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This Sunday marks the 10 anniversary of the tragic incidents of 9/11. The Washington Informer would like the opportunity to share your story with our readers from around the world. Please submit your stories, pictures etc to
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These submissions will be added to the Informer's 9/11 Anniversary section below.
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Mayor Vincent Gray: “It’s the 10th anniversary and that’s an important milestone. We have a number of events that are scheduled over a period of three days beginning Friday, Sept. 9 and running through the late afternoon on Sept. 11. They will include [commemorations] like the event at Leckie Elementary School that will honor the three DCPS students , three teachers and two National Geographic chaperones who were killed in the plane that was flown into the Pentagon.
“That will focus on recounting the events and talking about the eight people who were involved. But frankly, there will be an overarching theme to the [mayor’s] One City mantra, called One City, One World: Peace, Tolerance, Service and Remembrance. Certainly one of the objects of this and other events is to recognize what happened that day, [as well as] to remind ourselves that we need to be ever-vigilant and that we can’t take our safety and security for granted. The three days will conclude with a candlelight service that will be at First Baptist Church on 16th St. in Northwest, honoring the lives of those that were lost.”
On the morning of September 11, 2001, I was leaving the former YWCA health club, at Ninth and G Streets, N.W., after a great workout. It was only days after returning from a family trip to London and South Africa. Strangely enough, it was the only international trip I had taken that I found myself
being overly defensive about the U.S. In London and throughout our travels in South Africa, folks kept asking how the American voters could have allowed George Bush to become our president. They believed he had stolen the election and we were negligent for allowing him to do so. Be that as it may, it was a criticism of all Americans, regardless of politics or race.
Anyway, the workout was perfect, and as I proceeded down Ninth Street, I noticed how beautiful a day it was. The sky was picture-perfect gorgeous. As I approached the Ninth Street Tunnel, I heard on radio that a plane had struck a tower in New York and that one was headed to the nation's capitol. I don't remember what station I was listening to, nor could I immediately decide whether to proceed home to Southeast or turn around to go pick up my sons from school in Northwest where I had previously dropped them off.
I went home and cut on the television and saw the frightening photographs from New York's World Trade Center. I also saw the photos from the Pentagon and heard another plane was headed to the White House.
I talked to my husband who told me the government was shutting down and that he was headed home. I asked about our sons, because I could not get an answer to calls made at their schools. I just knew I needed to go get them. So, I ignored his advice to stay put and headed back across town where I got stuck in traffic for nearly five hours near the Lincoln Memorial.
People were walking everywhere. Hundreds were headed across the 14th Street Bridge and as I attempted to go back home, I picked up a woman near the Wharf who was trying to make her way to the Naylor Road Subway station to meet her husband. We talked the whole way about what was happening and we shared many other stories.
When I got home, my sons and my husband were there. How the beat me back, I don't know but I was glad to see them all. The rest of the day was spent watching the news and discussing our emergency plans for the future. That was when I decided to get cell phones for my sons. I also learned that one of the sixth grade teachers at the elementary school I attended years ago was on the plane that struck the Pentagon with her students from Leckie Elementary School.
I realize how fortunate we, Americans, have been when it comes to terrorist attacks and wars, none that have been fought on American soil in years. But September 11 let me know that we are not exempt. The recent earthquake aroused the same fears that so many people around the world live with each and every day.
Denise Rolark Barnes | Publisher - The Washington Informer
"I woke up early on Sept. 11, 2011 because I was planning to fly to Cleveland to visit a friend and to tour the Cleveland Browns football facility for a freelance story on a D.C. pro football player. I was watching television, "Good Morning America" on ABC when, a litttle before 9 a.m., the show was interrupted with a news bulletin that a plane had hit one of the towers of the World Trade Center in New York City.
Freak accident, I thought.
Then it was reported that the second tower had been hit and the whole Trade Center was crumbling. Then I saw the image of the World Trade Center falling to the ground.
I was flabbergasted.
