The Surprise Supreme Court Decision on Healthcare

Are you kidding me? People must be asking themselves.


What just happened? The Supreme Court of the United States let stand “The Affordable Healthcare Act”, a/k/a ObamaCare. The ruling shocked everybody, on both sides of the issue.

However, being taken by surprise is an understatement. CNN and FOX News both reported that the Court struck down the ObamaCare mandates. In their haste to be the first to pronounce doom, they did a SNAFU by broadcasting a Breaking News false report. In the split second, between false news and its retraction, the world went bananas.

Some news analysts were already touting that this was a blow to President Barack Obama. Then, suddenly, they choked on their words, and begged their viewing audience to be cautious.

Are you kidding me? The FOX New anchorman tells me to be cautious after he realizes that he was wrong in his initial report on the demise of ObamaCare mandates. Be cautious against whom, I would ask?

SECOND: The Chief Justice prefaced the ruling by rejecting the mandates on the basis of the Interstate Commerce Act. BUT SAY NO MORE. The bean-head Twitters are off tweeting: Mandate Struck Down.

Was Justice John Roberts a wily fox? Here was a landmark decision that could etch the Roberts Court into immortal history, and he held the decisive swing 5-4 vote.

He coyly implies that the legislation may not be good policy, but its legality can stand because of the authority given it through the legislative process. Therefore, he was NOT judging the policy of healthcare mandates, he was justifying the law as a TAX.

SURPRISE, surprise. As one writer puts it, a Lucy-and-the-football surprise.

WTF? The Twitter world went crazy with acronyms. Even worse, the Republicans immediately declared war to repeal the Healthcare Act. And, it did not seem to matter to them that they kill the whole thing in one swoop.

Mitt Romney told reporters shortly before noon that he would repeal the law his first day in office if elected. “ObamaCare was bad policy yesterday, it's bad policy today,” he said. 

“Today's ruling underscores the urgency of repealing this harmful law in its entirety,” House Speaker John Boehner said in a statement.

Phrases like “first day in office” and “the urgency” indicates that the battle lines are drawn against the full Patient Protection and Affordable Healthcare Act.

Had the Court issued a partial ruling, as many watchers had originally expected, then both parties would have gone back to its respective Congressional corners and immerse itself in more gridlock. There would be more anti-Obamacare sideshows and rallies and inflamed townhall meetings.

With the ruling, there was now nothing to nitpick, not even a thread. The Act is ruled law, and therefore constitutional. What other GOP option was there, short of concession? The impulse is to strike back. But they can only do so by stirring up more public anger. In order to do that, the public again must be misinformed and incited.

After all, nobody has read the dang thing. A 1,000-page law is 999 more pages than a simpleton can handle. A false report about it is as good as the truth when hardhearted minds are set in stone.

The Morning after the Primaries

Good News-Bad News

By Eddie Griffin

Wednesday, May 30, 2012

After the polls closed on yesterday, I went out to celebrate the watch of the returns with the jubilant Nicole Collier group. A small group of about 75 people were crammed into the restaurant, awaiting the lady of the hour. They were all bone tired exhausted, as they trickled in from the field, looking for food, refreshments, and victory. There were children present to witness this historic day.

I, too, was tired, exhausted to the brink from supporting and promoting other hopeful candidates in other races. But of this one watch party was a must attend for me, because the Collier candidacy looked like our best shot, for a diamond-in-the-rough underdog to take the lion’s share my home turf, District 95.

I listened to these courageous folks tell their stories about their work in the field, going door to door, pressing the flesh, and talking to voters. The joke around the room was about Nicole’s worn-out pink sneakers. I felt refreshed to be among earthly people who put their heart and soul into this campaign.

Entrance the lady of the hour, and after introductions, we were off and running, watching the results on multiple TV screens, cheering the tally, round by round.

Eddie Griffin was wired and connected to instant feeds and direct communications in the field. But watching the numbers come in was like watching paint dry.

GOOD NEWS – BAD NEWS

Nicole Collier was up and at holding at 48%. Our strategy was to attain a 50.1% majority, and avoid a runoff. GOOD NEWS, nevertheless, we are in the Runoffs, with a 10% lead.

BAD NEWS: Kyev Tatum and his group of prayer warriors, not only fell short of glory, but crashed in 10^th place in his race for U.S. District 33. Here was another campaign that Eddie Griffin had poured heart and mind into. My protégé, who lovingly calls himself my “hardheaded” student, acted just as hardheaded student, ignoring the Stop Signs and failing to Slow Down while speeding through a Political Zone, with Eddie Griffin as a passenger.

