Booker T. Washington High School WINS The 2011 Race to the Top Commencement Challenge

We’re TOPS! We Lead and Others Follow!

 The announcement was made today that  Booker T. Washington High School in Memphis, TN was the winner of the 2011  Race to the Top Commencement Challenge. In a phone conversation, Vice President Joe Biden informed the BTW Race to the Top Commencement Challenge committee of students and staff they had been selected by President Barack Obama as the winner.

This is an amazing accomplishment for the school, the neighborhood and the City of Memphis.

As I stated in an earlier blog post, Booker T. Washington is my alma mater and  I am ecstatic that the children of my own community have won this challenge.

 Success is not a given for many people such as myself, growing up in low-income neighborhood. Not only is it not a given, but it sadly, for the most part it isn’t even an expectation.  It is something you have to desire, seek and execute. For many students who grow up in poverty the statistics seem stacked against them.

Osama bin Laden DEAD, but what if?

Osama bin Laden Killed

While many are celebrating the death of terrorist Osama bin Laden I am not experiencing the feeling of glee that many are experiencing. Osama bin Laden has been credited with orchestrating the 1998 bombings of the United States Embassies in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, and Nairobi, Kenya along with the September 11th attacks on The United States of America. Sure, I am glad that Osama bin Laden has finally faced justice for the many senseless acts of terrorism that he mastermind, but the what-ifs just won’t let me shout “Oh Happy Day bin Laden is dead!”

What if this isn’t really Osama bin Laden that was killed by the United States Navy SEALs? What if this was just another Osama bin Laden look-alike and before the week is out, another bin Laden video is released taunting the United States and threatening to do harm to even more innocent Americans?