1 :: WWW.CNYVISION.

COM - WEEK OF AUGUST 15 - 21, 2012

Syracuse, NY
VOL 3. NO. 33 AUGUST 15 - 21, 2012
www.cnyvision.com
cny
www www. wcn cnyv vis sioon. nco c m
vision
Saundra Smokes
2 :: WWW.CNYVISION.COM - WEEK OF AUGUST 15 - 21, 2012
LOCAL OFFICE:
2331 South Salina Street
Syracuse, NY 13205
PH: 315-849-2461
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davemc@cnyvision.com
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PHOTOGRAPHER
La Vergne Harden
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ADVERTI SI NG
Dave McCleary
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advertising@cnyvision.com
REPORTERS
Sharlene McKenzie
CONTRI BUTORS
Ko Quaye
James Haywood Rolling
Earl Ofari Hutchinson
Boyce Watkins
CNY Vision is a publication of Minor-
ity Reporter, Inc. We are a family of
publications and other media formats
committed to fostering self awareness,
building community and empowering
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In This Issue
COVER: Pgs 6 - 7
- Remembering Saundra
Smokes
CALENDAR Pg 2

LOCAL Pgs 3-4
- Syracuse Company Wins
$100M Contract to Fight Drug
Smuggling
- Appointees to Landband Board
- More Cameras for Syracuse
- SCSD Former Teacher Enters
Plea
- Wonder Works Opening at
Destiny USA in Syracuse
STATE Pgs 4 - 5
- 7-Eleven to Sell 30 Ex-Wilson
Farms Stores in NY
- NY Thruway Toll Increases
Questioned
- Man Pleads Not Guilty in NYC
Death of Upstate Grad
NATIONAL Pg 5
- Romney VP Choice Among Fs
on NAACP Report Card
SU NEWS Pg 8
- Syracuse Training at Army
Base
COLUMNS: Pg 10
- The Davis Family Gives Back
to Syracuse
By Ko Quaye

-Worrying About My Black Boys
Future in America
By Allison R. Brown
- Did White Supremacist
Music Cause the Sikh Temple
Massacre?
By Boyce Watkins
1 :: WWW.&1<9,6,21&20 - WEEK OF AUGUST 15 - 21, 2012 Syracuse, NY VOL 3. NO. 33 AUGUST 15 - 21, 2012
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Saundra Smokes
CALENDAR
AUGUST
GED Classes
Monday thru Friday
Time: 9:00am11:30am
Locaon: Beauchamp Branch
Library - 2111 South Salina St.
Free study sessions designed to
help those who are interested in
obtaining their GED.
Must Sign-Up. Contact Pat Booker
435-6376.
15 and 16
GED Classes
Time: 9:00 am
Locaon: White Branch Library -
763 Buernut Street
Catch these free study sessions
designed to help those who are
interested in obtaining their
General Equivalency Diploma,
the equivalent to a high school
diploma. No registraon required,
just come in and get started on
your new future.
15
Teen Hip Hop Dance
Time: 2:00 pm
Locaon: White Branch Library -
763 Buernut Street
Teens are invited to learn hip-hop
dance at this free class with Pulse
Fitness. Bring your freestylinskills
or learn new ones. No dance
experience necessary. Fun for all!
15, 22 and 29
Beginning Yoga
Time: 4:00 pm
Locaon: White Branch Library -
763 Buernut Street
White Branch Library is oering
an adult weekly Yoga program for
beginners: basic yoga, breathing,
stretching, and meditaon,
facilitated by Dil Dahal, who has
two cercates in yoga from
Nepal. Please bring your own
yoga mat or small blanket and
remember to wear loose clothing.
15 and 16
English for Speakers of Other
Languages - ESOL Classes
Time: 12:30 pm
Locaon: White Branch
Library - 763 Buernut Street
These free English language
classes will teach grammar,
vocabulary, reading and wring so
that non-nave speakers will learn
to more clearly and eecvely
communicate in everyday
situaons.
17, 24 and 31
Wii & Game Fun
Time: 3:00 pm
Locaon: Beauchamp Branch
Library - 2111 South Salina St.
Test your skills on the Nintendo
Wii and enjoy an assortment of
games. And while youre waing
to play the Wii, enjoy a range of
dierent board games. Ages 6-12.
18 and 25
Beginning Yoga
Time: 9:30am
Locaon: White Branch Library -
763 Buernut Street
White Branch Library is oering
an adult weekly Yoga program for
beginners: basic yoga, breathing,
stretching, and meditaon,
facilitated by Dil Dahal, who has
two cercates in yoga from
Nepal. Please bring your own
yoga mat or small blanket and
remember to wear loose clothing.
19
The Syracuse Cizen Review Board
will hold a community outreach
event
Time: 2:00pm
Locaon: Westmoreland Park
The event is designed to give
the public an opportunity to
learn more about the new CRBs
processes and procedures and to
ask any quesons.
21 and 28
One-on-One Job & Career
Assistance
Time: 1:00-2:00 pm
Locaon: Central Library - 447
South Salina St.
Schedule an appointment with
the Job & Career Librarian to help
you explore career resources,
use resume templates, set up an
email, navigate through an online
applicaon and more! Tuesdays
By Appointment Only
Call 315.435.1900 to register or
for more details.
