi-cial to everyone. Teach-ing everyone to accepteach other despite ourdifferences will makethe world a little bit bet-ter. Including LGBTQ+characters in literatureand media is importantbecause it helps teensstruggling with their ori-entation, teachesyounger children aboutthe community, andhelps normalize LGBTQ+people in society.
Kennedy GeorgeWeiss High School
www.TheAustinVillager.com
@TheVillagerATX
www.theaustinvillager.com THE REVEALER THE VILLAGER/September 20, 2019 ~ Page 5
Saturday, Septem-ber 14, Simpson UnitedMethodist Church hostedour annual Women’sbrunch. The scripturethat was chosen to repre-sent the brunch was,“How beautiful are thefeet of those who bringgood news” (Romans10:15). I was asked tospeak on the topic of san-dals at the brunch, and Ihad absolutely no ideahow to do it, but it even-tually came along and Iwant to share it with youall. “Sandals have beauti-fied feet for many years,but throughout historythe reasons for these cre-ations varied. Sandals areone of the oldest shoedesigns in history withtheir simple design. Themain purpose of sandalsin the past, were to keepfeet cool as well as pro-tected them from therough terrain. This wasthe main focus during thetime that sandals firstbegan to appear in use.Over time, sandals mod-ernized leading us to thepresent time, our current
stage, where we are now.Most commonly whenwitnessing the presenceof sandals, they are wornon the feet of those whoall have painted toenails,have smooth feet, itseems as if they have re-cently gotten a pedicure,you know, with the typi-cal ideal image of “Beau-tiful Feet”. I am speakingto you all in this momentto bring awareness to thefact that sandals are somuch more than the idealimage. Many of you, in-cluding myself, dress andpick out your perfect pairof shoes to match youroutfit, taking into consid-eration that if you decidesandals and wear opentoe, your feet are ex-posed, they must looknice. Keep this in mind asI speak.
Revisiting our scrip-ture, that reads, Howbeautiful are the feet ofthose who bring goodnews! Roman 10:15. LikeI was addressing before,out of context my mindimmediately visits thethought “Hold on, I knowmy feet aren’t THAT badtoday! I mean, I got apedicure a while ago butthey still look decent…Don’t look too hardthough. Still, they couldbe worse!” I know I’m notthe only one. When pick-ing your shoes today,some of you asked your-selves if your feet were“Beautiful” enough towear the shoes you haveon now. This is an issue.This is not at all what thescripture in context
means. The scripture isreferring to the fact thatGod does not care whatkind of shoes you haveon. He does not bring amagnifying glass to in-spect each toe and judgewhose feet are “Beauti-ful” based off of that. Hedoes not make faces atthose who do not havetheir toenails painted.The idea is further thanwhat we can imagine.The word states, Howbeautiful are the feet ofthose who bring goodnews! Roman 10:15.What counts as beauty isnot the human aspectsthat we believe, but ratherwhether or not someonegoes out of their way toshare hope, faith, and love.A sandal, is a shoe, notsomething that God willlook through and judgethe feet within. “Beauti-ful Feet” are those whowalk and share knowl-edge and positivity. La-dies, look at your sandalsor feet. God does notcare what they look like,as that is materialistic. In-stead, God cares aboutwhat you do with thosefeet. He cares that you usethem to spread his word,inspire others, and en-gage people in the word.Next time you strap onyour sandals, think aboutwhat you will do in thatday and if it will place youin the category of God’simage of beautiful feet.I’m going to leave you allto think about this, whatshoes are you wearing?And what will you do withthese shoes?”
SaNaya WhiteAnn Richards
What Shoes Are You Wearing? BACK-TO-SCHOOL BASH
Kaitlyn CannonBluebonnet Trail Elem.
On September 6,2019, my elementaryschool and PTA spon-sored a fun evening forthe new and returning
students, as well as,families and friends ofour school. It was somuch fun seeing class-mates, since I last sawthem in May 2019. Weplayed games, enjoyedface-painting booths,music and dancing. Ourteachers, school princi-pal and families enjoyedseeing how well the stu-dents behaved, and en-joyed the three hours’event. Many studentshope we can have suchevent every year.