Every mistake a man can make can be overcome, except the one that is fatal. A few days before the election, I described to Tatum a visualization of his fatal mistake in the race. His premature boasting got him shot down like a soldier sticking his head up out of the foxhole. Covertly some Democratic Party elite sabotaged his boasting by undoing his plan.

“They got me, Brother Eddie,” he lamented over the phone. “They knocked the wind out of me.” It took him by surprise like a man mortally wounded and he sounded like a man who had lost his self-confidence.

It was at that point that I saw a defeated man.

THE LAST MISTAKE- WORSE THAN THE FIRST

Eddie Griffin cannot fix a man’s pride and boastfulness. Humility is the best teacher, and Brother Tatum is now learning plenty of that with only 200 votes to show for his campaign effort. The good part, however, was that, for once, “the least, last, lost, and left out”, had a voice and a legitimate shot at a congressional seat at the table.

But after the public embarrassment of a refuted claim of support, Tatum called up his “prayer warriors” to come to the rescue and pray themselves to victory.

God is above politics, I wrote, and warned Tatum that by invoking the name of God and putting Him to the test, that he (Tatum) must prove the power of his prayers by winning the election or risk proving the false hope of his prayers.

The bible declares that God hears and answers the prayers of the righteous, but God disdains the prayers of those conceited in their faith. “Prayer warriors”, what are they? How can they approach the throne of grace except through humility and total submission to His Will?

No, prayer is not answered on the basis of man’s volition or fervency. Thus, Brother Tatum could not pray his way out of his mistakes and on to victory, no more than the “prayer warriors” in the time of the prophet Elijah.

It troubles Eddie Griffin to see people trying to get God to do their will, instead of God’s will. The race is given neither to the swift, nor the battle to the strong.

IN THE MEANTIME

I bypassed the Tatum Watch Party to go and be with a winner, Nicole Collier. Although I felt spent and would have preferred some much-needed sleep after the polls closed, I just didn’t want to spend the night alone, at home, watching the election results. And, I had a number of invitations to Watch Parties from various candidates that I supported. I wanted to be happy, and to be around cheerful people, and not to be depressed by the Tatum funeral Party.

When I first met Nicole Collier, I asked if she could “take a punch”. I had meant if she could take a knockdown in the political arena. She took the challenge at physical face value, balled up her fist, and declared that she will hit back. That’s when I knew that we had a winner who could champion our district.

But on this watch night she was on pins and needles as the numbers came in. The old jokes were for laughter to break the tensions of the night.

I told her a story about another candidate who, several years ago, held a lead that kept declining as the night wore on, knowing that this was why Nicole was so uptight. At any rate, as the story went, as this particular candidate’s lead began to slip, she began to drink. As the margin lead continued to fall, the drunker the candidate got. Finally, when they declared her the victor, by the slimmest margins, her hair was skewed in a hundred different directions and she could barely walk straight.

Nicole whispered, “I’m glad you told me that story, because I was just thinking about getting me a drink.”

Then she paused and looked at me, and asked, “Can I have a drink?”

I responded, “No, not now.” Remember the previous experience, I said, “You may have to make a victory speech.” And, when I finally left just after midnight, I left a jubilant Nicole, sane and sober.

Eddie Griffin Endorses Nicole Collier

For State Representative 95

Who will represent me in Austin, Texas as State Representative for District 95? With Wendy Davis as my State Senator for Senate District 10, who would best be her pair?

No better choice for Eddie Griffin than Nicole Collier.

I need someone who can battle in the trenches of the state legislature, as I would represent myself in fighting for education, jobs, and healthcare.

District 95 is not an office for the politically faint-at-hear or a Jack Daniel drinking, cigar-smoking drunkard.

District 95 is our turf. And whoever takes it on must be touched in the head or in the heart.

Nicole Collier is a woman of sound mind and sound judgment, and a down-and-gritty work ethic that I have witnessed firsthand. She goes after it non-stop, night and day, like she must have done when she was coming up out of rock hard poverty, as a teenage African-American single mother.

“As a single mother attending school and working to support her daughters,” Nicole Collier political ad says, “Many people told Nicole Collier she’d never make it.”

And yet she had the tenacity to go out and do it. She graduated from high school, went on to college, got her degree in law, and now owns her own law firm. Today, she is highly esteemed by her peers in the Trial Lawyers Association.

Her worn out pink sneakers proclaims: “A leader who’s walked the walk”. Indeed, she is all that and then some.

Can she take a punch, I asked myself? A tough candidate must be able to roll with the punches, and take some hard knocks in the political arena.

To test the mettle in the mortal of the candidacy, I bluntly and unabashedly asked her, “Can you take a punch?”