23 Sept. 3
Great New York State Fair
Locaon: State Fairgrounds,
Syracuse
The State Fair is New York States
largest annual event; an excing
mix of big-name entertainment,
mouth-watering food, capvang
exhibits and thrilling aracons
that draws nearly 1 million
people every summer. For more
informaon, visit hp://www.
nysfair.org>www.nysfair.org
3 :: WWW.CNYVISION.COM - WEEK OF AUGUST 15 - 21, 2012
Syracuse Company Wins $100M Contract to Fight Drug Smuggling
A suburban Syracuse company has
been awarded a federal contract worth
nearly $100 million to build a radar
system designed to detect low-ying
planes that smuggle drugs across the
U.S. border.
The Department of Homeland Security
awarded a contract worth up to
$99.9 million SRCTec, a unit of North
Syracuse-based SRC Inc.
During an appearance Monday in
Syracuse, Sen. Charles Schumer of
New York said the deal could add
hundreds of high-tech jobs over the
next decade.
Schumer says the contract calls for
SRCTec to build nine radar systems
in the rst phase of a deal that has
opons to extend for 10 years. The
systems are due to be delivered in
February.
SRC employs about 1,100 people
naonwide, including 850 in central
New York.
Seven Syracuse city residents were
recently nominated to serve on a
board that gives advise to the Greater
Syracuse Property Development Corp.,
(GSPDC).
GSPDC is a land bank organized to
deal with tax-delinquent properes
in Onondaga County. They are one
of ve land banks in New York state,
established to acquire liens on tax-
delinquent properes from the city or
county. They then either collect the
overdue taxes or sell the properes.
Nominies are Bethaida Gonzalez,
Donna Miller, Winthrop Thurlow,
Patricia Body, Raymond Wentworth
Jr., El-Java Abdul-Qadir and Sharon
Sherman.
The Syracuse Common Council is
expected to vote Monday on their
appointment to the board.
Appointees to Landband Board
More Surveilance Cameras to Be Installed in City of Syracuse
Syracuse Police Chief Frank Fowler,
Monday announced he intends to
ads 19 more surveilance cameras
throughout the city.
Fowler stated last year that if the 9
cameras currently installed in the citys
Near Westside worked he would be
adding more.
Fowler requested the addional
cameras Monday at the common
council meeng and was approved.
Fowler says residents overwhelmingly
approves of the camera program so
he expects less resistance this me
around.
The chief says crime has decreased
25 percent since installing the
cameras and drug calls have reduced
dramacally.
Fowler says he will connue to add
cameras as long as shots are being
red, crimes are being commied and
he is able to nd grant money to pay
for the cameras.
SCSD Former Teacher Enters Guilty Plea
Jesus Rolon, a former Syracuse teacher
plead guilty to endangering the welfare
of a child.
Rolon, 34, is alleged to have had sexual
contact with a minor and was originally
charged earlier this year when he was
rst arrested.
Rolon had been working as a teacher at
the Onondaga County Jusce Center.
According to reports, he was arrested
when two inmates recognized him.
Both young men said they had a sexual
encounter with Rolan.
Rolon is expected to be sentenced to
three years probaon in October and
will give up his teachers license.
O cials of Desny USA, the former
Carousel Mall, announced Friday they
will bringing a new entertainment
venue, WonderWorks, to the Syracuse
mall.
WonderWorks features more than
100 hands-on exhibits including things
like extreme moon rides, a bed of
nails, an inversion tunnel and exhibits
on tornadoes, an-gravity chamber,
hurricane shack and laser tag.
WonderWorks calls themselves "an
amusement park for the mind" and are
located in several US cies including
Orlando, FL; Pigeon Forge, TN; Panana
City Beach, FL; and Myrtle Beach, SC.
Local o cials say it will help them
posion Central New York as a family
vacaon desnaon.
WonderWorks Opening at Desny USA in Syracuse
4 :: WWW.CNYVISION.COM - WEEK OF AUGUST 15 - 21, 2012
7-Eleven to Sell 30 Ex-Wilson Farm Stores in NY
BUFFALO, N.Y. (AP) -- Convenience
store giant 7-Eleven plans to sell 30
of its former Wilson Farms stores in
upstate New York.
The Bualo News reports that the
Dallas-based company has hired a
Chicago-based realty rm to sell the
stores through a sealed-bid process
that starts Wednesday and ends Oct.
18.
7-Eleven announced the aucon in
a news release from NRC Realty and
Capital Advisors LLC. Company o cials
didnt elaborate on the reasons for the
sale.
7-Eleven bought Bualo-based Wilson
Farms 188-store New York network
last year from a private equity rm and
the Nanula family.
The 30 stores to be sold are located
from Fredonia south of Bualo to
Chazy (CHAY-zee), near the Canadian
border in northern New York. Six of
locaons are convenience stores only,
while the other 24 also sell gasoline.
Ex-NY Jail O cial Admits Assaulng Inmate
A former upstate New York jail o cial
who was caught on video assaulng an
inmate cued to a bench has pleaded
guilty to federal charges.
U.S. Aorney Richard Hartunian says
David Monell, who was a lieutenant at
the Tioga County Jail, admied Friday
that he deprived inmate David Coey
of his civil rights during the June 21,
2010 aack.
Monell is shown on video punching
Coey and pushing him against a wall.
Coey suered scrapes, a swollen
jaw and vision problems. The county
seled a lawsuit by Coey for $62,000.
The 52-year-old Monell resigned two
days aer the beang and a day aer
being honored as the state Senate
2010 Correcons O cer of the Year.
He faces up to 10 years in prison and
a ne up to $250,000 when he is
sentenced December 18.