I like going to
school, especially read-ing to other students,and to visiting dogswhich are allowed in ourschool. I sure hope I willget a dog for my birthdaythis month, I think I amready to be responsibleto help care for it. I willkeep him entertainedwith the poems andsongs I write and sing,especially when my vol-leyball team is onbreaks. Come thisweekend,I will know if apuppy is one of my birth-day gifts.
RRHS Sports Events
Rebekah McNealRound Rock H. S.
This week there area multitude of sportsevents happening! Ican’t wait to see whowins and who plays thehardest. These eventsinclude tennis, volley-
ball, and football.On Tuesday, Sep-
tember 17th there willbe a Varsity Tennis gameat Stony Point HighSchool at 4 pm. Therewill also be volleyballgames held at RoundRock High School thesame day, both againstStony Point. The first onewill be at 5:30 p.m. JVand JV Flex, and the sec-ond game at 6:30 p.m.freshman and varsity.
Thursday, Septem-ber 19th at Dragon Sta-dium, JV Football willplay against McNeil HighSchool at 5 p.m. and 7p.m. At the same time,Freshman Football willbe playing McNeil as
well, at McNeil HighSchool.
On Friday, Septem-ber 20th at 4 p.m. Var-sity tennis will playEastview, at EastviewHigh School. On this day,the volleyball teams willbe playing at McNeilHigh School. JV and JVFlex play at 5:30 p.m.while freshman and var-sity will play at 6:30 p.m.Lastly, Varsity footballplays against McNeil atKelly Reeves AthleticComplex 7 p.m.
I know all DragonSports teams will be suc-cessful at every one oftheir games, but I wishthem luck for these up-coming ones and future.
DanceAfrica
Fest 2019! Sat September 28, 2019 - Sun, September 29, 2019
Presented in partnership with Lannaya Drum &Dance, and Gbeda Acupuncture and Sound Medicine.Location: Balance Dance Studio, Bravo Theatre, 4544S Lamar Blvd, Austin, Texas 78745. Professional mu-sicians accompany all workshops.
Page 6 ~ THE VILLAGER/September 20, 2019 DIASPORA www.theaustinvillager.com
Orchestra Concert!
School has startedand I'm finally back towriting for the Villager!Hello everybody, today Iwant to share a little bitabout my class scheduleand an upcoming or-chestra concert with youguys, but before that; Iwant to give a thank youto everybody that'sbeen keeping up with allof my articles through-out the years.
This year is going tobe a little bit differentfrom what I'm use to as
all my classes are onesthat I want to take ordon't have to get creditto still graduate. The firstcategory including ApChemistry, English, Or-chestra, Precalculus, ApGovernment, and Eco-nomics. The second;American Film and Introto Engineering. So far,my experience withthese classes point to-wards me having a funschool year!
Something elsethat's new, our schoolorchestra is having ourfirst concert of the yearthis Wednesday insteadof in October, whichmeans we will havemore money to pay forinstrument repairs butsadly, nobody who readsthis article will be able toattend the concert.
That's all for thisweek. Until Next Time.Go Austin High Ma-roons!
Averill ToppsStephen F. Austin H.S.
Spirit Day
Ava RobertsPflugerville M. S.
The past Friday myschool had Spirit Day. Allmembers of extracur-ricular activities whereencouraged to whereteam shirts. The volley-ball and football teams
could wear their jerseysduring school. As a vol-leyball team member, Ithought that this wascool! Throughout theday, teachers supportedthe day by saying thingslike ‘Go Panthers’ and‘Yeah Panthers’. I thinkthat every school shouldhave a spirit day or spiritweek. I believe it wouldencourage students toshow school spirit andhave fun seeing all thedifferent students in thevarious clubs.
Next Wednesday iscollege week. I hope asmany people show up incollege gear!
Sarah RobertsonJohn B. Connally H. S.
