Quad-City Times from Davenport, Iowa • A4

00 1 A4 THURSDAY, JUNE 7, 2018 QUAD-CITY TIMES Obama administration misled the American people and Congress because they were desperate to get a deal with U.S. Sen. Rob Portman, R-Ohio, who chairs the Senate panel that conducted the investigation, after a probe found the former administration attempted to clear a path for Iran to convert its currency to U.S. dollars after repeatedly saying it permit the country to access American nancial markets. Founded 1855 A Lee Enterprises Newspaper 500 E.

Third Davenport, IA 52801 qctimes.com/opinion Editorial Board DEB ANSELM Publisher MATT CHRISTENSEN Executive Editor JOHN WETZEL community member JON ALEXANDER Editorial Page Editor OPINION Quote of the Day lack lives matter. It is a message that has, for centuries, been woven like thread into the fabric of this nation. It was there when the Supreme Court said black people had no rights white people were bound to respect, there when Nazi POWs were seated at a Southern diner while black soldiers were sent to the kitchen, there when federal researchers in Tuskegee experimented on unwitting black men to nd out what happens when syphilis goes untreated. It was there when Emmett eye was gouged out and Sam face was skinned, there when the good people of Valdosta, Georgia, carved Mary baby from her womb and stomped it into the dirt. And it is there in Fort Pierce, Florida, where a jury just decided a wrongful death suit against a St.

Lucie County Sheri deputy. The deputy, Christopher Newman, was called to the home of the victim, 30-year-old Gregory Vaughn Hill Jr. in January 2014 by a complaint that he was playing his music loudly. Newman and his partner say that when they banged on the door of the garage, where the music was coming from, Hill raised it, gun in hand a contention his daughter, who was across the street, denies, according to CNN. She says her hands were empty.

The deputies claim they ordered him to drop the weapon, but he closed the door instead. Newman red through the door, striking Hill three times. He was found with an unloaded gun in his back pocket. Postmortem toxicology tests indicate that he was drunk. Last week, a federal jury found that Newman did not use excessive force, but that his boss, Sheri Ken Mascara, was slightly negligent.

It awarded family $4 in damages. But it gets worse. Reasoning that Hill bore 99 percent of the responsibility for his own death, the jury reduced that pittance by 99 percent, leaving his family just four cents. For the loss of your father, four cents. For the loss of your child, four cents.

For the loss of your ance, four cents. For pain and su ering, for mourning and tears, as an expression of our corporate regret for this tragedy, four lousy cents. The thing is, even if you buy tale, you are left with a man who answered a loud knocking while carrying a rearm in his own home in a right-to-carry state then closed the door. Apparently, a capital crime now, if black. Better the jury had given his family nothing than to give them four cents.

Yes, have been disappointed, but that would have been better than this, a calculated insult on top of a fatal injury. The message this jury sends is an old one. It is as American as baseball and apple pie, pine tar torches and burning esh, as American as that great lie about the truths we hold self-evident. The attorney, John Phillips, heard it clearly. says black lives he told CNN.

One thinks of how the conscientious parent of an African-American child spends that lifetime refuting that message, trying to keep it from nding purchase in a tender psyche. As white conservatives moan piteously about the they face, all but whipping out a violin and playing knows de trouble every time the truth hurts their feelings, that parent is teaching his child how to live through a tra stop. It is hard work, trying to help a black child value himself in a nation where his worth is ever in question. Now this. You buy candy for four cents.

You buy a stick of gum. But a federal jury just bought Gregory life. Pitts is a columnist with Miami Herald. Strive for inclusiveness A Seattle based co eehouse corporation engaged its employees in an anti-bias training. This is a step towards creating a more welcoming and inclusive environment.

A major television network canceled a fall sitcom series after the of the show tweeted racist remarks. Local religious, civic and elected leaders of Clinton ered support to the pastor and congregational members of the Free in Jesus Bethel AME Church which was recently vandalized by denigrating racist gra ti. Inclusivity and respect for diversity are values that are embodied in Clinton County and by the Hate Has No Home Here (HHNHH) campaign. We strive to be a welcoming community and treat each other with dignity and respect and demonstrate compassion to all. Let us be united in our vigilance to identify racism and intolerance and work to eliminate them wherever they lie, whether within ourselves, our families, our neighborhoods or our world.

Take time to get to know your neighbors. Promote love; stop the hate; stand up for human rights and work to ensure that every one in our community feels accepted and safe. Join with others for the HHNHH meeting on June 12 at 5:30 p.m. at Dinner on your own. RSVP to Lori at 563242-7611.

Nancy Miller Clinton note: Miller is a sister of the Order of St. Francis, and director of spirituality for the Franciscan Peace Center in Clinton Keep kids out of high schools North High School should have never been built. It was a junior high school and that is what it should have stayed. The superintendent said the district can ll North High School by changing all the middle schools. I believe the 13- and 14-year-old students belong in high school with the older kids.