I immediately called the Washington Post, where I was working at the time. To my surprise, a sports copy editor colleague, Tom Heleba, answered the phone because copy editors in sports generally work in the evening. Tom told me that he was working on the special edition of the Post, which was released later that day, reporting on the fall of the World Trade Center, what happen at the Pentagon and in rural Pennsylvania.
The airports were closed so I could not fly to Cleveland. The traffic in downtown Washington was the worse I had seen with cars and trucks backed up. The news was 24-7 on the attacks. My sister, Janet Fields, from Houston called me to ask if I was ok and I told her I was fine but things were crazy Janet told me that people were in such a frenzy in Houston, some parents were angry that schools would not be closed for the day.
"The schools should be closed!"" Janet said. "America is being attacked!" I could not help but to burst out laughing, thinking that Janet was approximateley 2000 away from the scenes of the attacks and people were talking about closing schools there?
I also spole with my cousin, Carol Porter, who lived in suburban Philadelphia in New Jersey, who agreed with me that if Al Gore had been elected president, the attacks would not have taken place.
That evening, I did nothing but watch television news and read the special edition of the Post. I knew that America would never be the same from then on."
Goodwill stores can offer quality clothing for job hunters./Photo by Roy Lewis/Washington InformerWith thousands of people in the D.C. region still looking for jobs, at least there's good news for those who need to outfit themselves for interviews, but have to stick to a tight budget.
Goodwill of Greater Washington and ZIPS Dry Cleaners have renewed a partnership to secure professional clothing for those seeking employment. The clothing drive is called Will2Work and it runs the entire month of September.
"Clothes directly relate to employment because people need proper attire to go to work," said Louis Jones, general manager of the Goodwill store on South Dakota Ave. in the District.
Brett Vago, co-owner and chairman of ZIPS Dry Cleaners echoes the sentiment.
"Everyone knows the rule. First impressions count," saidVago. "This is the least we can do to help those in need put their best foot forward."
Donated suits, dresses, blouses and slacks will be provided to disadvantaged adults trying to re-enter the workforce. The goal of Will2Work is to give people clothing options that can be worn on the job or to job interviews.
"One of the biggest barriers to employment for people with a disadvantage is the lack of professional attire to wear to a job interview," said Brendan Hurley, senior vice president of Marketing & Communications for Goodwill of Greater Washington. "The partnership between ZIPS and Goodwill will give hundreds of people in our community access to the clothing that will help secure and maintain employment."
For those who already have jobs, the costs for a woman's suit or dress top out at $8.98 while a man's suit can be bought for just about $16. The simple black wrap dress (shown above) sells for $8.98 at the Goodwill store on South Dakota Ave. A check for a similar new dress on the same designer's website showed the shipping alone would cost $6.
"Our prices usually range from $8.98 to 15.98 for a suit for a man. Typically women can get a professional dress or suit for about $10," said Jones.
There are also many high-end and designer items at Goodwill. Washington Informer staffers discovered an Armani dress and copious amounts of Ann Taylor suits on a recent trip to Goodwill. In addition, Goodwill boasts accessories galore (including a rock-bottom priced Gucci handbag) which can help create different looks to make people think you have more than one little black dress.
Goodwill of Greater Washington not only has a cache of great professional attire, the nonprofit organization also has several workforce development programs designed to put people back to work. The organization offers resume help, classroom job skills training. Goodwill also works employers to develop job preparation programs for positions in specific industries such as banking, building maintenance and environmental services, retail and construction.
The organization also has jobs to offer. Crystal Simms has been working at the South Dakota Ave. store as a clerk since November 2010.
"I was told that Goodwill was hiring, so I came and applied, I got my interview and went to a training class and I've been working ever since," Simms said.
Jones who has worked for other nonprofit service-oriented organizations, said Goodwill is a great place to work.
"It is a great place to work because of what we do for the community. Our thrift stores help benefit disadvantaged or disabled communities. So my labor is giving back to the community."