First District Volleyball Game
This past Friday thelady cougars volleyballteam had their first dis-trict game against thePflugerville panthers.The Connally Cougarsvolleyball team hasplayed against thePflugerville Panthers last
year with one devastat-ing loss and one amazingwin. This year the volley-ball team knew that theyhad to win against thePanthers. The freshmanand JV team both lostagainst the panthers,therefore it was up tothe varsity team to winagainst pflugerville. Thecougars won the firsttwo sets againstpflugerville but loss thethird set. During thefourth set the score wasneck and neck, but how-ever the connally cou-gars came out on topand beat pflugerville.The Connally Cougarsvolleyball team is ingood shape to have theopportunity to go toplayoffs. Go Cougars!
Re-elect MayorVictor Gonzales
VILLAGER NEWS - Recently, Mayor VictorGonzales announced his intention to run for re-elec-tion. "I am seeking re-election for Mayor of my life-long hometown, Pflugerville, Texas. Since I was firstelected Mayor three years ago, we have made greatstrides shepherding Pflugerville through times ofrapid change and growth; however, there is stillmuch work to be done, and I need your support todo it," expressed Mayor Gonzales.
Moreover, Mayor Gonzales plans to continuehis transformative aspect of Pflugerville through theactions of Building relationship and managinggrowth. According to Mayor Gonzales, "I doggedly sought to build strong relationships both within
Pflugerville and surrounding governmental entities.My goal has been to strengthen the community ofcities while simultaneously promoting Central Texas’objectives throughout the State of Texas."
Also, Mayor Gonzales mentioned, "growth
must be measured against the quality of life. Issuesthat confront us; traffic, transportation, infrastruc-ture, water management, planning and zoning, de-velopment, and revitalization of the original down-town Pflugerville." Moreover, this election will de-cide the future growth of the city of Pflugerville.
Mayor Victor Gonzales (Center) runs for re-election. Photo/Tsoke (Chuch) Adjavon
Nigerian Americans OrganizeIndependence Celebration
V I L L A G E RNEWS - On October 1,2019, the most popu-lated African countryof Nigeria will beholding its Indepen-dence Day and com-memoration; variousNigerian-Americanorganizations of Cen-tral Texas plan to cel-ebrate as well. For in-stance, the group UmuIgbo plans to organizea celebration on Sep-tember 28, 2019, inPflugerville, Texas,while Pyramid Enter-tainment plans to holdan event on October 5,2019, in Austin, Texas.
The nation of Ni-geria is located in
Western Africa and isone of the top oil pro-ducers. They have be-
come a very strongally of the UnitedStates because the U.S.
plans to get twenty-five percent of its oilfrom this part of theworld. Nigeria is bor-dered by the nation ofBenin to the West,Cameroon to the East,Chad to their North-East, Niger to theNorth; and the Atlan-tic ocean to its South.
Moreover, Nige-ria has seen its share oftroubles and goodtimes. Recently, the Is-lamic radical group,Boko Haram un-leashed a wave of ter-ror in Northern Nige-ria. The nation of Ni-geria recentlylaunched a satelliteinto orbit. Addition-ally, it has been rockedby South Easternerdemanding an inde-pendent state calledBiafra.
by Tsoke (Chuch) AdjavonVILLAGER Columnist
by Tsoke(Chuch) Adjavon
VILLAGERColumnist
Pictured left to right are: Pa Jude, Sam, andBosseme. Photo/Tsoke (Chuch) Adjavon
Pflugerville Expoby Tsoke (Chuch) Adjavon
VILLAGER Columnist
VILLAGER NEWS - Saturday, September 14,2019, the Pflugerville Chamber of Commerceheld their annual Expo. Businesses and individu-als who are involved with the Pflugerville Cham-ber of Commerce had the opportunity to show-case their products. There were a variety of mar-kets present at the event such as insurance com-panies, banking, childcare services, campaigns;and the hospitality industry. The Pflugerville Expowas a friendly family event.
There were Star flight Helicopters in whichkids and their families could ride. Also, there wasa petting zoo for children. As a result, it was anentire day of fun for everyone involved. For ex-ample, the children could play on a firefight truckand learn about the profession. Furthermore, theExpo had various types of dance and singing per-formances.
Also, there were numerous campaignspresent at the event, both Victor Gonzales andBrad Marshall were in attendance. According toJohn who attended the event, "I had the oppor-tunity to meet Constable Ballestores and learnabout his platform.