NY Thruway Toll Increase for Trucks Quesoned
ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) The state Thruway
Authoritys proposal for what it calls a
modest 45 percent increase in truck
tolls faces angry New Yorkers this
week in oen lile noced summer
hearings while a naonal TV ad blitz
tries to sell a business-friendly new
New York. Gov. Andrew Cuomo said
last week he is trying to nd a way to
reduce the toll increase proposed by
the Thruway Authority controlled by
his appointees. But Cuomo defends
the need for an increase to keep the
Thruway Authority scally sound as
it reports double-digit increases in
maintenance costs partly from tropical
storm damage and increases in health
care costs.
The Thruway Authority has to be
nancially capable, Cuomo said in
an interview Friday on public radios
Capitol Connecon. He said the
authority created to operate the
statewide system decades ago must be
able to meet its debt payments from
capital borrowing. Compared to other
states, Cuomo said, truck tolls are not
that high.
The toll for a three-axle truck traveling
from Bualo to New York City is about
$88. That could increase to $127. In
June, the Standard & Poors rang
agency said aggressive toll increases
for truckers and eventually all drivers
may be needed, even though a mul-
year phase in of toll increases for car
drivers ended in 2010.
Businesses are righully fuming,
a recent Syracuse Post-Standard
editorial says. The ming of the
toll increase couldnt be worse. The
economic recovery is fragile. Gas
prices are rising again. And it ies in
the face of the states new business-
friendly a tude.
The editorial cites a Central New York
retail xture and major employer,
Byrne Dairy, which esmates the toll
would cost it $198,500 more a year.
Public hearings are scheduled for
Thursday from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. in the
Bualo-Erie Public Library in Bualo;
from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. Friday in the
Hilton Hotel in East Syracuse; and from
10 a.m. to noon at the Hilton Garden
Inn in Newburgh in a rare Saturday
hearing. A detailed regulaon to enact
the toll increase was published in June
that includes the hearings for August,
a notoriously poor me to aract
aendance.
You have to ask, Why are they holding
hearings? said Brian Sampson of the
Unshackle Upstate coalion of private
businesses that supported Cuomos
2010 campaign. He noted summer
hearings are notoriously poorly
aended and Saturday hearings are
rare.
Are you holding them because you
care what people think or just because
the law requires it? Sampson said.
Sampson disputes the Cuomo
administraons claim that the truck
tolls will be raised to make them
comparable to tolls in other states,
saying that other states are catching
up to New York.
Assembly Republican leader Brian
Kolb is pushing Facebook and Twier
campaigns to stop the toll increase
and drum up aendance at the
hearings. The toll hike will hurt
trucking businesses, drive up prices
for consumers and send a message
that New York isnt open for business,
Kolb said.
The proposal comes as he says
Cuomo is also trying to get the
Thruway Authority to reduce his
administraons proposal to nearly
triple the toll on the Tappan Zee
Bridge to pay for Cuomos proposed
$5.2 billion replacement project. The
proposed toll increases come as actor
Robert De Niro and musicians Alicia
Keys and Jay-Z proclaim in TV ads
that New York is once again open for
business.
I dont buy that past administraons
are to blame, said E.J. McMahon of
the scally conservave Manhaan
Instute. Those are reecons of
policy ... All the bills are coming due
for an era of signicant borrowing.
5 :: WWW.CNYVISION.COM - WEEK OF AUGUST 15 - 21, 2012
Romney VP Choice Among Fs on NAACP Report Card
By Hazel Trice Edney
(TriceEdneyWire.com) - U. S. Rep.
Paul Ryan (R-Wis.), who has received
consistent Fs on the NAACP Civil
Rights report card, is Republican Mi
Romneys pick for vice president.
Vong in agreement with NAACP civil
rights issues only 10 percent of the
me according to the Report Card for
the rst year of the 112th Congress,
Ryan opposed NAACP-supported
issues, including funding support for
the Special Supplemental Assistance
Program for Women, Infants and
Children; connued funding to sele
the Pigford II racial discriminaon
lawsuit between the U.S. Department
of Agriculture and Black Farmers; and
support for the Elecon Assistance
Commission.
According to the Report Card, released
in April, every Republican in Congress
got an F, failing on what the NAACP
calls bread and buer issues for
African-Americans.
Billing themselves as Americas
Comeback Team, Romney and Ryan
rst appeared together on Saturday,
Aug. 11 in a Norfolk, Va. shipyard.
His leadership begins with character
and values. Paul is a man of
tremendous character, Romney told
the cheering audience in front of the
USS Wisconsin. In a city thats far too
oen characterized by pe ness and
personal aacks, Paul Ryan is a shining
excepon. He doesnt demonize his
opponents. He understands that
honorable people can have honest
dierences. He appeals to the beer
angels of our nature.
Ryan, a seven-term congressman, is
known as an intellectual leader in
the Republican Party, largely due to
his scal conservasm as chairman of
the House Budget Commiee and as a
senior member of the House Ways and
Means Commiee, which oversees tax
policy, Social Security, health care and
trade laws.
In his inial speeches over the
weekend, he mostly promoted
Romney as a leader with the skills,
the background and the character that
our country needs at this crucial me
in its history and cricized President
Obama.
Following four years of failed
leadership, the hopes of our country,
which have inspired the world, are
growing dim. They need someone to
revive them. Governor Romney is the
man for this moment.
Preparing to re back, President
Obama, Saturday, quieted a Chicago
crowd that booed his rst menon
of Ryan as Romneys vice presidenal
candidate. Obama congratulated Ryan
and described him as a decent man
and a family man who will serve as
an arculate spokesman for Governor
Romneys vision.
