$500 THOUSAND TO STONE SOUL!?
I have nothing against the Stone Soul Festival or the people who organize and run it. But when Mayor Sarno announced he was giving the organization $500,000 of federal government money to run what, for the most part, is a community festival (and a good and fun one at that), the first thing that came to my mind was that the money could be better spent spread among Springfield’s struggling Black businesses who, by their owners’ accounts, have instead received even less than the even much smaller amounts they expected. The mayor seems to have the community’s priorities mixed up, although his personal political re-election strategy is clear in that he will impact more voters by giving such a large sum of money to Stone Soul than by shorting the Black community’s economic interests. He wins in the short run; the community loses in the long run. Think about it!

HUNTING FOR JASON RAY
Has anyone heard anything recently from the mysterious Jason Ray who notoriously upset Mayor Sarno’s flawed plans to quietly appoint Springfield’s first Police Commission without community input by exposing irregularities in the awarding of city contracts? Or have you heard anything from Ray’s alleged organization, “Springfield Corruption Busters?” Maybe this mystery man is deep underground investigating Sarno’s next blunder. Who knows?

PAGE BOULEVARD MARIJUANA CULTIVATION FACILITY
Maybe the mysterious Jason Ray and his “Springfield Corruption Busters” are looking more deeply into the Page Boulevard marijuana cultivation facility that Mayor Sarno circumvented his own guidelines to select when other similar proposals, which met his guidelines, were rejected. Or maybe Jason Ray decided to go out of business since the Springfield City Council has voted at least twice to reject the Page Boulevard proposal after the mayor arranged to change the rules in its “owners” favor. Owners? Who are they anyway? Who are the real owners? Maybe Jason Ray is looking into it and will come up with another Sarno bombshell. It has not gotten by those in the know that cultivation is the most lucrative part of the marijuana business and essentially could control the entire greater Springfield marijuana market. Somebody mighty powerful is operating under the radar to get in the controlling position to make big money. We’ve heard a lot of names but we don’t really know who he/she/they might be. Whether Jason Ray knows it or not, Springfield still needs him.

SPRINGFIELD CITY COUNCILOR MARCUS WILLIAMS IS DOING WHAT?
Man, the rumors are running rife that Springfield City Councilor Marcus Williams is about to resign from the council. What is going on?! I know he recently voted his conscience and decided to join the opposition to the mayor’s rigged Page Boulevard marijuana cultivation facility which, it is rumored, upset Mayor Sarno. I think young Marcus Williams probably is not that comfortable in the political arena where the heat is unbearable to many and that he simply may be moving on to something more to his liking. We wish him the best.

LATONIA MONROE NAYLOR FOR SPRINGFIELD WARD 5 CITY COUNCIL
Now that the rumors have been confirmed by Marcus Williams’ abrupt resignation at a 12:00 p.m. news conference on May 31st, we endorse
LaTonia Monroe Naylor as his replacement. We heard that she is in the race.

OUR NEW SUPREME COURT JUSTICE KETANJI BROWN JACKSON KICKED BUTT
Led by White Republican Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, they couldn’t break her and in the words of Renee Graham, “(Ketanji Brown) Jackson spent more than 24 hours over three days being roasted by mediocre people whose whiteness has been their greatest asset. You could see the “why” in her eyes, but she already knew the answer. So Jackson smiled. She sighed quietly. She refused to give her opponents the “angry Black woman” trope they were trying to provoke…Jackson never flinched. She has come this far by faith, and it did not fail her. Jackson’s thoughtfulness and grace will serve her well on the Supreme Court of a nation sorely in need of both.” (Boston Sunday Globe, March 27, 2022)

THE COMPLEXITY OF LEADERSHIP AND HISTORY’S JUDGEMENT
I thought Germany’s past leader, Angela Merkel, and former American President Barack Obama were two of the best leaders of their times. But history has a way of messing things up. I’m not a lover of The Wall Street Journal editorials but I read them every day because I want to know “the other side.” It is not often that I agree with their editors but sometimes I do as in its March editorial on the two great leaders. The editors wrote: “The former German Chancellor made her country hostage to Russian energy, badly misjudged (Russia’s) Vladimir Putin and contributed far too little to NATO’s defenses….As for Obama, he should be remembered as the President who refused to sell lethal defensive weapons to Ukraine—even after Mr. Putin seized Crimea in 2014. He wouldn’t even sell Javelin antitank weapons of the kind that are now helping Ukraine’s military slow Russia’s invading army.” (The Wall Street Journal, March 8, 2022). Anyone who reads or listens to the news today knows that these two leaders’ decisions regarding Russia and Ukraine were very wrong. As for Obama, the editors added: “Clearly Mr. Obama underestimated the Ukrainian people and its leaders, who have shown they are willing and able to defend themselves if they have the weapons.” I couldn’t agree more.

WHITENESS AS A COLLECTION OF HABITS
The comments by Savala Nolan in a Time article (February 14/February 21, 2022) on White folks titled “Antiracists Can’t Work Alone,” were revealing. She wrote: “I think of whiteness primarily as a collection of habits and behaviors premised on the assumption that dealing with race is optional, and can be done on whatever terms suit you. Behaving as if you are exempt from things that are “racial” is one way this manifests. Another way is the habit of doing things that give you the feeling or appearance of caring about racial justice without having to pay much of a cost. I sometimes think this explains a chunk of white votes for Barack Obama—It let some white voters feel progressive on race—but didn’t require them to reckon with or personally sacrifice anything. I also wonder if these white habits explain the popularity of movies and television depicting Black pain; they allow some white viewers to feel grief and even cry over the horrible workings of the racial hierarchy, without having to do anything about that hierarchy.” There is much more to the article worth reading. She concludes with, “If we want to transform how we do race in this country, it’s time for white folks to increase the heat on one another.” Amen!

“THE GI BILL WAS ONE OF THE WORST RACIAL INJUSTICES OF THE 20TH CENTURY…”
New York Times’ Alan Rappeport wrote: “the original GI Bill, signed into law June 1944, was hailed as a transformative measure by President Franklin D. Roosevelt. It provided veterans with loan guarantees for a home mortgage, money for college or vocational school, and unemployment compensation. The bill helped over 4.3 million veterans – mostly Irish, Italian, Polish, Jewish, and other working-class European immigrants – to buy a home.
Between 1944 and 1953, GI Bill mortgages accounted for nearly one-third of all new US home loans, with a present-day value of $340 billion. Nearly 8 million veterans used the education benefits to attend college or vocational school. The bill enabled them to become doctors, dentists, teachers, engineers, accountants, and other professionals as well as to train as electricians, plumbers, builders, and other skilled trades. As they moved to suburbs, these veterans accumulated wealth, boosted the economy, and drove mid-century American prosperity.
The GI Bill did not explicitly exclude the 8 million Black Americans who fought in World War II and Korea. But in practice, the Bill’s benefits were almost entirely restricted to whites, by making it one of the worst racial injustices of the 20th century.” (White supremacy, as too many White folks want to believe, didn’t end with slavery.) ■