Issue leads to turf war among board members
© Prince William Times / Apr. 13, 2016Prince William County School board members fight over who calls the shots when it comes to visiting another member’s district.
Overstepping and a lack of interest by Prince William County School Board members regarding the Godwin Middle School name change were addressed at the board’s April 6 meeting.
Following the March 2 vote to rename Godwin after George M. Hampton, PWCS Chairman Ryan Sawyers, PWCS Occoquan Representative Lillie Jessie, and PWCS Neabsco Representative Diane Raulston met with Godwin faculty. The March 10 meeting focused on the name change and implementation. No information from that meeting has been released.
Godwin is in the Neabsco district and is represented by Raulston.
Community member Diana Allen spoke during the school board meeting’s Citizen’s Time on April 6. She said Raulston did not serve the Godwin community.
Bill Clinton and the BLM gang
NEW YORK — For days now, Bill Clinton has been attempting to extricate himself from a confrontation with Black Lives Matter protesters, trying both to hold to his position and step back from it. It’s been an awkward dance.
But it speaks to a broader problem for the 42nd president of the United States. Clinton is caught in a time warp, having to grapple with how much the era in which he served, the events that occurred then and the actions he took as president have been reinterpreted and, by many in his own party, rejected.
Clinton is a gifted campaigner and remains a popular ex-president. There are few politicians more skilled at synthesizing and explaining issues or making a political argument, as he demonstrated repeatedly in his advocacy for President Obama in the 2012 campaign.
But this is 2016, not 1992 or 1996, and things have changed — particularly within the Democratic Party. Clinton’s exchange with the Black Lives Matter demonstrators over the 1994 crime bill and in particular Hillary Clinton’s use of the term “superpredators” at the time brought into high relief the conundrum he and she face.
Among other things, that 1994 crime bill instituted tough sentencing provisions that resulted in high rates of incarceration for many young African Americans convicted of nonviolent offenses. That provision in particular is now seen by many people as too harsh. Many of the politicians who supported it then — including Sen. Bernie Sanders — have said it went too far. Hillary Clinton is in that camp. So is Bill Clinton.