But, Obama - who, as a U. S. senator,
made straight As on the NAACP Report
Card - contrasted his record, explaining
to the audience, Its a vision that
I fundamentally disagree with. My
opponent and Congressman Ryan
and their allies in Congress, they all
believe that if we just get rid of more
regulaons on big corporaons and we
give more tax breaks to the wealthiest
Americans, it will lead to jobs and
prosperity for everybody else. Thats
what theyre proposing. Thats where
theyll take us if they win.
Obama connued, The centerpiece of
Governor Romneys enre economic
plan is a new $5 trillion tax cut, a lot of
it going to the wealthiest Americans.
This is on top of the Bush tax cuts. Last
week we found out that to pay for this
$5 trillion tax cut, not only would we
see them gut educaon investments;
gut investments in science and
research, gut investments in things
like rebuilding our roads and our
bridges, but it turns out that Governor
Romneys tax plan would also raise
taxes on middle-class families by an
average of $2,000 each.
The introducon of Ryan is widely
viewed as the ring shot for the last
80 days before the Nov. 6 elecon in
which voters will choose between
the Romney-Ryan or the Obama-
Biden cket. Though many African-
Americans are disgruntled due to
high unemployment rates, President
Obama has oset much dissasfacon
with the success of his Aordable
Health Care Act, which Romney sll
vows to repeal despite the Supreme
Courts ruling in favor of it.
The historicity of his rst Black
presidency will likely also play a role
in the Black vote. This is coupled with
the fact that acvists are aggressively
arguing that despite economic
woes that remain, the conservave
scal policies of a Romney-Ryan
administraon would make life worse
for African-Americans.
Obama is running slightly ahead of
Romney in most polls. But, Democrats
are pulling out all stops, including the
announcement that former President
Bill Clinton, sll extremely popular
among Blacks, will introduce President
Obama at the Democrac Naonal
Convenon.
Meanwhile, as Ryans introducon
has apparently revved up the Romney
campaign and his conservave
Republican base, President Obama is
strategically hammering his successes
in contrast with Romneys views:
And when we saved the auto industry,
Mr. Romney said, lets let Detroit go
bankrupt. I said lets bet on American
workers. And now the American auto
industry has come roaring back. And I
believe that manufacturing can come
roaring back here in America if we
make good choices, the President
said in a private campaign event in
Chicago on Sunday, Aug. 12.
Obama connued, Mr. Romney says,
my top priority - the rst thing Ill do is
kill Obamacare. Well, let me say this.
Weve got 6.5 million young people
already who have got health insurance
on their parents plan because of
Obamacare. Seniors are paying
lower prescripon drug costs now
because of Obamacare. Children with
preexisng condions cant be refused
insurance because of Obamacare.
And soon, all adults will be able to get
health insurance even if theyve got
a preexisng condion, because of
Obamacare. Weve got prevenve care
for everybody. Insurances cant drop
you. And women are having more
control over their health care choices.
That was the right thing to do. Were
not going backwards. Were going
forward.
Man Pleads Not Guilty in NYC Death of Upstate Grad
A man charged with shoong a recent
college graduate dead as he ed from
gunre on a New York City street has
pleaded not guilty to murder.
Khalid Rahman entered his plea
Tuesday in the death of Ma Shaw.
Defense lawyer Daniel Sco says
Rahman was misidened as the
gunman.
The 21-year-old Shaw was killed in
Harlem July 5. He graduated in May
from Le Moyne College in Syracuse.
The Manhaan district aorneys
o ce says Rahman opened re and hit
a parked car while approaching a group
of people on a street. Prosecutors say
the 20-year-old Rahman then shot
Shaw in the back as the graduate
started to run.
Sco says Rahman had no quarrel with
Shaw and mourns his loss.
Shaw planned to go to graduate school
in economics
21-Year-Old Ma Shaw shown right
6 :: WWW.CNYVISION.COM - WEEK OF AUGUST 15 - 21, 2012
Saundra Smokes
She was wiy and opmisc;
a devout Chrisan who
always pushed you to think
outside the box. She was
never sased with the
status quo.
Thats how many will remember
Saundra Smokes.
She was a beloved sister, and an
important voice in the community,
and a dear friend that Kathy and I
cherished personally for many, many
years, said Frank Maltano, founder
of the annual Syracuse Jazz Fesval.
Ill miss her spirit and her intellect
and her voice and her vibe, and Im
heartbroken.... but I know shes in
Grandmas Hands.
More than 600 family members,
friends, community leaders and others
who knew her gathered at Abundant
Life Chrisan Center on Saturday, Aug.
11, to celebrate her life.
Smokes, 57, worked for the Syracuse
Post-Standard Newspapers for more
than 30 years.
She was an award-winning columnist
and editorial writer whose arcles
spurred debate across Central New
York and the naon, writes Post-
Standard Reporter Paul Riede.
Smokes, 57, who had baled diabetes
for several years, collapsed in her
Eastwood home August 6. She died
two days later at Crouse Hospital the
same hospital where she was born.
Smokes aended Charles Andrews
Elementary School, Edward Smith
Jr. High, and William No ngham
High School where she was a varsity
cheerleader, and on the gymnasc and
track teams.
She later studied at Bualo State
College and then lived in Albany for
several years before moving back to
Syracuse.
Smokes started her career at the
Herald-Journal as a copy person and
clerk/typist and went on to hold
a variety of reporng and eding
posions with the organizaon.
In 1985, she became the rst person
of color in the history of the Syracuse
newspapers to sit on the Herald-
Journals editorial board. She was
also the rst person of color to write
a full-me opinion column for the
newspapers.