Central Texas FoodBank Receives
$24,000 Donation(AUSTIN, TX) - The Central Texas Food Bank
announced today a $24,000 grant from TheDarden Foundation to help provide hunger reliefto Central Texas families. The funds will be usedto provide nutritious grocery staples and fresh pro-duce to those in need in the Food Bank’s 21-countyservice area.
The Central Texas Food Bank, a member ofthe Feeding America® network, is one of 193 foodbanks to receive this funding from The DardenFoundation. It is projected that this grant will en-able the Food Bank to fund several initiatives, in-cluding targeted programs that serve populationsmost vulnerable to hunger. The Food Bank’s Mo-bile Food Pantry and the Fresh Food for Familiesprograms bring fresh produce directly to thosewho live in remote areas where food assistance islimited. Kids Cafe®, BackPack, and the Healthy Op-tions Program for the Elderly (HOPE) provide nu-tritious food on a regular basis for children andolder adults
The Darden Foundation is committed to sup-porting families facing food insecurity in commu-nities across the United States. Their commitmentto help is demonstrated through their partnershipwith Feeding America and their network of 200food banks across the nation. Locally, two mem-bers of the Darden Restaurants family – The Capi-tal Grille and Eddie V’s Prime Seafood – also sup-port the Central Texas Food Bank through their par-ticipation in Austin Restaurant Weeks.
Feeding America has worked alongside TheDarden Foundation for seven years in the fight toend hunger. Thanks to their ongoing support, theFeeding America network has been able to helpprovide even more meals to families in need.
To learn more about the Central Texas FoodBank, visit centraltexasfoodbank.org.
EMPLOYMENT | PROPOSALS | PUBLIC INFORMATIONFOR SALE | FOR RENT | BIDS | MISCELLANEOUS
www.theaustinvillager.com CLASSIFIEDS THE VILLAGER/September 20, 2019 ~ Page 7
Apply at HRMiddle Fiskville Rd.
6th Floor, Austin, TX 78752Job Line (512 223-5621hhtp://www./austincc.ed
EEOC/AA/M/F/D/V
Are you interested in doingbusiness with the City of Austin?
We are here for you!City of Austin
Purchasing OfficeVendor Registration
www.austintexas.gov/department/purchasingFor information on the City of Austin’s Minority/
Women-Owned Procurement Program please contact theSmall & Minority Business Resources at 512-974-7600or visit www.austintexas.gov/smbr.
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Request for Proposals (RFP) 1907-002 CustodialServices for Central Health Administrative
LocationsDue Date: October 18, 2019 at 2:00 PM CT.
ScScScScScope of Wope of Wope of Wope of Wope of Work:ork:ork:ork:ork:Central Health seeks to obtain Proposals fromqualified Contractors who are able to providecustodial services for administrative locations.The RFP package is available to download fromhttps://prod.bidsync.com/central-health, OR https://www.centralhealth.net/finance/purchasing/ ORhttp://www.txsmartbuy.com/sp
New Jobs for theWeek of 09/15/2019Assistant, ACCeleratorRound Rock Campus
Job # 1909027Assistant, LibraryHighland Campus
Job # 1909025Assistant, Sr. Administrative –
Virtual College of TxRound Rock Campus
Job # 1909024Assistant, Student Affairs
Riverside CampusJob # 1909021
Vice President, InstitutionalResearch and Analytics
Highland Business CenterJob # 1909020
Technician, MaintenanceEastview Campus
Job # 1909018Coordinator, Earn and Learn
ProgramLocation as assigned
Job # 1909017Technician, Science Lab
Riverside CampusJob # 1908075
Coordinator, ParentEngagement
Round Rock CampusJob # 1908052
Assistant, AdmissionsEastview Campus
Job # 1907023
"Digital iTechnologyLLC seeks DBAs, Pro-grammers/Systems Ana-lysts, Systems Adminis-trators, S/W Engineers.Primary worksite isRound Rock TX, but re-location possible. [email protected]"
“The PflugervilleIndependent School District
will open Proposals for:BandInstruments, Supplies, Repairs& Piano Tuning 2 on Tuesday,October 15, 2019@ 2:00 p.m.
