EDITORIAL
BY DHIREN SHAH
Hello Readers,
February is Black History Month, and it is quite important. The history of African Americans is important, who struggled in the early days, fought for their rights, joined with the community and shared their time and intelligence with all Americans. African Americans or we are an integral part of the United States of America today. They have learned a lot and have given more. They became an important part of the community. We find African Americans in many fields, including doctors, lawyers, engineers and technical industries.
With the news of Florida not allowing a dedicated course on African American History, I suggested to one of my associates that African American history should be integrated as a part of American history in the classrooms, so more people will learn African American history. He told me that African American history is specifically highlighted because if not, then it might become like the history of Native Americans – pushed to the side over time.
How many students know Native American history? It is a part of our education in the classroom. However, it does not get any importance. That is the reason that leaders in the African Americans decided to highlight a separate African American history course. I kind of agreed, but not fully. Keeping the history separate from the main history class may affect the importance negatively over time.
Instead, there should be a rule that on exams, at least some percentile of the questions must concentrate on African American history. Harriett Tubman, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Rosa Parks, Frederick Douglass and many other great leaders and scientists like: George Washington Carver – a botanist, inventor, and teacher, Lewis Howard Latimer was an inventor and draftsman, best known for his contributions to the patenting of the light bulb and the telephone, George Robert Carruthers was an inventor, physicist, engineer, and space scientist, Dr. Ayana Elizabeth Johnson is a marine biologist, policy expert, and writer. All have contributed to American history.
Next up is Women’s History Month. I congratulate The Greater Newark Women’s Assembly on their celebration of Women’s History Month on March 4 and March 5 in Newark, NJ. They are uniting women and letting the community know that we all are devoting our time, efforts and intelligence for the development and betterment of our community with women. They are recognizing many local women who devoted their time and efforts for improving the community. Let’s all salute those women.
It is good that the U.S. informed Russia about President Biden’s visit to Ukraine. He is the first U.S. president to visit a war zone area. It was a gutsy call. That put a lot of pressure on Russia, and forced them to stop at least for a period of time when Biden was visiting Ukraine. Even Russia did not want to accidentally shoot down his plane and trigger World War 3. However, I do not agree with the U.S. giving another $500 million dollars to Ukraine, as inflation and the danger of a recession are looming.
The START nuclear arms control treaty was signed in 2010 by President Barack Obama and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev. Due to Biden’s visit, Russian President Vladimir Putin said in a speech to his nation that he is suspending the last remaining nuclear arms control pact with the U.S. China and India so far are leaning towards Russia. I hope Putin does not act crazy and use nuclear arms against Ukraine.
Turkey and Syria have suffered many aftershocks, and on Feb. 20 more earthquakes shook the region. They are still recovering from the last ones that killed about 46,000 people.
Have a wonderful week. I’ll talk to you next week.