Not a nice question to ask a lady at our first meeting. But here Nicole Collier had assumed the bold audacity to take on the district where Eddie Griffin lives. And I am a man accustomed to trading punches in the political arena.

No. Nicole Collier must be able to take a punch if she is to survive Round One, and make it into the latter rounds.

In response to my question, this petite, pint-size young grandmother, not yet forty, looked Eddie Griffin straight in the eyes, balled up her fist, took aim at my choppers, and answered confidently: “Not only can I take a punch. I hit back.”

Yep! This is one tough Texas grandma- big voice, big heart, and fierce fighting spirit. And, I believe she can hold her ground and fend herself against those big political bullies in Austin that will surely come her way in the legislature.

Therefore, Eddie G. Griffin (BASG) gladly and proudly endorses Nicole Collier for State Representative 95.

The Star-Telegram Editorial Board recommends Nicole Collier in the Democratic Primary for Texas House District 95.

A Farewell Note to Congressman Burgess

U. S. Representative Michael C. Burgess

WASHINGTON, DC OFFICE

1224 Longworth House Office Building

Washington, DC 20515

P: (202) 225-7772

F: (202) 225-2919

RE: Congressional Change & New Leadership

My Dear Congressman:

It would be unbecoming of Eddie Griffin not bid to you farewell and God’s spend, after all the memories and good times we have shared together, with you as my congressional representative.

I wish to thank you for your diligent service to the community, and for the grace and favor you have shown to me, personally.

I am especially thankful to your assistant, Erik With, for making me a part of the Economic Summit Workforce of the Future Advisory, which has proven to be a great work in my life and a work that continues to this day in its implementation stage.

Besides this, I wish to thank you for supporting my campaign against Misogyny and for reading my letter to entertainment industry executives before the Congress into the Record, Sept. 25, 2007.

I want to thank you also for that one vote that you characterize as “this vote is for Eddie”, in voting to raise the Minimum Wage, albeit this was a compromise included in President George Bushes’ 2007 “War Funding Bill”.

Your supportive role in voting NO to the “Walk Street Bailout” was instrumental to changing the tide in Washington, D.C.’s culture of K-Street domination, although for a short time period. But for those who hedged their bets, banking on an early bailout from Congress, on a particular day, the big disappointment led to great losses and the collapse of the stock market. It was the turning point in the economy that got Barack Obama elected.

Thank you for also building a VA Clinic in Southeast Fort Worth. The clinic, built across the street from Tarrant County College, helps support the institutional infrastructure in our community, besides the local jobs it created.

I am particularly thankful insofar as it enabled the VA to provide medical services, locally, to a disabled veteran old warhorse like me.

I am thankful to God for you, and I pray on your behalf, each and every morning, of every day.

THE MIRACLE OF REDISTRICTING- When It All Began

April 11, 2005

From: Eddie Griffin

To: Erik With

RE: “No Plates For Some”

Dear Erik:

I love my new congressman, Michael Burgess. Thank you for introducing us. I told him that “one day I woke up in his gerrymandered district”. He said it was “the miracle of re-districting”…

Since the congressman is just now getting a feel for this new population, he might be tickled pink to know that he now represents the “poorest section of the Fort Worth community”, which brings me to your comment in your last email: The concept of shortage is difficult to imagine in a country as blessed as the US.

I am inspired to speak on behalf of “the poorest of the poor” in irony to “the concept of shortage” in a nation of prosperity. Once again, I allude to Thomas Malthus: “There are no plates for some”.

Eddie Griffin

ACCEPTING THE CHALLENGE

Fort Worth, Texas

Congressman Michael Burgess, District 26, kicked off the Smart Commute Initiative before an audience of about 100 southeast residents and community leaders. The Initiative is designed to attract people back into the historic inner city district, after years of decline.

Congressman Burgess praised the coalition that put the Initiative together, which included representatives from Transportation, Housing, and the community. Glenn Forbes, president of Southeast Fort Worth, Inc., served as master of ceremony. Also, participating in the program was Mayor Pro-Tempore Ralph McCloud, Tarrant County Commissioner Roy C. Brooks, and State Representative Marc Veasey.

Re-Urbanization Plan

Community leaders and financial institutions have been meeting with community residents in developing a re-urbanization plan for some time. Increasing the population density of Near Southeast Fort Worth has been a long-range goal for business visionaries like Glenn Forbes. New home building in the area would create an Urban Village, which is attractive to new business capital.

The Initiative represents a grand vision in modern urban development planning and provided Congressman Burgess, who serves on the Energy and Commerce Committee, with some ideas to take back to Washington, D. C.

