Q & A with Jeff Benjamin running for Mayor City Of Miami

Newsnet

So why are you running for Mayor

Benjamin

Because I have a fundamental different view on politics and what the City Of Miami needs

Newsnet

Explain to us

Benjamin

It goes beyond waking up every day and accepting the status quo or building a tunnel when our children in public schools don’t have books or can’t eat lunch

Newsnet

So you are running as a Democrat or on their platform

Benjamin

I am running on the platform of what the residents of the City Of Miami needs.

I don’t subscribe to Democratic values or Republican ideologies, what is best for the people and the children who live in our communities. Good education with a solid foundation, Jobs for the unemployed and safe neighborhoods.

Newsnet

What do you think of the firing of Police Chief  Miguel Exposito by the City Commission and Mayor Regalado.

Benjamin

In 2009 Mayor Regalado supported Miguel Exposito for Chief of Police and so did the Commission. To put it mildly it’s the same old suit from 1974, now being worn by the same people from 1974 Nothing will change until 2013.

Newsnet

I don’t think that is putting it mildly are you throwing down the gauntlet

Benjamin

I don’t want to appear facetious or make this a trivial matter but there is no gauntlet to be thrown. If it walks like a duck and it quacks like a duck…99% of the times it’s a duck.

Newsnet

So you are going to be the perfect Mayor for The City of Miami

Benjamin

I cringe at the mention of the word perfection because I am far from it. I get tickets from the police like anyone else; I’ve made numerous mistakes in life. The difference is I take responsibility and if I don’t know I don’t pretend to. I seek out those who do know and then try and make a difference. Never mistake knowledge for wisdom

Newsnet

So you an author what type of writing do you do

Benjamin

I write non-fiction stories based on true events

I wrote   Juvenile Injustice The Chicago Story   based on conviction and my belief it was a travesty and miscarriage of justice

Newsnet

So were you right or wrong in your conviction and belief

Benjamin

As I have gotten older and after taking a couple of law classes at Ohio State University, the realization set in, there really is no right or wrong in these things. What their needs to be is preventative measures put in place to avoid the destruction of our children. Which was eventually done in this case.

Newsnet

What do you think of crime and Miami’s Police department

Benjamin

Fortunately I have had the experience to live in other cities and I can say with absolute conviction the majority of the 1,100 member police force in The City Of Miami are good cops and they try their best to keep crime down. I see them on Patrol in Coconut Grove and other areas of the City. I know several of them by first name. I have seen firsthand how they treat people on the streets and by far and large they do a great job. Of course in every organization there are a few bad apples but they do not represent the majority of the men and women who protect and serve our city.

Newsnet

Thank you for taking the time to meet with us and we look forward to hearing more from you.

Benjamin

It was pleasure thank you

http://www.jeffbenjaminformayor.com/

America has paused on a day of deep emotion to honour the victims of the 9/11 attacks, 10 years after the event

America has paused on a day of deep emotion to honour the victims of the 9/11 attacks, 10 years after the event.

Nearly 3,000 people died when four hijacked airliners were crashed into the World Trade Center in New York, the Pentagon and a Pennsylvania field.

A minute's silence marked each moment that a plane struck, or one of the WTC's twin towers fell.

President Barack Obama visited each of the three memorials to victims of the al-Qaeda attacks.

Security was tight following warnings of a possible new attack by al-Qaeda.

'Lives cut short'

The first plane hit the WTC's North Tower at 08:46 (13:46 GMT), the second at 09:03.

The third attack, on the Pentagon, occurred at 09:37 and it was at 10:03 that the fourth jet crashed in Pennsylvania.

Speaking to the crowd at Ground Zero, the president quoted the Bible: "Therefore, we will not fear, even though the earth be removed, and though the mountains be carried into the midst of the sea."

New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg said a "perfect blue sky morning" had turned into "the blackest of nights" on 9/11.

"They were our neighbours, our friends, our husbands, wives, brothers, sisters, children and parents," he said of the victims.

