2011 WLH NEWSLETTER EDITORIAL
We are thankful to God for the gift of life for yet another year. Our family is again very happy and proud to be joining together and celebrating our 43rd consecutive Wilson, Lake and Herbert Family Reunion this year in Columbus, Ohio.

Since our last Reunion in September 2010 we have experienced a great deal. Times have been interesting, some difficult and some smooth but we’re happy to have been able to have come through it. Some of the news events over the past year that we hear everyday have been outrageous and unbelievable. The blatant attacks and disrespect for our President, President Barack Obama are totally disgraceful! We must continue to pray for our President and people all around the World.

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Below is a timeline of some events in the news of interest to some that coincide with our own lives over the past year:

>>>>>December 10, 2010 President Barack Obama announced he had reached a deal with Republican leaders to extend the Bush era tax cuts for all Americans, including the rich for two more years. In exchange the extension of unemployment benefits was approved allowing benefits to continue and not end just before the Christmas holidays. This was seen as an economic hostage. The president fought against tax cuts for the rich and entitlements for corporations for most of 2010 but this was not approved as the majority of Congress wanted to protect the rich and big corporations at the expense of the middle class and poor. Most liberal Democrats were angered by this, however, the bill was signed into law on December 17.

>>>>>Beginning in late 2010 and early 2011, a series of floods devastated certain areas of the world, most notably Australia, Rio de Janeiro and in the United States, in the Red River of the North and middle-eastern states. The upper Mississippi River basin from Minneapolis southward to St. Louis and a portion of lower New York, eastern Pennsylvania and northern New Jersey were affected by the over flow of rivers. The flood that struck the Red River in North Dakota and Minnesota, were spurred by spring rains as well as months of winter snow. With 4 feet of snow on the ground followed by warm temperatures, or a nice warm rain on top of the snow- that is a prime setup for flooding. Many metropolitan areas had a greater than 95 percent chance of major flooding, which included parts of Baton Rouge and New Orleans. The total damages caused by the floods in the United States alone during this period, was in the billions!

>>>>>January 4, 2011 – After thousands of red-winged blackbirds were found dying in a small Arkansas town and several hundred more mysteriously died farther south in Louisiana people became alarmed. . At the same time officials in Arkansas continued to investigate what may have killed nearly 100,000 fresh water drum fish in the Arkansas River. Wildlife experts in Maryland were looking into their own massive fish kill in the Chesapeake Bay. It was not clear what had caused the birds to die off or the fish to die, despite random theories that included fireworks and hail, as well as the wrath of God, and government conspiracies. The last time the Chesapeake saw such a massive fish kill was in 1976, records show, when about 15 million spot fish died due to the cold.

>>>>>March 11, 2011 –An East Japan Earthquake and tsunami occurred. The earthquake with a magnitude of 9.0 was one of the most powerful earthquakes to ever occur in the world. Over 15,600 people were confirmed dead with thousands more missing and injured. Three of the reactors at Fukushima Daiichi overheated, causing meltdowns that eventually led to explosions, which released large amounts of radioactive material into the air. Slowly, very slowly, life is getting back to normal in the towns and cities that were hit but it is expected that there will be many more years before the towns have been completely cleared. By the end of the grueling work, it is expected that the disaster will have cost Japan up to $185billion as the mountains of wood and concrete are cleared away.

>>>>>May 2, 2011- Osama bin Laden killed. After landing by helicopter at the Pakistani compound housing Osama bin Laden early Monday May 2, the U.S. special operations team tasked with capturing or killing the Al Qaeda leader found itself in an almost continuous gun battle. For the next 40 minutes, the team cleared the two buildings within the fortified compound in Abbottabad, north of Islamabad, trying to reach Bin Laden and his family who lived on the second and third floors of the largest structure. After the firefight, the special-operations force quickly gathered papers — valuable intelligence on Al Qaeda, officials said — and other materials in the two buildings and clambered back on helicopters, taking Bin Laden’s corpse with them. The capture and killing of Osama Bin Laden was seen as a major accomplishment by President Obama in his reign as President as Bin Laden had been hunted since the September 11, 2001 plane crash into the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center in New York, the Pentagon in Arlington, VA and in Shanksville, Pennsylvania where a plane crash occurred. In the attack on 9/11 three thousand of our United States citizens were killed and thousands more injured in the murder, suicide attack by terrorists. The president called the killing of bin Laden the “most significant achievement to date” in the effort to defeat al Qaeda. “Justice has been done,” Obama said.