Thursday, June 09, 2005

The East and Southeast Forth Worth Economic Development Summit convened on June 3, 2005, organized by the Public Forum Institute and hosted by honorary chairman U.S. Congressman Michael C. Burgess (District 26). Keynote speaker for the event was Acting Deputy Secretary of Commerce David Sampson. About 225 community and business representatives convened with local, state, and national leaders to develop plans on how to attract investment, encourage entrepreneurship, change perceptions and prepare the work force in some of Fort Worth's most blighted neighborhoods…

Congressman Michael Burgess called for a unified vision that addresses economic development from the inside out. "Growth and economic prosperity flourish all around this section of Fort Worth, and we must find a way to end the cycle of neglect," he stated, citing the area's trouble in attracting private investment. "As we look at our urban communities, we must work cooperatively together to turn our words into actions. It will require putting community interest ahead of self interest."

Summit Workshops

· Attracting Investment

· Preparing the Workforce of the Future

· Building Communities & Changing Perceptions

· Encouraging Entrepreneurship

Summit Objective:

• To Stimulate Economic Growth In East And Southeast Fort Worth
• To Help The Region Define A Vision And Plan For Its Economic Future
• To Seek To Identify A Champion Who Would Promote And Advocate For The Area With Their Words And Their Wallet
• To Examine Approaches To Strengthen Educational Achievement Of Local Students
• To Remove Barriers To Employment For An Aging Labor Force
• To Improve Quality Of Life For Are Residents
• To Change The Negative Perceptions Held By Others Outside The Community
• To Help Reduce Crime And Promote A More Positive Image Of The Area
• To Examine How Entrepreneurs Bring Innovation To The Area And Develop Businesses That Can Serve As A Catalyst For New Growth

ACTION PLANS for Workforce of the Future

Eddie Griffin, a member of the Workforce of the Future Task Force, helped identify areas of priority and helped build the framework for developing the future local workforce. By working together with constituents across boundaries, we formed lifelong bonds and working relationships and alliances between local institutions and our community.

I championed the cause for a “livable wage” at the low-end wage scale and advocated raising the Minimum Wage. An unfair distribution of profit is the formula for the rich getting rich and the poor racing to keep up with inflation. Through inflation and stagnate wages, the purchasing power of low-end wage earners continues to erode. 

An Action Plan to raise the minimum wage reached outside the state of Texas to other states that eventually enacted new minimum wage rates and forced Congress to do the same.

Interdiction through the School System

Since the future workforce must come through the public school system, the taskforce identified local high schools as the ideal point of interdiction to upgrade workforce training and development.

We confronted the high school dropout problem head on, and formed various work groups and committees to study the issue, and worked in conjunction with FWISD Community Action Teams (CAT) to find viable solutions. Members of the congressman’s Workforce Advisory also worked on CAT teams. To date, this is what has been accomplished:

GO Centers were created by a business and social service collaborative to provide computer resources, internet access, and guidance that would help students in high risk areas to navigate their way to and through college. These were first placed into all the high schools, and later expanded to middle schools and into faith-based community centers and churches, to form a community support network for education at the grassroots level. The Centers would later also provide tutorial services to struggling students and other parental assistance programs.

Vocational and Technical Certification programs were introduced into the high schools for students who wanted or needed to get straight into the job market. These programs allowed students to become viable earn wages before high school completion, and provided a powerful incentive against having to drop out of school in order to go to work because of family needs. Some students gained certified skills as technicians, medical assistants, and tax preparers.

The programs have since evolved into the FWISD Gold Seals Programs that teach skill sets in other vocational fields like culinary arts.

Virtual Education, a cause for which we lobbied, was championed by State Rep. Jerry Madden, who helped pass of a bill that allowed school districts to use online curriculum and materials, and set the state for the use modern technology like whiteboards in the classrooms. Thus, FWISD became the first digital school district of its size in the stage, which is now poised for a new round of education technology.

More recently, new FWISD Supt. Walter Dansby invited Eddie Griffin to assist in developing a strategic 5-year vision for the public school system.

THE NEW FRONTIER

All of the old frontiers are conquered. The current state of the workforce, that once spearheaded the growth industries of yesterday, is now aging and old skill sets are becoming antiquated. We are moving into a world of Nano-Technology, at a time when our school children are lagging behind in their academic understanding in math.

The workforce of the future is now engineering at a sub-atomic particle level, creating new composite materials in bio-medicine, and connecting new wave theories to voice recognition programs and receptors that execute voice commands.

Heretofore, the greatest challenge between the students in poor districts versus those in richer districts was the digital divide. But new cost-effective technology is bridging the gap, and bringing a whole new experience and medium into the classroom.