Throughout September, each of ZIPS' 26 stores in the Greater Washington-Baltimore region, as well as the dry cleaning chain's four stores in Pennsylvania, will serve as drop off locations for clothing donations during September. The participating ZIPS locations include: Washington, DC: Connecticut Ave./Van Ness; Maryland: Annapolis; College Park; Laurel; Lanham; Marlow Heights; Rockville; and Silver Spring.
For complete store information, visit www.321zips.com. More information about Goodwill of Greater Washington is available online: http://www.dcgoodwill.org/
Obama says lawmakers need to move more quickly creating jobs./Courtesy PhotoPresident Barack Obama said Monday in a warm-up of the jobs speech he will deliver on Sept. 8 to Congress, that there are numerous roads and bridges that need rebuilding across the country, and that more than 1 million unemployed construction workers are available to build them.
Obama, who spoke on Labor Day during an annual celebration in Detroit, also said "the time for Washington games is over" and lawmakers must be more swift creating jobs.
"But we're not going wait for them," the president said at the event which was sponsored by the Metropolitan Detroit AFL-CIO. "We're going to see if we've got some straight shooters in Congress. We're going to see if congressional Republicans will put country before party," Obama said. "Show us what you've got."
Obama's remarks have come at a time when the jobless rate hovers at 9.1 percent and his approval rating has continued to plummet. Federal officials reported no job gains for August and as a result, the stagnant unemployment rate has provided Obama's Republican detractors, including those poised to challenge him the in 2012 presidential race, fresh ammunition to hammer him with.
According to the latest Washington Post/ABC News poll, more than 60 percent of people surveyed said they disapprove of the way the president is handling the economy and the jobs situation. While just 43 percent now approve of the job Obama is doing overall, 53 percent disapprove. In addition, a recent Gallop survey revealed that public approval over how he has handled the economy has hit a new low, at 26 percent.
Labor Secretary Hilda Solis commented recently that Obama "is very mindful of what the needs and concerns are of those individuals who have been out of work for so long."
However, Solis added in an AP interview that the jobless have a responsibility to seek training in new skills, if necessary, to better prepare themselves for the kinds of jobs available in today's economy,
Sean "P Diddy" Combs will participate in Sept. 9 kickoff rally./Courtesy PhotoWASHINGTON, D.C. – Events DC is rolling out the red carpet with several free events centered around the inaugural AT&T Nation's Football Classic™. The highly-anticipated game where Howard University is set to compete with Morehouse College, takes place at 3:30 p.m., this Saturday (Sept. 10) at RFK Stadium.
The Kickoff Rally on Friday (Sept. 9) is from 12 noon to 2 p.m., at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center. During that time, D.C. Mayor Vincent Gray will join Grammy Award-winning artist Sean "Diddy" Combs, platinum recording artist Jermaine Dupri and radio host Big Tigger to launch the celebration featuring music, giveaways, a Howard University and Morehouse College drumline competition as well as performances by step teams and the Ballou High School drumline.
"I congratulate Events DC, the competing schools and the sponsors for working together to make the inaugural AT&T Nation's Football Classic™ a success," said Mayor Gray. "The Classic offers a full schedule of exciting, educational and fun events leading up to the big game on Saturday, and I encourage all to take advantage of the numerous activities."
Graph, Courtesy U.S. Census BureauWASHINGTON, DC – After a decade-long rise in concentrated poverty, one in 11 residents of metropolitan areas now live in communities where at least 30 percent of their neighbors are poor, according to a pair of studies recently unveiled by the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies.
The reports, A Lost Decade: Neighborhood Poverty and the Urban Crisis of the 2000s, produced in collaboration with the Poverty & Race Research Action Council, and Segregated Spaces, Risky Places: The Effects of Racial Segregation on Health Inequalities , underscore the links between poverty and racial segregation in metropolitan neighborhoods and the health of the people who live in them.
Firefighters are dwarfed by debris at the site of the World Trade Center in New York Tuesday, Sept. 11, 2001. Planes crashed into the upper floors of the World Trade Center towers minutes apart Tuesday morning collapsing both 110-story buildings. (AP Photo/Graham Morrison)Colleagues, Friends Say Pain Still Lingers
This weekend, the nation will pause to remember the 3,000 people killed when Al Qaeda hijackers commandeered commercial airliners and crashed into the Twin Towers in New York City and the Pentagon in Arlington, Va.