>>>>>July, 2011- Summer of the Mob. Philadelphia’s flash-mob headaches date from the South Street mobs of March 2010 when hundreds of young folks gathered leading to injuries and property damage. The mobs have resurfaced this year in Philadelphia and in some other major cities in the U.S. and also in England and Germany. Curfews have been set for certain downtown streets in Philadelphia for 9 o’clock PM for youngsters who are under 18 years of age. One question remains: Why is this happening? Minister Kevin Johnson, Pastor of Bright Hope Baptist Church asked in his article in the Philadelphia Tribune: “Was it a mob, or cries from the unheard?”

>>>>>July 18, 2011– Former South African President and anti-apartheid icon, Nelson Mandela, celebrated his 93rd Birthday. U.S. President Barack Obama called Mandela “a beacon for the global community, and for all who work for democracy, justice and reconciliation.” Mandela became South Africa’s first black president in 1994 after spending 27 years in prison for his fight against racist apartheid rule, and was awarded a Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts. Sixty-seven years of his life were spent in giving service and now people around the world were asked to mark his birthday by giving 67 minutes of their time to work in their local community — one minute for every year of Mandela’s public service.

>>>>>July 21, 2011 – Space Shuttle Atlantis at Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) landed its final mission into space. Since the first launch 42 years ago April, 1981 in Florida’s Kennedy Space Center, there have been 135 adventures in human space flight missions. There have been 19 African American Astronauts who were part of the space program- all but 4 of these astronauts actually travelled into space. Charles F. Bolden, Jr., NASA Administrator an African American who was nominated by President Barack Obama in 2009 to this position, said, “As a former astronaut and the current NASA Administrator, I’m here to tell you that American leadership in space will continue for at least the next half-century because we have laid the foundation for success — and failure is not an option.” National Press Club, July 1, 2011

>>>>>August, 2011- Somalis are starving. As it scales up its operations in Somalia, the United Nations World Food Program is investigating allegations that thousands of sacks of grain and other supplies intended for famine victims have been stolen by unscrupulous businessmen and then sold on the open market for a profit. This was blamed on al-Shabab. For a generation, Somalia has been a byword for the suffering of a failed state. It has been without an effective central government since 1991, when the former government was toppled by clan militias that later turned on each other. Since 2006, the country has faced an insurgency led by al-Shabab, one of Africa’s most fearsome militant Islamist groups. Al-Shabab controls much of southern Somalia and has claimed affiliation with Al Qaeda since 2007. In the summer of 2011, the country was hard hit by a famine that extended across much of East Africa. By early August, United Nations officials estimated that tens of thousands of Somalis had died, and that more than half a million children were on the brink of starvation. The situation had even worsened by mid-August, when the United Nations confirmed that a cholera epidemic was sweeping across the country.

>>>>>August, 2011 “Obama-care”- The Healthcare package that was introduced by President Obama and approved in 2009 shortly after he came into office is being attacked by the right wing Republicans and Tea Partiers. Some believe they are critical of this because the reform was started by President Obama and not by any of the 7 other presidents who tried, but failed to get it through. The law which requires all Americans to have health insurance coverage was recently voted down by another state and now it may have to be brought before the US Supreme Court to rule on it. President Obama said in one of his talks recently that, “Yes, Obama cares!”