The Workforce of the Future for the next generation will depend on putting the right tools into the hands of our children and teaching them early on how to use and master them. The higher the educational skill sets, the more competitive the labor force in the global economic environment.

Parity in Educational Resources

There is still structural disparity between the districts that give favor to students in the richer schools. This advantage provides for unequal competition in the job market. The Federal Equal Opportunity Employment laws can protect again discrimination, but it cannot equalize and protect the lesser educated. Therefore, inner city unemployment is higher, without recourse to Civil Rights protections.

This is a problem that we can solve by first utilizing best what we have now-- more wisely, more efficiently, and more purposefully- and secondly, continuing to fight for parity in education resources and equality in employment opportunities.

This has been and remains my greatest mission.

FINAL NOTE ABOUT OBMACARE

One factor in the Workforce of the Future scenario is healthcare- infant, child, mother and worker healthcare, in general.

A vibrant workforce begins with healthy babies. And, the Affordable Healthcare Act, otherwise known as Obama Care, eliminated certain preexisting conditions like “Blue Babies” syndromes, where babies are born into the world with breathing problems.

Women’s healthcare provisions allow expectant mothers to receive early prenatal care and disease prevention strategies for unborn children. Obama Care allows women to get early diagnosis, medical advice and care, and services that enable unborn children to come into the world with healthier prognoses.

And, worker healthcare provides protection against medical insurance overcharges, by forcing insurance companies to refund excess profits.

These protections, benefits, and safeguards should not be taken away, now that the law is enacted.

AS FOR MANDATES UNDER THE AFFORDABLE HEALTHCARE PLAN

I always disagreed with compulsive subscription to insurance policies. And, I believe also that President Barack Obama would not have capitulated to the Insurance Industry, if the government had been allowed the power to sell cheaper insurance coverage, as the original bill first proposed.

As you know, the government insurance option was designed to give the public an alternative to high rate private insurance providers. It did not eliminate a patient’s choice, as propagandists claimed.

But having the government in the insurance business, and its ability to uncut the rate of private insurers, was something repulsive to Congress at the time. Thus, the congressional rejection of the public option forced the Obama administration to make a deal with the devil, so to speak. Mandatory insurance coverage for all then became the only way to get the Insurance Industry to support Universal Healthcare Coverage.

All other partisan claims are distortions.

Eddie G. Griffin (BASG) will continue to support the right of the unborn child to come into the world with full healthcare provisions and coverage, and a mother’s right to medical services of her choice and according to her needs, at the advisement of her own medical doctor, and not doctors chosen for her by the government, whether federal or state.

I will continue to support healthy working conditions through industry regulations, and covered medical service for workers injured on the job. I will oppose exploitation of undocumented laborers who have no protection or medical coverage.

CONCLUSION 

Of course, we will continue to disagree on much legislation, particularly those immediately identified above. But you are and will always be my friend.

I have hereby officially adopted you as my FACEBOOK FRIEND, in hopes of continuing to win your support and your vote on issues key to the concerns of our new U.S. Congressional District 33.

Sincerely,

Eddie Griffin

Medical Community Agrees: Tasers are Lethal

At last, what we have said about tasers is proving true. Common sense and experience should tell us that people can die from being electrocuted, whether from a downed power line or an electrical outlet. But when it comes to a 50,000-volt taser being responsible for hundreds of electrocutions resulting in death, we are in denial.

Now a new study shows that “the electrical shock delivered to the chest by a Taser can lead to cardiac arrest and sudden death.” (“Tasers Pose Risks to Heart, a Study Warns”, NY Times, April 30, 2012)

 

“This is no longer arguable,” said Dr. Byron Lee, a cardiologist and director of the electrophysiology laboratory at the University of California, San Francisco. “This is a scientific fact. The national debate should now center on whether the risk of sudden death with Tasers is low enough to warrant widespread use by law enforcement.”

The debate over whether tasers are lethal is over. Taser can and do kill.

This conclusion flies in the face of TASER International’s long standing claim that the weapon was non-lethal. This important line of demarcation determines how the weapon is regulated, how officers in the field are orientated and trained in its use, its public acceptance, and its sales.

But, of course, the company will not kowtow to the study’s findings, instead rather choosing to allege a profit motive on the doctor doing the study. But the preponderance of evidence gained from medical records, police reports, and autopsy reports show an undeniable correlation, between electrical shocks from tasers and cardiac arrests, resulting in some deaths.

