Florida Sentinel Bulletin

WASHINGTON — For many who helped dedicate the new Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial on Sunday, the towering granite monument is a stark reminder that the civil rights leader’s dream of social and economic justice has yet to be realized.

In many ways, the ceremony was a passing of the torch to a younger generation with speeches marked by fierce rhetoric over the nation’s economic disparities.

Thousands gathered at the memorial site, some as early as 5 a.m., to hear President Barack Obama, King’s children and other civil rights leaders. Speaker after speaker invoked King’s “I Have a Dream” speech from 1963 to challenge others to carry on his fight.

“Yes, my father had a dream. It was a dream, he said, that was deeply embedded in the American dream,” said King’s son Martin Luther King III. “The problem is the American dream of 50 years ago … has turned into a nightmare for millions” who have lost their jobs and homes.

The nation has “lost its soul,” he said, when it tolerates such vast economic disparities, teen bullying, and having more people of color in prison than in college.

His sister, the Rev. Bernice King, reminded the crowd that just before her father’s assassination in 1968, he was mobilizing a poor people’s campaign to occupy the nation’s capital until the economic system changed.

She said the postponement of an earlier dedication because of Hurricane Irene that was planned on Aug. 28, the 48th anniversary of her father’s “Dream” speech, may have been an act of God.

“Perhaps the postponement was a divine interruption to remind us of a King that moved us beyond the dream of racial justice to the action and work of economic justice,” she said. “Perhaps God wanted us to move beyond the ‘dream’ into action.”

Continuing with her stay fit initiative, First Lady Michelle Obama, along with hundreds of school kids jump started the attempt to break the Guinness World Record for jumping jacks.

“I get to do a lot of cool things, but this is really exciting. I never thought in my entire life that I would be here to break a Guinness World Record.” said Mrs. Obama.

Along with 400 students, The First Lady started the worldwide exercise at 3 p.m. ET October 11 on the White House lawn.

The exercise went until 3 p.m. ET (October 12) with Mrs. Obama requesting worldwide participation to break the record. The goal is to get over 20,000 people doing jumping jacks during that period.

Retired Lt. Col. Luke J. Weathers Jr., a member of World War II’s famed Tuskegee Airmen and a humble combat hero, has died in Tucson at age 90. He will be buried with full honors at Arlington National Cemetery.

The Tuskegee Airmen were the U.S. military’s first African-American pilots.

Weathers was credited with downing two German fighter planes that attacked Army Air Forces bombers he was escorting.

PHILADELPHIA CITY — Four malnourished mentally disabled adults were found chained to a boiler in a locked Tacony basement room that was too small for an adult to stand up straight in and also reeked of waste from the buckets they used to relieve themselves, Philadelphia Police said Sunday.

And one of the people accused of abusing them reportedly served time for a 1983 murder conviction.

Linda Ann Weston, 51, who was described as the ringleader of the alleged abuse, served four to 10 years for murder, cops said. Police didn’t immediately have details about that past conviction.

Weston and 47-year-old Thomas Gregory, and 49-year-old Eddie Wright, who is homeless, allegedly kept the disabled adults in horrid conditions, cops said.

Officers were investigating a report of squatters when they found three men and a woman in a 15-by-15-foot room behind a steel door that was chained shut.

Police are investigating the possibility that the suspects were trying to make money through access to the victims’ Social Security or disability checks, Little said. It wasn’t clear how they knew the victims.

The 29-year-old woman and the men, who are 31, 35, and 41, have the mental capacity of 10-year-olds, police said. They were taken to a hospital for treatment. Little said the victims appeared to have no physical problems other than malnourishment.

They are now in custody of the state being fed and taken care of.

DETROIT – In a city where over a quarter of its residents are unemployed, and almost 30,000 of them are either on probation or out on parole, Detroit is looking to put ex-convicts back to work. On Wednesday, the city held an “Offenders Only” Job Fair.

Detroit City Council President Charles Pugh organized the job fair, along with Wayne County Community College and Kelly Services. Pugh, a former television and radio personality in his first term on the council, has been advocating for job opportunities for convicted felons since he took office in 2010.

The city council has even gone as far as trying to get the question ‘Have you ever been convicted of a felony?’ removed from job applications in Detroit.

“That group (ex-convicts) has difficulties finding jobs,” Pugh said in an interview with Detroit Public Radio on Thursday. “A lot of times, folks who come out (of jail) and get roadblock after roadblock and door closed, they give up and some of them re-commit crimes because they feel that’s their only option.”

The job fair featured up to 200 potential job openings from employers, and the only people allowed a shot at the jobs had to have a felony on their record. Pugh feels that the lack of job opportunities for felons, including violent felons, leads to recidivism.

Hailed the “Dean of the Civil Rights Movement,” Rev. Joseph Lowery stood a foot soldier in all of the epic civil rights battles of his day.

With determination, diligence and depth, he braved the front lines in the Montgomery Bus Boycott, refused to back down from a violent showdown with Bull Connor in Birmingham, maintained the faith to march from Selma to Montgomery and demanded jobs and justice on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial.

Lowery was encased within the civil right movement’s inner circle, fighting alongside so many others who were cut down in their prime, but at the ripe age of 90 he’s among the few left to see the fruit of the labor.

Joseph Echols Lowery was born October 6, 1921 in Huntsville, Alabama and jokes one has to be a little crazy to answer to brutality with nonviolence, but it is what he calls “good crazy.” Although the times have changed and African Americans are not avidly organizing sit-ins and boycotts, Rev. Lowery is adamant that his fight, your fight, our fight is far from over.

Pictured: Civil rights pioneer Rev. Joseph E. Lowery on the red carpet with wife, Evelyn Lowery as they arrive for a celebration of his 90th birthday Oct. 9 in Atlanta.

A 96-year-old woman who has been voting for more than 70 years, even through the Jim Crow era, said the new voting ID laws in Tennessee have made voting more of a hassle than its ever been.

Dorothy Cooper spoke about the difficulties she experienced trying to vote appearing on Rev. Al Sharpton’s Politics Nation show. According to Cooper, she was alerted that she would need her marriage certificate to be able to vote. At another voting booth she was told she could vote absentee.

Dorothy Cooper states that she never, at the age of 96, thought that voting would be such a hassle. “I never thought that is would be like this ever,” Cooper said.

A 79-year-old Texas woman and her mentally disabled son have been missing for almost a month, according to Texas police.

Lettie Fisher and her son, 31-year-old John Fisher Jr., were last seen leaving Lufkin Memorial Medical Center, where Lettie was treated for breast cancer. After leaving the medical center, detectives believe the Fishers went home to pick up their fishing gear and then to Wolf Creek.

On Sept. 22, Lettie Fisher’s 1999 silver Toyota 4Runner was found parked in Magnolia Ridge State Park. According to KPRC, police suspect the vehicle was dumped there by someone else and are investigating the possibility of foul play.

BUFFALO, NY  — Candy shaped like marijuana that’s showing up on store shelves around America won’t get kids high, but aghast city leaders and anti-drug activists say the product and grocers carrying it represent a new low.

The “Pothead Ring Pots,” ”Pothead Lollipops” and bagged candy are distributed to retail stores by the novelty supply company Kalan LP of the Philadelphia suburb of Lansdowne. It also wholesales online for $1 for a lollipop and $1.50 for a package of three rings.

Company president Andrew Kalan said the candy, on the market six to nine months and in 1,000 stores around the United States, promotes the legalization of marijuana.

“It does pretty well,” he said.