Page 2 The Skanner December 27, 2017
®
Challenging People to Shape
a Better Future Now
Opinion
Bernie Foster
Founder/Publisher
A Year In Review: 2017 Won’t Be Forgotten
Bobbie Dore Foster
Executive Editor
A Year In Review: Donald Trump, Sexual Assault Cases Dominate 2017 Headlines
Jerry Foster
Advertising Manager
Christen McCurdy
News Editor
Patricia Irvin
Graphic Designer
Melanie Sevcenko
Reporter
Monica J. Foster
Seattle Office Coordinator
Susan Fried
Photographer
2017
MERIT
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L
ove it or hate it, 2017 will
be a year not soon forgot-
ten.
Barack Obama, a consti-
tutional law professor, Nobel
Peace Prize winner and the
nation’s first Black president,
graciously handed the keys to
the White House to a reality
TV star who has been accused
of sexual assault.
Shortly after his inaugura-
tion, President Donald Trump
began signing dozens of exec-
utive orders that threatened
to rollback much of the prog-
ress that was made during the
previous eight years under
the Obama Administration.
And, it was the Trump Ad-
ministration that not only
slashed funding for adver-
tising during the open en-
rollment of the Affordable
Care Act, but also cut the en-
rollment period for signing
up for coverage through the
federal healthcare exchange
from 90 days to 45 days.
Despite those challeng-
es, the ACA, also known as
“Obamacare,” is still the law of
the land and, this year, nearly
9 million people signed up for
coverage through the federal
healthcare exchange.
With the GOP tax reform
bill, which was endorsed
by Trump, the Republicans
scored a win for corporations
at the expense of nearly ev-
eryone else.
According to CNN Mon-
ey, “The final bill still leans
heavily toward tax cuts for
corporations and business
owners. But it also expands
or restores some tax benefits
for individuals relative to
the earlier bills passed by the
House and Senate.”
CNN Money article contin-
ued: “The individual provi-
sions would expire by the end
of 2025, but most of the corpo-
rate provisions would be per-
manent.”
Civil rights attorney Howard Moore, whose clients have
included activists Julian Bond and Angela Davis, addressed
a crowd of about 1,000 people, who traveled through
ice and snow Jan. 16 for The Skanner Foundation’s 31st
Annual Martin Luther King, Jr. Breakfast. Moore’s speech
focused on the election and impending inauguration of
business tycoon Donald Trump. Trump’s lack of regard for
civil campaigning, his comments about Muslims, African
Americans, Latinos and people with disabilities — and
his conduct with women – should be of grave concern to
Americans, Moore said. But, in the spirit of remembering
King’s legacy, he told the audience to remember that King
himself sometimes felt despair and kept fighting anyway.
PHOTOS BY ANTONIO HARRIS AND MIKE NORRIS
Moore Addresses
MLK Breakfast
Stacy M.
Brown
NNPA
Columnist
In February, when NSA
chief Mike Flynn was forced
to resign after lying to Vice
President Mike Pence, Trump
said to then-FBI Director
James Comey, “I hope you can
see your way clear to letting
“
paper Publishers Association
(NNPA) elected a new nation-
al chairman, Dorothy Leavell,
the publisher of the Crusader
newspapers in Chicago and
Gary, Indiana.
“We are suffering and with
a new administration in the
White House, it will take
someone who isn’t afraid,
someone who will raise a lot
of hell,” the fiery Leavell said
after she was elected.
In 2017, Carolyn Bryant, the
woman who accused young
Emmett Till of grabbing and
verbally harassing her 62
I hope you can see your way clear
to letting this go, to letting Flynn
go. He is a good guy. I hope you
can let this go
this go, to letting Flynn go. He
is a good guy. I hope you can
let this go.”
As a highly-politicized in-
vestigation into whether or
not Russia meddled in the
2016 presidential election be-
gan to heat up, Trump fired
Comey. Later, Flynn cut a
deal to cooperate with spe-
cial counsel Robert Mueller’s
probe into Russian election
meddling. Federal prosecu-
tors charged Trump’s for-
mer campaign manager Paul
Manafort, campaign adviser
Rick Gates and former for-
eign policy adviser George
Papadopoulos with various
crimes, including lying to the
FBI and money laundering.