When I rst met Saundra, I was
celebrity struck aer all, she was
a naonally syndicated columnist,
and thats how I introduced her to
people: This is my friend, Saundra
Smokes, naonally syndicated
columnist, remembers friend Sharron
Pearson. But, as I grew to know her,
I discovered that tles and accolades
(other than Chrisan) meant very lile
to her. I discovered what having a really
good friend was. I appreciated most
of all that Sandi accepted me for who
I am. She didnt queson my quirks,
even though she would challenge
my opinions on things that she might
consider not quite Christ-like.
Smokes worked part-me as editor
for CNY Vision Newspaper for seven
months prior to going back to the Post-
Standard to write a guest column.
She helped our relavely new
publicaon gain some momentum
in the Syracuse community, notes
Publisher Dave McCleary. More
people began to take noce of
7 :: WWW.CNYVISION.COM - WEEK OF AUGUST 15 - 21, 2012
Financial Aid
Confusion?
- Complete nancial aid applications
- Respond to a 'verication' request
- Be aware of student debt
- Interpret communications from colleges
- Understand Say Yes scholarship eligibility
- Compare nancial aid awards from
dierent colleges
Walk Ins Welcome
Open to SCSD Seniors, Parents
and recent SCSD grads
Syracuse Say Yes to Education
109 Otisco St., 2nd f.
Syracuse, NY 13244
315-443-5300
SayYesCollege@syr.edu
Say Yes Ofce
109 Otisco St., 2nd foor
Saturday Mornings
10 a.m. 1:30 p.m.
April 7 September 8, 2012*
*FACC closed on 5/26, 7/7 and 9/1
Find Direction at the
Say Yes Financial Aid
Counseling Center
us because of her notoriety and
reputaon in the community.
This past June, Smokes started a
weekly radio show on WHEN-AM,
Power 620, Saundra Smokes Speaks
on Venus.
She had great promise as a radio
show host, said Staon Manager
Joel Delmonico. We are all very
disheartened that she is gone.
Eight years ago Smokes took legal
guardianship of her two nieces and her
nephew who without her intervenon
would have ended up in the foster care
system.
She did it against the urging of me
and others, said Venita her lifelong
best friend.
She didnt want them to get caught
up in the system, so thats why she did
it, Venita said. Thats just the kind of
person she was. She had a big heart;
she always put others before herself.
Smokes was buried Saturday at
Oakwood Cemetery in a plot not far
from that of her mother and father.
Whenever I nd my intolerance of
others building up inside my chest and
fast approaching my mouth, notes
Pearson, I hope to hear her ny voice
whispering in my ear, What would
Jesus do, Sharron-parron? Ill then
smile and think to myself, Thanks for
the reminder, Sandi-pandi.
She was a beloved sister,
and an important voice in
the community...
Frank Maltano
8 :: WWW.CNYVISION.COM - WEEK OF AUGUST 15 - 21, 2012
Syracuse Training at Army Base to Build Teamwork
FORT DRUM, N.Y. (AP) - From the end
of the ring line made up of Syracuse
football players, Captain Zach Johnson
of the 10th Mountain Division shouted
at them to keep talking to each other
to maintain the communicaon
needed to take out the enemy.
As the Orange shot their fake weapons
into the virtual screen in front of them,
aiming at the enemy soldiers appearing
from behind hills in a vast desert, the
main purpose of the acvity translates
to the football eld.
They were telling us communicaon
is key, and I believe were doing the
same thing out here, running back
Prince-Tyson Gulley said. Learning
how to communicate with each other
and stu like this. This is working out
for us.
The Orange are spending the week at
Form Drum, a U.S. Army post about
80 miles north of Syracuse. Aside
from the daily roune of praccing
football, Syracuses players are
training with members of the military
and parcipang in team-building
acvies.
Coming o a 5-7 season, the Orange
are trying everything they can to
improve and take a step forward.
The team is hoping a week away to
focus solely on football and teamwork
makes that happen.
The players live in barracks and every
night eat dinner with the soldiers on
base to connect with them and learn
about their lives in the military.
On Wednesday, the defense
parcipated in physical training, and
ran through several drills intended to
build communicaon and teamwork.
One involved the players having to
move logs a distance of about 20 feet
while only stepping on res.
In another, the players had to move a
dummy using three liers, and only an
even number of players could be on
each lier at once.
In each drill, the players shouted
words of encouragement and
connuously reminded each other of
the instrucons and rules.
Its a very big help. Coach brought us
here for a reason, defensive tackle
Davon Walls said. He really wanted
us to come together as a unit and be
accountable for whatever we do. I
believe were going to do what we had
to do.
The oense went through simulated
combat acvies. In the virtual ring
line, the soldiers running it repeatedly
reminded them to communicate.
The connecon to football was evident.
The ring line of Syracuse players was
the oensive line trying to protect the
quarterback from the enemy troops
coming at them.
We were lined up in dierent spots
and we had targets, guard Zach
Chibane said. So theres denitely a
football relaon there.
The drills were both physically and
mentally trying. And they might have
taken a toll on the players for pracce
in the aernoon.
Coach Doug Marrone said the team
had to repeat a period because it
wasnt up to standard.
Today was a challenging day. As
coaches, youre always challenged.
You try and push the players and get
the most out of them, Marrone said.
Like I told the players, everyone in
the country is going through this type
of working environment, and camp is
tough.
Sll, this week has given Marrone and
the Orange a chance to experience a
world theyve never been a part of
before, much like the basketball team
did a few years ago in the preseason.
Marrone said hes been amazed at the
structure of Fort Drum and the way it
funcons. He met soldiers the same
age as his players who have le their
jobs and their lives at home because
of their desire to serve their country.