>>>>>Our Elected Officials did not represent ALL of their constituents-they didn’t do their job prior to recess for their vacation this August! Republicans refused to negotiate with the Democrats-they didn’t want to compromise on anything and insisted on getting everything they wanted by holding out and refusing to agree to raise the Debt Ceiling which is something that routinely has been done in the past. While the American people were in the middle of the worst recession since 1929 and the country was on the brink of defaulting on their loan an overwhelming majority of the GOP Party held President Obama hostage again causing him to give up more than he wanted. However, some see the Democrats and President Obama as caving in too much which could cause problems in upcoming elections. African Americans have routinely been the last hired and the first fired and with the unemployment situation being what it is, we are faring worse than any other group. The Congressional Black Caucus brought to the forefront the fact that our people are hurting badly so that President Obama will focus more attention on this problem. One might think that because of politics, there won’t be any improvement in the state of the economy until after President Obama is removed from office. Many (including some African Americans) will join in with the Republicans and Tea Party members to elect someone from that side, thinking there will be gains made for the average person, but it is believed that may not be the case –– that things very likely will not improve for the average person, but instead may only get worse for the poor and middle class. One example is the attempts by Republicans to break all of our Unions.  It is strongly believed that we need to support our President by making sure we are  registered NOW – and being prepared to vote in EVERY election!

>>>>>August 21, 2011 –Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi now has a price on his head. The new government of Libya is offering a large cash reward and amnesty to anyone who kills or captures Muammar Gaddafi.

>>>>August 23, 2011– East Coast Earthquake— Tens of millions of people from Georgia to Canada were jolted Tuesday by the strongest earthquake to strike the East Coast since World War II. There were no known deaths or serious injuries, but cracks appeared in the Washington Monument and the National Cathedral, which had three capstones break off its tower. Windows shattered and grocery stores were wrecked in Virginia, where the quake was centered. The White House and Capitol were evacuated. The U.S. Geological Survey said the quake registered magnitude 5.8. Family up and down the East Coast will remember this Earthquake as alarming. It was considered mild by West Coast standards and some did not feel it all.

>>>>>August 26, 2011– Hurricane Irene traveled up the East Coast from Puerto Rico, North Carolina and up through Maine. It was predicted to be one of the worst storm systems since the 1800’s to hit landfalls all the way up the east coast including New York City. Major precautions were made. Tornado warnings, gale force winds and major flooding hit much of the area but Thank God damages weren’t any worse than they were.  There were many lives  loss billions of dollars in damages.

>>>>>The official unveiling of the Martin Luther King National Memorial originally scheduled for August 28, 2011, was postponed because of the approach of Hurricane Irene. The monument was an early effort of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity to erect a monument of Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. who was a member of that Fraternity. The Memorial was executed by Architect, Ed Jackson, Jr. who developed the project. The granite sculpture stands 30 feet above the National Mall in Washington, DC between sculptures of Jefferson and Lincoln and is the first national memorial for an African American and for a non-President on the Mall. The dedication which was to be on August 28th was to be held on the 48th Anniversary of King’s “I Have A Dream Speech.” The lead sculptor was Lei Yixin, a prominent artist of Chinese nationality and the image has some of his Asian features. (This is sometimes common as artists sometimes tend to show some of their own facial features in their work.) Ed Jackson, Jr. said that selecting the sculptor was an international effort as Dr. King was an international hero. Taken from the Op Ed page ‘History in the making at DC’s MLK Memorial’ about the importance of visiting DC’s MLK memorial, by Rev. Al Sharpton . . . “For those who may be quick to forget the legacy of Dr. King, let us remember that he died while fighting for worker’s rights and the basic human dignity of all.”

Respectfully Submitted by— Mary A. Herbert, WLH Newsletter Editor and Founder, www.WLHNewsletter.com.
TO GOD BE THE GLORY. -Disclaimer: the preceding information and commentary was referenced from news reports: TV and Radio; the Internet and Newspapers. Some of the opinions are the views of the Editor, but are not necessarily the views of the WLH Family. The Wilson, Lake, Herbert family will not be held responsible for any of the above commentary.

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Famous African Americans who have passed away from August, 2010 to September, 2011

Solomon Burke-  Cry To Me

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