All proposals may besubmitted (by mail or hand
carry) to: Pflugerville ISD 1401 West Pecan Pflugerville, TX 78660
Attn: Tamara BerdingProposals may be picked up inperson or downloaded from thePISD website at: www.pfisd.net.
— to school, not day care, school. We bringsocial workers into homes and parents to help themdeal with how to raise their children. It’s not thatthey don’t want to help. They don’t know quite whatto do. Play the radio. Make sure the television —excuse me, make sure you have the record playeron at night.”
The former VP’s comments didn’t go over wellwith viewers who said Biden seemed to insinuatethat Black folks do not know how to take care oftheir own children.
“So many problems with this,” comedienneAshley Nicole Black wrote on Twitter. “He repeateda racist stereotype (using a debunked study). He stillhas a record player … But the pettiest problem …Does Joe Biden think black parents don’t play theirkids music?? Has he MET black people?”
“He chose to use that stage to proselytizeabout record players in the homes of poor familiesof color who need the teachers to raise their kidsfor them, SiriusXM host Jess McIntosh chimed in.“Who chooses to do that in a party that needs blackvoters to win?
One user joked, “Joe Biden thinks Black fami-lies communicate with each other by grunt.”
CNN political analyst Angela Rye was equallybothered by Biden’s remarks and chided him forside-stepping the question.
“The fact that Joe Biden response would go tothe same type of victim-blaming from conservativesfor decades is sad,” she told host Jake Tapper in arecent interview. “I think it’s highly problematic thatJoe Biden has not yet dealt with whether or not hehas a black agenda.”
“When we talk about racism in this country, itis not about parents not knowing how to raise theirchildren,” she continued. “And then for him to saythat, on the stage at Texas Southern University,which is a historically black college which — shame-less plug, I did the commencement speech thisspring — I am just — I just don’t know if he’s notlistening to his black advisers, because he has them.”
This isn’t the first time Biden has flubbed aquestion on the matter of race. Earlier this year, hefaced backlash after boasting about his work with“proud” segregationists. The presidential candidatestuck his foot in his mouth yet again in August whenhe argued that “poor kids are just as smart” as whitechildren.
Angela Rye callsBiden’s side-stepof question “sad”
Continued from page 1
Trump calls forObama’s Book, Netflixdeals to be investigated
By Defender News Service
(DEFENDER) -President Donald Trumpis once again trying tobrush aside scrutiny re-garding Russian interfer-ence in the 2016 elec-tions, taking to Twitteron Monday morning de-manding that the HouseJudiciary Committee in-vestigate former Presi-dent Barack Obama…forsome reason.
“House Judiciaryhas given up on theMueller Report, sadly forthem after two yearsand $40,000,000 spent –ZERO COLLUSION, ZEROOBSTRUCTION,” Trumptweeted bight and earlyMonday morning. “Sothey say, OK, lets look ateverything else, and allof the deals that ‘Trump’has done over his life-time. But it doesn’t workthat way.”
“I have a betteridea. Look at the ObamaBook Deal, or the ridicu-
lous Netflix deal,” headded. “Then look at allthe deals made by theDems in Congress, the“Congressional SlushFund,” and lastly the [In-spector General] Reports.Take a look at them.Those investigationswould be over FAST!”
Now, obviously,since leaving the officethe Obamas have rackedup quite a few lucrativeventures, as Vice notes.
WHAT’S BETTERTHAN ONE MILLION-AIRE? TWO.
Both Obama andFirst Lady MichelleObama have signed onto a multimillion-dollardeal with Netflix. Theyalso sealed a joint bookdeal that is believed tobe worth around $65million. They are doingjust fine.
But this was all an-nounced post-presi-dency, so it is unclear
why Trump is grasping atstraws and calling for aninvestigation into thosedealings.
But I guess can’tstop, won’t stop, as thisis not the first time thatTrump has alluded topossibly investigatingthe Obamas since theyleft the White House, asthe news site reports.