On Sunday, the players return to
Syracuse to nish training camp
before the season opener against
Northwestern at home on Sept. 1. But
theyll leave Fort Drum with a whole
new outlook on the military, and a
new appreciaon for the importance
of teamwork.
You never know if you can get this
experience again, and for us to have
this, this is good, Gulley said. And it
allows us to see the life theyre living
and give them a taste of how were
living, too. Its a big thing for us.
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Hueber-Breuer is currently seeking subcontractor quotaons for SUNY Cortland
Student Life Center. This work included the construcon of a 148,000 SF, two-
story student life center. Included within the facility will be (3) court gyms, free
weight rooms, running tracks, 300 seat dining area. The building will incorporate
green features and will qualify for a minimum rate of LEED Gold.
Hueber-Breuer strongly encourages MBE and WBE subcontractors to quote.
SUBMISSION: Bids will be accepted at Hueber-Breuers o ce unl 10 a.m. on
August 21, 2012 via Fax: 315-476-7990, Phone: 315-476-7917, or delivered to 148
Berwyn Ave., Syracuse, NY. Bid documents are available for viewing at Hueber-
Breuers o ce by appointment; Reed Construcon Data, Dodge Reports and for
purchase at Syracuse Blue.
PUBLIC NOTICE
10 :: WWW.CNYVISION.COM - WEEK OF AUGUST 15 - 21, 2012
The views expressed on our opinion pages are those of the author and do not
necessarily represent the position or viewpoint of MRMG or CNY Vision
The Davis Family Gives Back to Syracuse
The Davis family
is similar to other
families in many
ways. Theyre
like any family
you know. They
are what may
be described
as a typical
family in the
nei ghborhood,
not much
dierent from
the rest.
If anything sets them part, it may be
the fact that one of them became
something of a local celebrity for all
the wrong reasons, which to a certain
degree made him not just popular but
notorious. His name is General Davis.
Most anyone who has lived in Syracuse
for an extended period, would be
familiar with the Davis family now,
knowing that General is one of them.
As a result of the media publicity he has
received over the years, parcularly in
the 1980s and 1990s, he is quite well
known in Syracuses African-American
community, and to some extent, in the
larger community.
Very few African-Americans have
had that kind of media hype in the
past or today: at least, not for the
reasons General Davis was considered
newsworthy - not even policians.
He made it all the way to the front
page of the Herald American, the
leading and most widely circulated
Sunday newspaper in this region.
I know two members of the Davis
family quite well. Why am I focusing on
the Davis family? What makes them so
special or newsworthy?
General, as already alluded to, made
news as a result of the crimes he was
alleged to have commied and the
role he played as the reputed leader of
a local gang called the Corleones.
Based on the South Side of Syracuse,
the Corleones gang was accused of
perpetrang all kinds of crimes. They
managed to evade law enforcement
unl the media began to focus on their
misdeeds and the havoc they wrought
on innocent cizens.
Public outcry and outrage from vicms
galvanized law enforcement into
acon. It took a combinaon of the
feds and local law enforcement to
dismantle the group.
Craig Davis is the owner and manager
of a convenience and grocery store in
one of the toughest neighborhoods on
the South Side of Syracuse, and has
succeeded in creang a name and a
reputaon for himself as a no nonsense
type, who refuses to be inmidated
by neighborhood thugs or gangs,
the police or other law enforcement
authories, or anyone else.
Craig Davis is the rst to admit that his
a tude has been as much a factor in
his success as well as an impediment
in the rapid growth and expansion
expected of the kind of business he
operates.
He has also been in the news in the
past and claims he was given a bad rap
by the media.
A year ago, he became involved
in an incident that had him facing
prosecuon from law enforcement.
But these are not the main reasons
why I am wring about General and
Craig Davis. The decision was based on
what the two brothers are doing now
in the community and the acvies
and programs they are involved with
that seem to me to be newsworthy.
If all goes as planned, Craig Davis store
will be one of the major aracons in
the Mary Nelson event taking place on
August 18.
KOFI QUAYE
Did White Supremacist Music Cause the Sikh Temple Massacre?
Scholar John
McWhorter wrote a
piece for The New
Republic about the
recent Sikh Temple
massacre and the
man who caused
it, Michael Wade
Page. Wade Page
was one of the few
white supremacists
who turned his
anger toward
people of color
into real violence, killing six and wounding
four others.
Some have pointed to White Supremacist
music as part of what movated Wade
Page to go out and kill innocent people
that day. McWhorter doesnt agree and
thinks that those who feel that music
caused him to kill are grasping for straws.
According to McWhorter:
It has been fashionable in the wake
of Wade Michael Pages tragic acts in
Wisconsin to speculate on whether the
White Power music he listened to helped
stoke him into the senseless murders he
commied. Such speculaons, however,
are as incoherent as they are pointless
and they are marked, above all, by a
cloying air of self-congratulaon.
Interesngly enough, McWhorter
compares White Supremacist music to hip
hop music, which also has a set of nasty
and violent messages of its own. One
interesng case-in-point is the song We
Be Steady Mobbin, where Lil Wayne says
that he will take your girlfriend, turn her
into a hooker, have sex with her and then
murder that b*tch and send her body
back to yo ass.
Oddly enough, theres a lot more where
that came from.
McWhorters argument isnt enrely
o-base. You cant say that music alone
causes anyone to do anything. You could
play the most violent music and movies
in front of me and I wouldnt kill anyone,
most of us wouldnt. But McWhorter and
others might want to reconsider their
arguments in two key areas:
1) Hip hop itself is not the source
of violent music. It is actually the
commercialized, bastardized form of hip
hop we hear on the radio that serves as
the source of shameful lyrical content that
teaches young black children to worship
material possessions, to disrespect
women, to stay high on drugs and alcohol
all day, to engage in massive amounts of
sexual promiscuity and to celebrate killing
one another.