This creates a problem. When will the school board ever listen to the voters? You have created this problem and know what to do about it. Elmer Holdorf Davenport Dems know grift, too Apart from the tired old class-warfare rhetoric, U.S. Rep. Cheri Bustos, D-Illinois, did a service by pointing out personal extravagances in Washington.

But both parties are guilty of this; taxpayers still remember how Michelle Obama packed up the kids, other relatives and even her hair dresser for extravagant vacations overseas at a time when many Americans even a ord a trip to see grandma. But more important than the starting costs of the new administration are the continuing failures of the old ones. In January, Democrat Sens. Durbin and Duckworth announced hundreds of thousands of dollars to housing authorities increase the incomes and economic of families. How many government programs have these goals? How do ever-increasing handouts encourage economic independence? How many trillions of dollars have we spent on them? And why do we still have the problem? These programs buy votes, of course, but we should pay some attention to duplication, waste, fraud and results.

As to the tax bill, it is sheer hypocrisy to take full advantage of the lower taxes while continually vilifying the president who brought them to you. John Dixell Rock Island Jesus was a radical People ask me all the time why I continue to do what I do. That is, to try and expose the lies that we have been subjected to. I say to them, this not what Jesus would In my opinion, Jesus was a true anarchist an allegorical gure who believed in no masters and no rulers. After all, according to the story, Jesus attacked the pharisees.

He whipped the bankers out of the temple. And he was against the government of his time. The Roman centurions were the ones who actually killed Jesus. Pontius Pilot just gave the order, he did none of the killing. So I do the things that I do because I do not accept how we have been deceived.

If we say nothing, the cabal interprets that as saying yes. There are two types of people in this world. People who think the government is looking out for their best interests and people who think. Tom Keith Moline no shame in skilled trades There any caps, gowns or diplomas, but 257 graduates were recently honored at a ceremony in Des Moines. Associated Builders and Contractors of Iowa (ABC), the largest construction apprenticeship program in the state, trained more than 1,400 skilled workers this year, including this largest graduating class ever had.

At ABC, we know not all students should graduate high school and be pushed to a four- year degree. There are talented graduates that are better suited for a life in the skilled trades and that starts with apprenticeship training. There used to be a stigma surrounding the trades but that is quickly shifting. In the U.S., there will be 6.1 million jobs in the construction industry by 2021 and 1.5 million craft professionals will be needed to ll them. These highly trained workers are in serious demand, have a great deal of job security and their pay ects it.

ABC apprentices are taught proper safety courses and spe- skills in the areas of electrical, plumbing, HVAC, sheet metal, millwright, insulation, laborer and electronic systems technicians. These graduates need a cap and gown they have a loaded tool belt and a job and have been building their careers while they earned their education. proud of the hard work ABC apprenticeship graduates have put in and wish them great success. Ginny Shindelar Grimes, Iowa note: Shindelar is vice president of Education and Training with Associated Builders and Contractors of Iowa. Media sleeps with Democrats A book about the Clintons claimed Hillary said, average Democrat is just plain stupid.

easy to manipulate. the easy crazy profanity laced rants are legendary so this sounds like her. To be politically correct maybe we should just say that Democrats are the most uninformed among voters and by looking at connection with the mainstream media, understand why we have so much bias reporting. Former ABC News Executive Producer Ian Cameron, is married to right-hand woman, National Security Adviser Susan Rice. ABC News Reporter Claire Shipman is wife of White House Press Secretary Jay Carney.

ABC President Ben Sherwood is brother to another Obama special adviser, Elizabeth Sherwood. CBS President David Rhodes is brother of Obama National Security Adviser Ben Rhodes. CNN Vice President and Washington Deputy Bureau Chief Virginia Moseley is married to Hillary Deputy Secretary Tom Nides. We can go on and on with people from all the najor news networks, The Washington Post, and other media outlets all having connections to Obama or to the recipient of 96 percent of the presidential donations last presidential election, Crooked Hillary Clinton. The media has set itself up to eliminate conservative thoughts and ideas by labeling us as racists, lunatics and homophobes.

And with the Democrats it will stop at nothing to take down President Trump and prevent the investigations of possible high crimes by the Obama administration and Hillary. Don Erbst Sr. Davenport Black lives matter LETTERS TO THE EDITOR LETTER TO THE EDITOR POLICY Quad-City Times welcomes letters to the editor. Each submission should be no more than 250 words and include the name, city of residence and phone number for cation. Each writer is limited to one published letter every 30 days.

All questions should be directed to Editorial Page Editor Jon Alexander, times.com or 563-383-2320. Letters can be emailed to or mailed to: Letters to the Editor Quad-City Times 500 East Third St. Davenport, Iowa 52801 LEONARD PITTS (E)ven if you buy tale, you are left with a man who answered a loud knocking while carrying a in his own home in a right-to-carry state then closed the door. Apparently, a capital crime now, if black..