“We want to findout what happened withthe last Democrat presi-dent,” Trump told re-porters in July. “Let’slook into Obama the waythey’ve looked at me.From Day 1, they’ve
looked into everythingthat we’ve done. Theycould look into the bookdeal that PresidentObama made. Let’s sub-poena all of his records.”
Trump really wantsto subpoena Obama’srecords, yet we stillhaven’t seen a page of
his tax returns.But this is what the
year 2019 is like.At any rate, Trump
can continue to harp “nocollusion” or “no ob-struction all he wants,but the House Judiciaryis not quite done yet.
More specifically,
maybe Trump is onceagain trying to deflect asthe House Judiciary Com-mittee voted last week toexpand its power to inves-tigate Trump as Demo-crats continue to work onbuilding a case forimpeachment,as the Hillnotes.
Crystal Mason’s ballot was never counted. Will shestill serve five years in prison for illegally voting?
(TEXAS TRIBUNE) -When Crystal Mason gotout of federal prison, shesaid, she “got out run-ning.”
By Nov. 8, 2016,when she’d been out formonths but was still onsupervised release, shewas working full-time atSantander Bank indowntown Dallas andenrolled in night classesat Ogle Beauty School,trying, she said, to showher children that a“bump in the roaddoesn’t determine yourfuture.”
On Election Day,there was yet anotherthing to do: After work,she drove through therain to her polling placein the southern end ofTarrant County, expect-ing to vote for the firstfemale president.
When she gotthere, she was surprisedto learn that her namewasn’t on the roll. Onthe advice of a pollworker, she cast a provi-sional ballot instead. Shedidn’t make it to hernight class.
A month later, shelearned that her ballothad been rejected, anda few months after that,she was arrested. Be-cause she was on super-
vised release, prosecu-tors argued, she hadknowingly violated a lawpreventing felons fromvoting before complet-ing their sentences. Ma-son insisted she had noidea officials consideredher ineligible — andwould never have riskedher freedom if she had.
For “ illegally vot-ing,” she was sentencedto five years in prison.Now, as her lawyers at-tempt to persuade a FortWorth appeals court tooverturn that sentence,the question is whethershe voted at all.
Created in 2002,provisional ballots wereintended to serve as anelectoral safe harbor, al-lowing a person torecord her vote evenamid questions abouther eligibility. In 2016,
more than 66,000 provi-sional ballots were castin Texas, and the vastmajority of those wererejected, most of thembecause they were castby individuals whoweren’t registered tovote, according to datacompiled by the U.S.Election AssistanceCommission. In TarrantCounty, where Masonlives, nearly 4,500 provi-sional ballots were castthat year, and 3,990were rejected — but shewas the only one whofaced criminal prosecu-tion.
In fact, Mason’slawyer told a three-judge panel in NorthTexas last Tuesday, hersis the first known in-
stance of an individualfacing criminal chargesfor casting a ballot thatultimately didn’t count.
Her case, nowpending before an all-Republican appealspanel, is about not justher freedom, but aboutthe role and risks of theprovisional ballot itself.
Prosecutors insistthat they are notcriminalizing individualswho merely vote by mis-take. Despite those as-surances, voting rightsadvocates fear the casecould foster enoughdoubt among low-infor-mation voters thatthey’ll be discouragedfrom heading to thepolls — or even clear aSee MURKY, page 8
BY EMMA PLATOFF AND ALEXA URA
Page 8 ~ THE VILLAGER/September 20, 2019 THE DISPATCH www.theaustinvillager.com
path for prosecu-tors to criminally pursueother provisional ballot-casters.
“There are a lot ofpeople who have ques-tions about whetherthey can vote or wherethey can vote,” saidAndre Segura, legal di-rector of the AmericanCivil Liberties Union ofTexas. “You want all ofthose people to feelcomfortable going inand submitting a provi-sional ballot.”
Mason, a highly pri-vate person who hasbeen forced into the po-sition of public example,has become a Rorschachtest in the state’s fightover voting rights.
To her advocates,Mason is a victim ofvoter suppression in astate where, federaljudges have ruled, GOPofficials have a long his-tory of infringing on thevoting rights of people ofcolor. To hawks intent onpreserving the integrityof the ballot, Mason is acriminal who was caughtbefore her crime couldhave an impact. To Ma-son, her story is one ofcountless missed oppor-tunities, of a system shefeels could have edu-cated her at several criti-cal points but insteadhas opted to make anexample out of her.