The bastardized form of hip hop grew
out of the emergence of gangsta rap on
the west coast, with groups like NWA.
Much of their music was a reecon of
the Post Traumac Stress disorder and
other ailments suered by young children
forced to grow up in a war zone created
by the allowance of massive amounts of
drugs and guns into black communies.
They were rapping about what they saw,
but they also spread a toxic message that
helped promote gang culture throughout
the enre United States. As Terri Williams
says in her book, Black Pain, Hurt
people hurt people, meaning that those
whove been traumazed can spread this
trauma to others.
2) While violent music doesnt make
anyone violent, it can certainly accelerate
and enhance emoons that already lie in
the soul. If a child has grown up with very
lile mentorship or parental guidance (as
too many children already do), this music
might impact the moral code of the young
man who could choose to rob, steal or kill
if it will help him nd a way to eat or get
whatever he wants. Violent music has as
much impact on the outlook of a teenager
as a sad love song has on a woman who
just lost her boyfriend. Anyone who
spends me around black teenagers will
noce that their style of dress, language
and all-around demeanor tends to evolve
with whatever their favorite hip hop arsts
are doing.
There is a correlaon between the
promoon of drug/alcohol consumpon
and the fact that so many young black men
are being busted for marijuana possession.
A lot of young black men have dreadlocks
in their hair, not because of some kind of
complex spiritual awakening, but because
they saw that Lil Wayne was rocking
dreads in his last video. Not that there is
anything wrong with dreadlocks, but the
point is that music does inuence who we
are, especially if we dont already know
who we are. For young, impressionable
minds, it can make all the dierence.
So, it seems that in his arcle, McWhorter,
who Ive always thought to be a
conservave, is le ng white folks o the
hook by le ng rappers o the hook. This
eecvely makes him a conservave using
a liberal argument to do what conservaves
tend to do (defend other conservave
white people). While his argument isnt
enrely o-mark, we cannot presume that
hip hop music somehow dees the logic
of nearly any psychologist, who would
agree that messages and mantras being
consistently absorbed by our subconscious
do have an impact on our thinking.
Music alone cant drive an innocent
person to kill, but it might certainly cause
a misguided criminal to go ahead and do
what he was thinking about doing in the
rst place. As my misguided late uncle/
older brother used to say me, I dont
want to hear music about smoking weed
because it reminds me of how much I miss
it. Music is not the alpha and omega of
cause and eect; rather, it can be the straw
that breaks the camels back. Violent
music does have a very real impact on our
society.
----------------------------------
Dr. Boyce Watkins is a professor at Syracuse
University and founder of the Your Black
World Coalion.
DR. BOYCE
WATKINS
FROM THE BOYCE BLOG
Connued on boom of next page
11 :: WWW.CNYVISION.COM - WEEK OF AUGUST 15 - 21, 2012
--------------------------
Ko Quaye has been a Syracuse resident
for more than 30 years. He is a writer,
author and publisher. Over the years, he
has been involved with the publication
of several African American focused
newspapers in Syracuse.
Worrying about My Black Boys Future in America
(Tri ceEdneyWi re.
com) - My husband
and I fuss and fret
over our Black boy.
Like other parents,
we worry about a
lot. We want him to
use his smarts for
good. Do we coddle
him too much? We
want him to be
tough and kind,
but asserve and
gentle, and not mean. His boundaries of
independent exploraon are radiang
outward, concentric circles growing
farther and farther from us.
We wring our hands and pretend to look
away in acknowledgment that hes ready
to claim his freedom, even as we cast
furve glances his way. Were beginners in
the worry department. Hes only 9 years
old.
Our angst certainly isnt unique among
parents of Black boys. Whats unique
for us and for other such parents is that
when we peek inside the matrix, we panic.
Agents out there are bearing down on
our son bloodthirsty for his dignity, his
humanity as if he were the one. We feel
outnumbered, but we hunker down for
bale.
This is not a paranoid conspiracy rant.
Recent data from the O ce for Civil Rights
in the U.S. Department of Educaon
reveals that black boys are the most likely
group of students to be suspended or
expelled from school. Black men and boys
are more likely than any demographic
group to be targeted hunted, really
and arrested by police.
Meanwhile, the number of Black males
taking advanced courses in elementary,
middle and high schools and entering
college remains disproporonately low.
Suicide among black boys is increasing.
Media imagery and indierence have
locked Black boys in their sights. Prisons
have become corporate behemoths with
insaable appetes for Black and brown
boys and men.
My husband and I righully agonize about
our boy. We agonize alongside many who
are working to help, including the federal
government. I know rsthand the work
that the federal government has done
and is doing to improve circumstances for
Black boys. This includes internal memos
and meengs, interagency planning
sessions, public conferences, community
meengs and listening sessions, and now
a White House iniave.
I also know that the federal government is
accountable to numerous constuencies
that somemes have conicng needs.
Federal government workers must walk a
ne line among varying public interests,
which occasionally has meant unintended
consequences for black boys.
For instance, in 1994, the federal priority
of zero tolerance for anyone bringing
a weapon to school was signed into
law as the Gun-Free Schools Act. That
priority reached fever pitch aer the
Columbine school massacre in 1999 and
subsequent copycat slayings and aempts
to kill. Federal requirements were
overshadowed by local authories and
school administrators who stretched the
parameters of zero tolerance in schools
beyond logical measure to include, for
instance, spoons as weapons and Tylenol
as an illegal drug, and to suspend and
expel students as a result.
