Columnist Jamala Rogers
Based upon the latest election results, we are stuck with a mayor who has mooned the black community for the last eight years. He has publicly disrespected black leaders and covertly made the lives of outspoken opponents miserable.
Many believe the latest casualty of his political whip is columnist Sylvester Brown Jr., fired abruptly by the St. Louis Post Dispatch, whose writings about the mayor’s rule over his kingdom were far from flattering.
Francis G. Slay’s third term is sure to bring more grief for the African-American community that voted overwhelming against him; he is poised to hammer his political adversaries for the next four years.
The inability to prevent Slay’s third term must be put in perspective.
There are a number of factors that contributed to his victory, starting with the lack of a progressive united front with a winning strategy to defeat an incumbent with an overflowing war chest. However, we have to sum it up, move on, and in the words of Kwame Toure (formerly Stokely Carmichael), we must continue to “organize, organize, organize!”
On Saturday, The Justice Institute will join other efforts across the country in assessing the first 100 days of the Obama Administration. The “Progress Report and Call to Action” will take place April 18 from 1-4 p.m. at the University of Missouri’s Marillac Hall (South Campus). The event will focus on health care, education and peace. Advocates and organizers who work locally in these particular areas will make presentations. Then working groups will identify two or three actions steps that can make a difference in the respective strategy. It is a place where people can move from debilitating inaction to coordinated action.
The April election affirmed there is still interest in the St. Louis Public Schools. A slate composed of Emile Bradford-Taylor, Dr. Becky Rogers and Chad Beffa was successfully elected. They will join other school board members also democratically elected by taxpaying voters. Stripped of its legal authority, the fortified board needs to determine how to use its full power derived from The People on behalf of our children.
And with almost $50 billion in stimulus dollars coming to school districts, it’s not difficult to see what one priority should be: Ensuring that St. Louis schools get its fair share and that the money is properly spent. A sum of $44 billion was released last week as part of President Obama’s commitment to school reform. Another $5 billion will be available later this year for districts to compete for innovation projects.
Electoral politics is but one way to build power and advance an economic and political agenda; there are others. Those who are sick and tired of being sick and tired have opportunities ahead to be a change agent locally. We saw our power manifested on the national stage when we swept Barack Obama into the highest office of the land. Now, we must take that same spirit and energy and apply it locally where the rubber really meets the road – where we live.