As the 10th anniversary of the attacks quickly approaches, memories are dredged up that Bill Dulli would rather forget. Dulli, a 29-year employee of the National Geographic Society, said he lost two friends and colleagues that day. Ann Judge, 49, of Great Falls, Va., and James Joseph 'Joe' Ferguson, 39 and a Capitol Hill resident, died when American Airlines Flight 77 barreled into the Pentagon.
Handcuffed Art Rocker (center) and Dick Gregory (left) are led to a paddy wagon during a protest the BP Deepwater Horizon Disaster Victim Compensation Fund./Photo by Shevry Lassiter.Comedian-activist Dick Gregory, along with a handful of protesters, recently demonstrated outside the Northwest offices of settlement attorney Ken Feinberg, accusing him of dragging his feet in resolving the more than 10,000 compensation claims brought by victims' families and survivors of the April 2010 British Petroleum (BP) Gulf Coast oil spill.
D.C. Mayor Vincent Gray and Prince George's County Executive Rushern Baker are making a wager over the Sept. 9 football game between H.D. Woodson and Fairmount Heights./Courtesy PhotosCall it a friendly wager between leaders. Prince George's County Executive Rushern Baker and Washington, D.C. Mayor Vincent Gray have set the stage for a showdown between H.D. Woodson and Fairmount Heights Hornets football teams on Sept. 9.
If Woodson wins, Baker will take the mayor to Jerry's Seafood on Lanham Severn Road in Lanham, Md. If Fairmount Heights emerges victorious, then Gray will host Baker for a lunch at the historic landmark restaurant Ben's Chili Bowl on U St. in Washington D.C.
President Obama is urging Congress to act quickly in passing his jobs bill./Courtesy Photo
In a speech Thursday night to a joint session of the Congress, President Barack Obama implored the lawmakers to end the "political circus" and to act "now" on passage of his $450 billion American Jobs Act.
"We continue to face an economic crisis that has left millions of our neighbors jobless and a political crisis that has made things worse," Obama said, alluding to what he described as an "urgent time" in America.
Emphasizing that his bill would not add to the deficit because "everything in it will be paid for," Obama said there was nothing controversial about the legislation: The plan calls for cutting payroll taxes in half next year for working Americans and small businesses, putting good teachers back to work, repairing America's infrastructure and, most importantly, creating jobs for millions of unemployed people in their desperate search for work.The purpose of the jobs bill is simply to put more people back to work and more money into the pockets of those who are working, according to Obama.
"The hardest work in the world is being out of work." ~ Whitney M. Young, Jr.
The issue of jobs is front and center in America as the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation (CBCF) convenes a National Town Hall meeting on Sept. 22 regarding the employment crisis. The meeting will take place during the 41st Annual Legislative Conference (ALC) -- an unprecedented gathering of black leadership from business, government, academia, the not-for-profit sector, law and health care, and the arts.
With unemployment among African Americans now standing at more than 16 percent, members of the Congressional Black Caucus (CBC) have recently held jobs fairs in several cities. Meanwhile, the current crisis has unfolded with the retrenchment of government employment and massive downsizing in the private sector, decimating the black middle class and further entrenching low-income African Americans in poverty.
As millions of African Americans have become jobless or faced a reduction in wages, the community has been impacted by home foreclosures and a widening of the wealth gap.
"We are facing an unprecedented crisis in our community, with the possibility of generations of African Americans permanently detached from economic opportunity," said CBCF chairman Rep. Donald Payne. "The CBCF understands the importance of bringing our brightest minds to the table to find solutions that will provide jobs and bring financial security to families."
The town hall meeting begins at 9 a.m. Thursday in Ballroom A in the Walter E. Washington Convention Center in Washington, D.C. Interested parties can also join the meeting via live webcast and Twitter.
To find out more and to register for ALC visit us @www.alc11.org
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