Zero tolerance has entered the realm of
the ridiculous. Many schools have removed
teacher and administrator discreon and
meted out harsh punishment for school
uniform violaons, schoolyard ghts
without injury and various undened and
indenable categories of oense such as
deance and disrespect.
Students are suspended, expelled and
even arrested for such conduct without
invesgaon or inquiry. There is no
evidence to support use of exclusionary
discipline pracces as tools for prevenon,
and they have no educaonal benet. The
brunt of this insanity has fallen on Black
boys.
Recent federal priories have targeted
harassment and bullying in school
to protect lesbian, gay, bisexual and
transgender students from peer-on-
peer discriminaon dismissed by, and
in many cases encouraged by, school
administraon. Again, understandable.
The goal is praiseworthy to protect,
nally, a populaon of students and
segment of society that has long been a
whipping post for every polical party,
ignored in polical discussions except to
condemn. While my husband and I have
ardently supported federal protecons for
LGBT students, praccally speaking, we
connue to lose sleep over our Black boy.
Another peek inside the matrix tells me
that the fever pitch around this latest
federal agenda item will mean a signicant
cost to Black boys when new categories
of oense are created, new ways to
characterize them as criminals unworthy
of parcipang in mainstream educaon
or society.
Its one thing for educators to guide student
conduct and educate students about how
to care for and respect one another, which
is a primary focus of the federal move
against harassment and bullying. Its quite
another to change mindsets of adults who
run the system, too many of whom believe
and speak negavely about Black boys and
what they cannot accomplish or should
not do.
To speak and think a rmavely, to a rm
behavior and black boys as people, is to
relish the silly jokes they tell within their
context, to compliment them on their
haircuts or groomed and styled dreadlocks
and cornrows, to adopt lingo they create
and add it to classroom repertoire, and to
invite their fathers, grandfathers, uncles,
brothers, cousins to parcipate in the
educaonal experience.
To support Black boys is to celebrate their
physical playfulness and the unique ways
in which they may support and a rm one
another. As with any other children, we
must teach Black boys through instrucon
and by example how to read and write,
and how to conduct themselves without
erasing their identy and aempng to
substute another. We must hone their
insncts, whims and knowledge base so
they can be empowered to exhibit all the
good in themselves. We must be willing
to show them our human frailes so they
know how to get up and carry on aer
falling down. Yes, these things can benet
all children, but many children receive
them by default. Black boys do not.
To love Black boys is to refuse to be an
agent of forces clamoring for their souls
and instead to be their Morpheus, their
god of dreams, to help them believe in
their power to save all of us and to train
them to step into their greatness. Those
agents in the matrix are real. If everyone
combines forces and uses common sense,
we can declare victory for Black boys and
eventually all of us.
But without a change in mindset, federal
iniaves, no maer their good intenons
or the incredible talents that give them
life, will connue to leave Black boys by
the wayside as collateral damage.
My husband and I will connue to fret,
knowing the formidable challenges our
son faces. We hope that if he has a son,
that boy can be just a boy.
----------------------------------
Brown is a former trial aorney for the U.S.
Department of Jusce, Civil Rights Division,
Educaonal Opportunies Secon. She
is president of Allison Brown Consulng,
which works with educators, students,
families and other key stakeholders
to improve the quality of educaon,
especially for black boys. Americas
Wire is an independent, nonprot news
service run by the Maynard Instute for
Journalism Educaon and funded by a
grant from the W.K. Kellogg Foundaon.
Our stories can be republished free of
charge by newspapers, websites and other
media sources. For more informaon, visit
www.americaswire.org or contact Michael
K. Frisby at mike@frisbyassociates.com.
ALLISON R.
BROWN
The views expressed on our opinion pages are those of the author and do not
necessarily represent the position or viewpoint of MRMG or CNY Vision
As is already well-known in the
Syracuse metropolitan area, the
Mary Nelson Center organizes an
annual event during which backpacks,
clothes and other school materials
are distributed free to school children
from all over Syracuse. It has become
the event of the year on the South
Side of Syracuse. The locaon is where
South Salina intersects Colvin Street.
The convenience store owned by Craig
Davis is in the immediate vicinity,
which places him in the midst of the
acon every year.
And this year, Craig plans to be
an acve parcipant, not just as a
business owner in the area, but as a
concerned parent also.
He showed me three cases of books
he will donate to kids that day. They
came from his collecon of books he
had bought for himself and for his
children. He also plans to set up a
table to donate food and other items
to those in need.
General will be at the event,
supporng his brother, but will be a
major aracon on his own merit; he
will do a book signing. It is part of a
markeng and promoon strategy of a
book entled Dead Boys Walking that
was recently published. The book is
about youth gangs, youth violence and
the impact they have on America and
the world.
Both General and Craig give much
credit to their mother, Genell Davis for
inslling in them the drive to succeed,
and to connue striving in spite of
setbacks and di cules.
She projected the image of a strong
and fearless Black woman who would
not be easily scared. Today, her
stature is lessened only by age, but
she remains the central gure in the
family. They take pride in their abiding
love for their mother.
Several years ago, I became something
of a father gure to a playmate of my
then pre-teen son, Trey. His name is
Andrew Branch. He lived around the
corner from us on Tully Street, on
the West Side. I grew to like the kid
immensely.
Years later, I co-wrote the rst and a
second book with General Davis and
found out that Andrew is his nephew.
What a small world.
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