“Mayor: Kids should be in school, King holiday or not - msnbc.com” plus 1 more |
| Mayor: Kids should be in school, King holiday or not - msnbc.com Posted: 16 Jan 2011 10:41 AM PST CHARLOTTE, N.C.-- Mayor Anthony Foxx said Saturday it's "regrettable" that Monday's Martin Luther King Jr. holiday will be a snow makeup day for Charlotte-Mecklenburg students. "But given the challenges so many young people are facing," Foxx said, "it's hard for me to make the argument that if class is in session they shouldn't go." Foxx spoke briefly to reporters after a morning wreath-laying ceremony at the statue of King in Marshall Park uptown. Saturday was the slain civil right's leader's birthday. He would have been 82. At the ceremony, Foxx urged Charlotteans to use Monday - the federal holiday - as a time "to reflect on our children and what kind of future we as a community want for them." The mayor called it a "healthy debate" that some have questioned CMS's decision to hold classes Monday. But he added that with the achievement gap some students face, it's important to ask what we can do to make our children competitive in the 21st century. The president of the Charlotte chapter of the NAACP has urged parents to keep their children home from school Monday and take them to the Government Center to protest using the holiday as a snow makeup day. CMS officials have said students will spend class time Monday learning about King and the civil rights movement. At Saturday's MLK Holiday Parade along Tryon Street, some spectators agreed with the mayor's views. "I don't understand people protesting by not going to school," said Ramona Frazier, 45, of Charlotte. "The way the economy is now, everyone needs an education." She and her husband, Albert, 44, said they thought King would want children in school on Monday and that they'd send their own children if they were still school-age. The Fraziers brought their 2-year-old grandson, Savion, to the parade to celebrate the leader they both grew up hearing their elders praise. "Everybody had a picture of King in their house," Albert Frazier said. "Anytime you'd go to church and get a fan, his face was on there." Charlottean Margi Garrison, 43, also grew up hearing about King's legacy. Her father, known as Baba Zulu, was an organizer of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee during the civil rights movement. As step teams, floats and drum lines passed by on Tryon Street, Garrison said she brought her daughters to the parade to remind them what King stands for. "It's an opportunity to talk about how he helped with our civil rights and freedom for all people," she said. Watching a gay and lesbian group march down the street, Garrison noted that some still struggle for equal rights in this country. As for Monday's King holiday, Garrison said she was torn about whether to send her kids to school or keep them home for a long-planned family celebration. Her mother and grandmother are visiting from Philadelphia, so she's opted to keep the kids home to attend King-related community events. Isaiah Brown, 15, a 10th-grader at Phillip O. Berry Academy, said he'll miss school Monday to attend King events at the Harvey B. Gantt Center and Levine Museum of the New South with his grandmother. Henry Mann, 16, a ninth-grader at Berry, said he'll be in school Monday because "it's stupid to be out of school on a holiday made for a person who led us to freedom." Watching the parade with Mann, his stepfather, Tony Little, 45, marveled at the diversity of both spectators and participants. "I saw a lot of different nationalities coming down the street," Little said. "It makes you feel great. On this day, everybody came together." This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service — if this is your content and you're reading it on someone else's site, please read our FAQ page at fivefilters.org/content-only/faq.php |
| Posted: 16 Jan 2011 08:14 PM PST January 16, 2011 | 7:37 pm
Colfer swore it was because he just loves her, but with the quirky "Alice in Wonderland" actress rocking one red shoe and one green, now we're simply not sure. With Justin Bieber sporting purple-framed shades he said were for his upcoming 3-D movie, perhaps Bonham Carter was going retro, with an homage to the old-school 3-D glasses with one lens red, the other mismatched. And we remember how attractive those were. RELATED: Golden Globes: Chris Colfer wants the LAPD to get ready Emmy focus on feet, starring Rita Wilson and Thomas Jane Golden Globes: Robert Pattinson chugs a Golden Globe beer, ponders going French -- Christie D'Zurilla Photos: Helena Bonham Carter in different color shoes on the Golden Globe Awards red carpet in Beverly Hills on Jan. 16, 2011. Credits: Jay L. Clendenin / Los Angeles Times, left; Jason Merritt / Getty Images, right. This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service — if this is your content and you're reading it on someone else's site, please read our FAQ page at fivefilters.org/content-only/faq.php |
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