Although the conclusion is clear, the medical community is undecided as to how to proceed. Is the risk of sudden death with Taser low enough to warrant widespread use by law enforcement? That, Dr. Lee claims, should be the principal issue in the debate. Wherein, Dr. Robert J. Myerburg, a professor of medicine in cardiology at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine, added, “I suspect the incidence of these fatal events is going to be low and can be minimized by the precautions.” 

Missing in the perspective is the victim’s point of view from those who have been tased and survive, who call the experience “torture”. That issue raises the bar of the debate. No longer is a debate about overuse and abuse of tasers by police officers, poor training, and discretion in the field. It is no longer a debate about whether 50,000 volts of electricity can kill. But short of death, how much does the taser victim suffer? 

Are tasers really torture?

The subject of torture has been debated throughout the ages. There is no precise definition except as an act of practice that is reprehensible to public conscious. Like the Supreme Court justice who said of pornography, “he knows it when he sees it”. Torture can only be known by those who have suffered it. And, by all firsthand accounts, from police officers tased in training to the man on the street, pinned on the ground, and shocked into submission, TASER IS TORTURE.

Eddie Griffin Endorses Roy Charles Brooks, County Commission, Pct. 1

Laverne Brooks Dismally Short of Truth and Character

Eddie G. Griffin (BASG) wholeheartedly endorses incumbent Commissioner Roy C. Brooks for reelection to Precinct One, Tarrant County. Commissioner Brooks is a proven leader with many great works to show.

Roy Charles Brooks: An advocate for Children, Healthcare, and Education

In the area of prenatal care, Commission Brooks has championed the cause of reducing the high infant mortality rate in the county, by supporting health networks and expanding medical service providers to high risk Tarrant communities. One such healthcare center is named in honor of his father, the legendary Dr. Marion J. Brooks, a civil rights leader in the field of accessible medical care. Roy Charles shows the same level of compassion. 

He is a visionary in education, who recognizes that through education, youth can be afforded better opportunities in life. His creation of the Generation Hope Laptop Program shows innovative thinking in designing education support systems that helps bridge the digital divide, by putting laptops with internet access into the hands of some 400 students so far. These students are currently excelling in S.T.E.M. subjects and taking honors in national academic competitions. The program is wholly self-supported by public donations, with no cost to the county, city, state, and national government. 

Roy Charles Brooks also foresaw the merit of a reentry recovery and redemptive program that could salvage young lives and reduce the rate of recidivism among ex-offenders. Just as Generation Hope is a self-empowering youth development program that works as part of a system of preventative strategies to the School-to-Prison Pipeline, a successful Reentry Program for ex-offenders would help halt the revolving door in and out of prison. And, Reentry Employment assistance and job readiness training can them previously incarcerated persons become productive citizens. 

Eddie G. Griffin (BASG) was an original proponent of what has become the Tarrant County Reentry Initiative.

Laverne Brooks Disqualified by Character and Truth

At the African-American Democratic forum, challenger for Precinct One, Roy Laverne Brooks derided the Tarrant County Reentry program for not accomplishing what is supposed to accomplish. And, she further characterized the Commissioner’s Generation Hope Laptop Program, with its distribution of 400 laptops to disadvantaged students as “a drop in the bucket”.

After the forum, Eddie Griffin’s dialog with Ms. Laverne Brooks was as brisk as a forest fire on a windy day. She failed the trial by fire in character and in truth. She lied about non-extisting stagnate statistics on the county's reentry initiative.

The proof is engraved in history and speaks for itself below.

From the Eddie G. Griffin (BASG) files:

Letter to Commission Roy C. Brooks from Eddie Griffin:

On the Subject of Ex-Offender Reentry,

February 07, 2006

[Excerpted]

Dear Roy… since taking office, you have done a marvelous job… I get good field reports about your work and a few Roy Brooks’ quotable quotes from your constituency. You are highly prized as a man among men, and I am proud to be a servant under your leadership in our precinct… I saw firsthand your rapid response to the Katrina evacuation. Setting up the Katrina Store was a mark of genius. From that experience alone, I can see that you have gained tremendous insight into how to handle the issues of the poor. Your work on the homelessness situation is greatly appreciated and much needed. And, the ex-offender re-entry problem is an issue near and dear to me. 

[T]he National Alliance of Faith and Justice Re-Entry Roundtable was the most inspirational forum I’ve attended... we were given a wealth of information and a free CD to use in our fieldwork.

Successful re-entry is an attainable goal. It is something I talk to [Police] Chief Mendoza about, all the time. Of course, I have other issues, such as the overuse of incarceration for control of the crime problem, lack of good preventative strategies, criminalization of the mentally ill and retarded, over-prosecution of drug victims, continuing expanse of detention facilities and prisons, not to mention race relations. If we can stop the revolving door of recidivism, then we can reduce this mad mass exodus of millions of young people going into the prison system.

