Small businesses drive this nation’s economy and make up the majority of our workforce; when they struggle, so too does the rest of the nation. With so many small businesses currently unable to receive the funds they need to hire new staff, it’s no wonder the unemployment rate remains dismally low. Ben Bernanke, Federal Reserve chairman and one of the world’s most respected financial voices, recently suggested that lenders need to increase loans to small business in an effort to decrease unemployment. Ber­n­anke is right on target; let’s hope lawmakers take this idea and run with it.

by James H. Buford

As the National Urban League celebrates its 100th anniversary as a civil rights and social services organization, it is a good time for us to look back and reflect upon the accomplishments, challenges and struggles which formed the Civil Rights Movement.

It was in 1910 that Mrs. Ruth Standish Baldwin and George Edmund Haynes, a Caucasian female and an African-American male, founded the National Urban League to help reduce discrimination in urban areas.

(NNPA)—As part of the current unemployment crisis, at last look there were 453,000 claims for insurance, a number that is likely to surge when part-time government workers employed by the Census Bureau end their term this summer.

Yet, there probably is no greater indication of the radical extreme to which the Republican Party has become than to witness their rejection of legislation to extend unemployment benefits in the Senate. In the past, some Republicans supported such legislation to keep benefits flowing, but this time, their unanimous rejection for a second time killed it. They were joined by Democrat Ben Nelson of Nebraska who I wish would change parties to clarify who he really represents.

We as a people had to endure the worst form of slavery in the history of the world and lost more Africans in transit than the Jews did in the Holocaust. However, Jewish people to their credit have made “NEVER AGAIN” an everyday reminder of the atrocities they suffered. But when slavery in America is mentioned, the descendants of the slave masters dismiss it by saying, “that was long time ago.” The double tragedy is that a number of colored folks agree with them by responding in the same manner.