REAL TIMES MEDIA)—If you were a kid in the late ’80s or early ’90s who spent their summer watching television, there are few things you remember. Hours of game shows, soap operas and Donovan Freberg. Trust me, you know who Donovan Freberg was. He was the blonde-haired kid with glasses who did all of those commercials for encyclopedia Britannica from ’89 to ’93 where he talked to the narrator about having to do a book report on “space.”

(NNPA)—People often ask me to deliver words of comfort and strength during some of their most challenging moments in life. Throughout the decades, I have stood side by side with family members of those that have been wrongfully killed in acts of violence—whether those acts were committed by police or from within the community itself. I have witnessed the unbearable heartache of countless grandmothers, grandfathers, parents and children who may very well never recover from their loss. Each and every time, I feel the pain—their pain—at so senselessly losing a human life in what is often a matter of minutes or even seconds. But nothing is more difficult or more disconcerting then when I receive a phone call regarding the shooting death of a mere child. A little over a week ago, I got that ill-fated call.

(NNPA)—Campbell Brown’s decision to quit hosting her weeknight program on CNN because of poor ratings has left a void that some network officials are considering filling by hiring former New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer, possibly using him in an old “Crossfire” format. Yes, that’s the same Eliot Spitzer who had to resign two years ago after patronizing prostitutes.

Spitzer was forced to step down after arranging for a New York prostitute contracted by Emperors Club VIP to meet him at the Mayflower Hotel in Washington, D.C., on St.Valentine eve. According to authorities, Spitzer paid the 22-year-old prostitute $4,300 in cash, which included a $1,100 deposit toward future services. The former New York attorney general and governor was said to have paid the agency more than $15,000 over six months, which was part of the $80,000 he was said to have spent on prostitutes over several years.

“Emancipate yourselves from mental slavery; none but ourselves can free our minds.”—Marcus Garvey

WASHINGTON (NNPA)—It is graduation season in America—a bittersweet moment for thousands of young high school and college seniors who are leaving the relative comfort of classroom and campus life to pursue their dreams and find jobs in an economy that continues to struggle.

In communities of color the dilemma is even harsher.