During “Black Press Week”
in March, Rep. Sheila Jack-
son Lee (D-Texas), expressed
a desire to draft articles of
impeachment over Trump’s
actions in the White House
and Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand
(D-N.Y.) called on the real es-
tate mogul to resign.
Meanwhile, the Black Press
celebrated its 190th anniver-
sary and the National News-
years ago, finally admitted
that she lied during the tri-
al of Till’s murderers. An
all-White jury found her
husband Roy Bryant and his
half-brother JW Milam not
guilty of the crime.
The Guardian reported that
Bryant said Till had grabbed
and verbally harassed her in
a grocery store.
“I was just scared to death,”
she said during the trial, ac-
cording to The Guardian.
“That part’s not true,” Bry-
ant confessed to Timothy Ty-
son, the author of a new book,
“The Blood of Emmet Till,”
The Guardian said.
In June, comedian Bill Cos-
by went on trial for a 2004
incident involving a former
Temple University employee,
who claimed the star drugged
and raped her. A jury failed to
reach a unanimous decision
and a judge, who declared a
mistrial, ordered a new trial
for next spring.
In October, celebrated mov-
ie producer Harvey Wein-
stein was exposed as a serial
sexual harasser and abuser
with more than 100 women
— including actresses like
Gwyneth Paltrow and Ashley
Judd—among his accusers.
The firestorm around the
accusations ignited a move-
ment and scores of women
and men across the world
shared their harrowing sto-
ries of abuse on social media
using the hashtag #MeToo.
Celebrities and media per-
sonalities including Matt
Lauer, Bill O’Reilly, Metropol-
itan Opera conductor James
Levine, Charlie Rose, Louis
C.K. and hip-hop mogul Rus-
sell Simmons were also ac-
cused of sexual harassment
or assault and have either lost
their jobs or stepped down
from their companies.
Politicians like U.S. Senate
candidate Roy Moore (R-Ala.),
Senator Al Franken (D-Minn.)
and Rep. John Conyers
(D-Mich.) also faced allega-
tions of sexual misconduct.
The Trump-backed Moore
lost a close special election
senate for Alabama’s vacant
senate seat in December af-
ter African American voters
turned out in droves to sup-
port Democrat Doug Jones.
Meanwhile, several wom-
en have emerged with claims
against Trump.
People magazine writer
Natasha Stoynoff accused
Trump of attacking her in
2005 at his Mar-a-Lago resi-
dence in Florida.
“It doesn’t surprise me at all
that Mr. Trump would criti-
cize someone else’s inappro-
priate sexual behavior and
not address his own,” Stoynoff
told the magazine.
Another Trump accuser,
Melinda McGillivray, told
People that Trump “is a com-
plete hypocrite.”
While the sexual harass-
ment storm stirred across
the country, many won’t soon
forget the devastating hur-
ricanes that ravaged Texas,
Louisiana, Florida, the Virgin
Islands and Puerto Rico in the
summer and early fall.
Critics of the federal gov-
ernment’s response to dev-
astation caused by the hurri-
canes noted that more than 30
percent of Puerto Ricans still
lack access to electricity.
The president also took heat
as he seemed to compare the
actions of White suprema-
cists to peaceful protesters
after a woman was killed
during a White nationalists’
rally in Charlottesville, Va.
“This week it’s Robert E. Lee.
I noticed that Stonewall Jack-
son is coming down,” Trump
said in defending the Confed-
erate monuments. “I wonder,
is George Washington next
week and is it Thomas Jeffer-
son the week after that? You
really do have to ask yourself:
‘Where does it stop?”
The president even found
time to criticize NFL players
for silently protesting police
brutality and racial injustice
in predominately Black and
minority communities.
Trump blasted players and
said that team owners should
get rid of them.
Kaepernick, who remains
unsigned and is suing the
NFL owners for colluding to
keep him out of the league,
has been recognized with sev-
eral awards including Sports
Illustrated’s Muhammad Ali
Legacy Award, which was
presented to him in Decem-
ber by Beyoncé.
In October, O.J. Simpson was
released from prison in Neva-
da after serving nine years
for a robbery conviction.
The NAACP named Derrick
Johnson president and CEO of
the oldest civil rights organi-
zation in America.
Johnson told NNPA News-
wire that it’s important that
See FORGOTTEN on page 8