“I feel like God hasa purpose for everyone.Right now, I’m walkingmy purpose,” she saidcalmly in an interviewthe night before thehearing.
What is that pur-pose?
She smiled.“I’m still trying to
figure it out. Activist, Ithink — maybe educat-ing on voting rights, yourdo’s and your don’ts,”she said.
“An untested appli-cation of the illegal vot-ing statute”
When Congresscreated provisional bal-lots through the HelpAmerica Vote Act of2002, it envisioned thatprospective voters fac-ing questions about
Murky law does not distinguishFederal “supervised release” versus State “supervision”
"I feel like God has a purpose for everyone," Crystal Mason says,and that hers might be educating others about voting rights. Leslie
Boorhem-Stephenson for The Texas Tribune
CONTINUED FROM PAGE 7
their eligibility — eitherbecause of mistakes bylocal election officials orconfusion aboutwhether they are regis-tered to vote — wouldnot be turned away fromthe polls.
Federal law laid outa simple safeguardthrough provisional vot-ing: If you’re not sure,cast a provisional ballot;if you’re not eligible, itwon’t count in the elec-tion.
That was the proce-dure Mason followed in2016, her lawyers argue,and that’s where herstory should’ve ended.
In a courthouse indowntown Fort Worth,Thomas Buser-Clancy, aTexas attorney for theAmerican Civil LibertiesUnion, argued last weekthat Mason had made anhonest mistake that ulti-mately had no impact onthe election. How couldit be, then, that she had“illegally voted”?
Arguing for theTarrant County DistrictAttorney’s Office, pros-ecutor Helena Faulknercountered that “nothingin the Texas ElectionCode indicates that theverb ‘to vote’ has to in-clude or only includes avote that was tallied inthe final election.”
The law, she ar-gued, should not protectthose who intentionallyvote illegally. But pros-ecutors would not use itto penalize those whomake honest mistakes.
“People can make
mistakes,” said Sam Jor-dan, a communicationsofficer for the districtattorney’s office. “Thedifference is in the in-tent.”
But who decideswhether a ballot was anhonest mistake?
Mason’s convictionhinged on an affidavitshe had signed beforecasting her provisionalballot. At her trial, thejudge convicted her ofvoting illegally after heheard testimony from apoll worker who said hehad watched Masonread and run her fingeralong each line of an af-fidavit that required in-dividuals to swear that“if a felon, I have com-pleted all my punish-ment including any termof incarceration, parole,supervision, period ofprobation, or I havebeen pardoned.” Masonsaid she did not readthat side of the paper.
Mason was still un-der supervised releasefor a federal conviction.She was indicted in 2011for helping clients at hertax preparation businessfalsify expenses andclaim exemptions theywere not entitled to inorder to lower their taxbills.
Her lawyers arguethat the law is murky.Texas law allows con-victed felons to voteonce they’ve completedtheir “sentence,” includ-ing any “parole or super-vision.” But it’s not clearthat federal “supervised
release” lines up with“supervision” under thatlaw, Mason’s lawyerssay.
Since Mason’s casearose, she and her law-yers say, parole officersin North Texas have be-gun distributing a formto their charges clarify-ing that they are ineli-gible to vote while onsupervised release.(Questions about theform to the NorthernDistrict of Texas, whichoversees that system,went unanswered.)
The irony is not loston Mason, who receivedthat form after she wasreleased this year. If it’sso unclear, she won-dered, why wasn’t thatnotice being issuedthree years ago, when itmight have helped her?And if it’s so ambiguousthat clarification is re-quired, why is she beingprosecuted?
Mason likely couldhave secured a shortersentence if she hadpleaded guilty. But shedidn’t want to admit toa crime she did not com-mit, she said. Still, theconsequences weresteep: The illegal votingconviction landed herback in federal prison formonths, and she was re-leased into a halfwayhouse in May of thisyear. Last week, in addi-tion to her high-stakeshearing, she was navi-gating her first week ata new job.