This makes me all the more interested in the Second Chance Bill, proposed in last session of the US Congress. I would like more information about it, who supported it, what provisions it contained, and why it failed.

I must make known my opposition to the new county jail. Frankly, I believe if you build it, they will come, which is bad. We build for a future based upon such a dismal expectation. We build for the unborn, who have done no sin and guilty of no crime. Yet, there is bed space for him before he reaches the age of 18, waiting for him ahead of time… The only benefactors of a new jail in Tarrant County would be the architects, engineers, and construction people that design and build it. It becomes redundant, to build more and more prisons and jails, to keep the construction industry going, and keep our kids longer and longer to fill them up, so they can build more jails and prisons. 

Building new jails and prisons make us weaker as a society. People will think that the only solution to every problem would be lock ‘em up and throw away the key.

March 22, 2006

“What we need in Tarrant County is people who are willing to state their point of view and face it. Eddie Griffin is doing that.” – Commission Roy C. Brooks, quoted in Fort Worth Weekly, Mean Streets to Peace 

Brooks has tapped Griffin to work on a proposed county program that will help inmates who get out of jail to integrate themselves better into the community.

“We need to craft a strategic plan for people coming back to our community from the criminal justice system,” Brooks said of the proposed Tarrant County Re-entry Council. “We need to identify gaps in the services. Eddie can help because his contacts across the country are quite vast. He is also so well read. But more than anyone else, he understands the folly of blaming things on people you have no control over. (ibid)

December 18, 2009

From:Eddie Griffin

Dear Commissioner Roy C. Brooks:

Let me express my sincere appreciation for your work on behalf of Tarrant County. I have had the pleasure of working on the ex-offender re-entry program since 2005… It appears that the Parolee Recidivism in Tarrant County is beginning to show a downward trend.

In Re-Arrest, there were 51.4% in 2005, the initial year of our Reentry Summit, and 41.3% in 2006. Likewise, Re-Conviction rate dropped from 36.4% in 2005 to 28.3% in 2006. And, Re-Incarceration fell from 34.7% in 2005 to 27.2% in 2006. 

[Source: http://www.tarrantcounty.com/etcri/lib/etcri/Appendix3.pdf]

NOTE: The Tarrant County Reentry Initiative became a model for other reentry programs around the state and across the nation, with many states now looking to Texas as an example of how to reduce the costliness of increasing prison populations, without incurring an increase risk factor in crime elevation.

Eddie G. Griffin and House Committee on Corrections State Rep. Jerry Madden

From: Eddie Griffin
Sent: Friday, January 19, 2007 5:01 PM
Subject: Proposed Legislation to Reform Texas Prison System

Dear Jerry,

Thank you for your continuing interest in the prison situation and for consideration of the young lives wasted through the cycle of crime and punishment.

The Tarrant County Re-entry Council is currently studying and working on these issues. Other organizations, such as the FWISD is playing a collaborative part in their dropout prevention initiatives. The FWPD is also playing a role in crime prevent among youth and gangs. In fact, our entire community is focused on solving these problems. We are also active in solving the problem of youth in the education system, why they are not making the grades, and why so many give up before graduation. As I have written before, we need a new education delivery system and more constructive ways to engage our youth. Technology education will help keep our kids engaged in the learning and discovery process, and maybe divert them away from illegal activity, or maybe attract them into a high tech field of interest.

Thanks again,
Eddie Griffin

Subject: Proposed Legislation to Reform Texas Prison System
Date: Mon, 22 Jan 2007 08:53:17 -0600
From: "District67 Madden", State Rep. Jerry Madden
To: "Eddie Griffin"

Eddie

We hope committees will be announced this week and we can get to work. We are working hard on rewriting chapter 37 of the Education code dealing with Alternative Education Programs. We are also advocating a wonderful program called CARY in the schools and are working on putting it in the Appropriations so TEA can implement it. It will provide counseling for up to a year for kids sent to In School Suspension or the District Alternative Education programs. It is aimed at middle school and should be available to the FWISD when implemented. We are looking at a complete review of TDCJ and the TYC as part of our session. I also have HB277 which is the virtual school bill which would be a great assist for alternative education programs. That is part of our new and innovative delivery systems.

From Texas Youth Commission Reform Passes by Eddie G. Griffin (BASG)

In a May 26, 2007 email from Jerry Madden, House Corrections Committee Chairman, He writes:

There is nothing in the TYC Bill that builds any prisons. We do have in the Appropriations act that 2 facilities, Marlin and San Saba will be turned over to TDCJ and so will not be used for incarcerating youth. We also expect that there will be added closings of facilities by TYC probably 2 or 3 units. We do have in Appropriations money to build one new unit close to a metropolitan area so that we can keep youth closer to home. I think that is a good idea and we would not have to house them in old worn out facilities that in some cases may not be safe; We have a lot more money for integration and juvenile probation to try to keep youth from being sent to TYC...We also have all the funding we requested for our diversion beds which will have a major positive effect on our communities. While there is still more to do we have come a long way in a short time this session.

April 07, 2012

Reducing Mass Incarceration & Breaking the School-to-Prison Pipeline

…declining crime rates, government budget cuts and increased use of treatment programs… have deflated a 20-year boom in building jails and prisons… writes Mike Ward of the American-Statesman, “having fewer people locked up should be good news for Texas taxpayers, as the associated costs of Lone Star justice go down”

But, he writes: The trend is drawing few cheers in Jones County and other places where taxes are going up to pay for the empty lockups.  

(Source: “County, private lockups sit empty, drain money as Texas prisoners dwindle)

COMMENTARY by Eddie Griffin

Beginning in 2005, Tarrant County Commissioner Roy C. Brooks helped develop such a strategy with the help of about 300 community volunteers. The result was the creation of the county’s Reentry Initiative. Our success is reflected in these statistics for the state of Texas, as reflected in the above article:

More than 30,000 of the state's 93,000 county beds currently sit empty...

The counties and small Texas rural communities who anticipated an economic boon, and who invested heavily in new prison constructions, are now shedding tears over the lack in the number of new prisoners.  

In Littlefield, northwest of Lubbock, a $10 million, 373-bed prison has sat empty for two years — costing local taxpayers $65,000 a month to pay the outstanding loan.

More than 1,400 jail beds in Angelina, Newton and Dickens counties in East Texas stand vacant as well, and one in Jefferson County reopened only recently — at just a fraction of its former population.

In Falls County, about an hour's drive northeast of Austin, officials are scrambling to fill beds in a county-built private prison after the private company announced it was pulling out.

Outside Waco, an 833-bed, $49 million prison sits less than half full — the same problem faced by most of the privately operated county jail beds in the rest of the state, according to statistics from the Jail Standards Commission.

And, the dusty West Texas ranch town of Anson has a dubious new claim to fame for its Jail to Nowhere. Completed almost two years ago to house 1,100 state convicts who never arrived, the $35 million lockup sits empty at the edge of the town of about 2,300 people. Its promise of creating 195 jobs and a $5 million annual boost to the local economy is just a distant, and bitter, memory for most folks.

"The problem is, there just aren't enough prisoners to go around anymore," said House Corrections Committee Chairman Jerry Madden, R-Richardson.

“Idaho, Montana, many other states are facing this same issue,” Madden said. “They have empty jail beds they can't fill because there just aren't enough inmates out there… The state is not in a position to bail them out," he said. “Sad to say, but they made a business choice, and they're going to have to live with it at some point.”

CONCLUSION

The office of Commissioner Court is far above the realms of Ms. Laverne Brooks, a phony whose run depends solely upon name confusion, for no other qualification exists. Her combative and loose pontification on stage was a glaring disguise of her ignorance of facts and knowledge about the very programs she criticized, having no involvement and participation in their creation.

While we, in the community, put in thousands of hours of hard work, Ms. Laverne seems to be scrounging around in search of another seat in public office like a career politician. She cannot, however, represent Eddie G. Griffin (BASG).

The only honorable for her to do would be to withdraw from the race. But then that would require a dose of integrity, which I believe would be a little bit too much medicine for Ms. Roy Laverne to take.

VOTE FOR ROY CHARLES BROOKS for County Commissioner, Pct. 1

The Hood Rat Race in U. S. Congressional District 33

Upon whom we contend for the seat of this office and the seat of this power of the people, we are come from the grassroots up.

These are the ones who will be appearing this drama in the 2012 Election:

Texas Candidates:

This website provides information on Texas’ Congressional, Senate, and House of Representatives candidates, district demographic information and voter trends on a subscription basis.

Reports provided include: a filing deadline memo, listing incumbents seeking re-election, challengers, and candidates in open seats; Primary Election Reports for Congressional, Texas Senate, and House of Representatives candidates; Run-Off Election Reports; General Election Reports (see sample reports by clicking on “Sample Reports” on the main menu); and post-election reports the morning after the Primary, Run-off, and General Elections.

Sign up to get onto the ground floor of all the actions of the candidates to be heard.

LOOK FOR OUR VOICE in the person of pastor Kyev Tatum, candidate for the newly created U.S. District 33.