Her appeal turnsinstead on narrow legal
questions — did a per-son vote (illegally or oth-erwise) if her vote didn’tcount? — but the deci-sion, expected in thecoming months, willmark an important mile-stone in the state’sbattle over the ballot.
Most provisionalballots are rejected forineligibility; even thosethat are accepted arenot usually counted un-less an election is par-ticularly close. ButMason’s advocates fearthat her case could im-peril the tens of thou-sands of other Texanswho submit provisionalballots every electionyear.
“What we’re facedwith here is criminalizingthat behavior,” said BethStevens, voting rightsprogram director at theTexas Civil Rights Project.“And the state’s inter-pretation of the illegalvoting statute wouldnecessarily make all ofthose people — thou-sands of people acrossthe state of Texas — vul-nerable to prosecution.”
As a mother andgrandmother who raisedher brother’s children aswell as her own, Masonsaid she wouldn’t punishsomeone who did some-thing wrong without in-tending to.
Instead, she’d edu-cate: “You educate heron what to do, what notto do,” she said.
It was Mason’smother who encour-aged her to vote that dayin 2016 — a message shehas pushed since Masonwas a little girl, and hasspread, too, to Mason’schildren.
“Ancestors foughtfor this right, marchedand died for this right —now that it’s availablefor us, we should utilizeit,” Mason recalled. “Youcan’t complain aboutanything if we don’t tryto exercise that right.”
Before the hearingbegan, Mason’s pastorled her attorneys and agroup of her familymembers, too many ofthem to fit in one eleva-tor, in prayer outside thecourtroom.
The case is “not justfor Crystal, but mostlyfor justice,” said the Rev.Frederick Haynes ofFriendship-West BaptistChurch in Dallas as theothers stood, eyesclosed, holding hands, ina circle.
“This is a form ofvoter suppression,”Haynes said.
“Safeguarding theintegrity of our elec-tions”
To those fighting onMason’s behalf in court,the prosecution is “partand parcel” of a voterintimidation playbookthat’s guided the statefor more than a decade.
Gone are the daysof “white primaries,”poll taxes and annualreregistration require-
ments enacted in thename of protecting theelection process fromvoter fraud. The mod-ern-day crackdown —fueled by unsubstanti-ated concerns over ram-pant illegal voting — ledwith a strict 2011 voterID law that was softenedafter a federal judge ex-pressed concerns that itdisenfranchised votersof color.
Amid failed effortsto impose tighter votingrestrictions and to scourthe voter rolls for sup-posed noncitizens, at-tention has more re-cently turned to a hand-ful of high-profile pros-ecutions of people ofcolor.
Before Mason, whois black, there was RosaMaria Ortega, a legalpermanent resident alsoliving in Tarrant Countywho was convicted ofvoter fraud after at-tempting to register tovote despite not being acitizen. Ortega — whodid not realize her immi-gration status meant shewas ineligible — cast bal-lots that counted in sev-eral elections.
When Ortega wassentenced to eight yearsin prison in 2017, TexasAttorney General KenPaxton — whose officedid not respond to ques-tions for this story —hailed it as an outcomethat “sends a messagethat violators of thestate’s election law willbe prosecuted to thefullest.”
“Safeguarding theintegrity of our electionsis essential to preservingour democracy,” Paxtonsaid in a statement atthe time.
Tarrant Countyprosecutors havebrushed off concernsthe Mason case couldlead to voter suppres-sion. “The fact that thiscase is so unique shouldemphasize why this caseshould in no way have a‘chilling effect’ on any-one except people whoknowingly vote illegally,”Jordan said.
But during the2019 legislative session,some Republican law-makers pushed to eraseMason’s legal defensefor future defendants bymaking it easier to pros-ecute people who castballots without realizingthey’re ineligible.
Currently, to com-mit a crime, votersmust know they are in-eligible; under the pro-posed law, they wouldcommit a crime just byvoting while knowingabout the circum-stances that madethem ineligible. Inother words, Masonwould have been ille-gally voting becauseshe was aware of herpast felony conviction— even if she was notaware her “supervisedrelease” status madeher ineligible.
Crystal Mason
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