"They each had a face, a story, a life cut short from under them."

These ceremonies around America are no perfunctory moments of remembrance of an event that has faded in the popular imagination. These day-long events are designed to recall the horror and loss of that day, to play on the heart strings of a nation that cannot forget.

Around New York and Washington there is a very obvious reminder of the way the country has changed, a police presence that must be unprecedented, closing down lower Manhattan to traffic for a day - the reaction to what authorities say is a very real threat from al-Qaeda.

The American homeland has not been attacked again since 9/11, the sense of possibility, of vulnerability, the overwhelming need for security has not gone away. But some things have changed.

Today may have evoked memories of a righteous patriotic fervour to deal with those who threaten the country and that desire does still exist but the enthusiasm to reshape the destiny of other countries to make Americans safer has largely disappeared.

All of the victims' names were read out amid tears, the five-hour reading punctuated by the solemn silences, and music.

Bagpipers opened the gathering, the Brooklyn Youth Chorus sang the national anthem, the cellist Yo-Yo Ma performed, and Paul Simon played his classic song The Sounds Of Silence.

Mourners streamed into the newly opened memorial, which has two reflecting pools, each almost an acre in size, in the footprints of the twin towers.

They placed pictures and flowers beside names etched in bronze. Grown men and women sobbed in grief over the inscriptions.

Behind the memorial could be seen the gleaming bulk of One World Trade Center, now three-quarters completed.

Mr Obama and his wife, Michelle, attended ceremonies in New York, Pennsylvania and at the Pentagon.

At Ground Zero he joined his predecessor, George W Bush, to visit the memorial. With bowed heads, they touched inscriptions.

From New York, the Obamas travelled to the field on Shanksville, Pennsylvania, where the fourth plane was forced down by passengers who fought back.

The couple laid a wreath of white flowers at a new marble memorial to the 40 passengers and crew of the lost plane, before moving on to the Pentagon, outside Washington DC, where another wreath was laid.

In New York, metal barriers were erected on roads near Ground Zero, while police in New York and Washington are stopping and searching large vehicles entering bridges and tunnels.

The CIA received a warning last week that al-Qaeda might have sent attackers, some of them possibly US citizens, to bomb one of the cities.

The warning was described by officials as "credible but unconfirmed".

'New generation of patriots'

In an earlier speech at the Pentagon, Vice-President Joe Biden praised the US soldiers who had killed al-Qaeda leader Osama Bin Laden in Pakistan in May of this year.

A "new generation of patriots" were galvanised by 9/11, he told a military audience.

"We will not stop - you will not stop - until al-Qaeda is disrupted, dismantled and, ultimately, defeated."

Sunday's ceremonies began at the US embassy in the Afghan capital, Kabul, where the flag was lowered to half-mast to remember those who died 10 years ago, as well as those who have died since. A piece of the twin towers is buried underneath the flag pole.

Mark Mardell

BBC North America 

LOVE & CHOLERA

Love & Cholera

By Jeff Benjamin

Copyrighted 2010

www.loveandcholera.com

An unimaginable and unbelievable story of love, death, destruction, pride and prejudice, of murder mayhem and rebirth of a nation.

LOVE & CHOLERA is a  story based on fact. It puts a human face to a tragedy that affected millions of people.

The author is Jeff Benjamin who is also running for  Mayor in the City Of Miami 2013.

WWW.JEFFBENJAMINFORMAYOR.COM

The book is an an unprecedented true-life  story of the 2010  earthquake in Haiti with its  catastrophic magnitude of 7.0 A devastation that  occurred at 16:53 local time  on Tuesday, 12 January 2010 and by  24 January, at least 52 aftershocks measuring 4.5 or greater had been recorded. With an estimated three million people affected by the quake. The Haitian government reported that an estimated 230,000 people had died, 300,000 had been injured and 1,000,000 made homeless.

In the aftermath a young American doctor falls in love with Marie, a Haitian nurse who lost her home and family in the earthquake. The book exposes the differing social and multicultural lives of the Haitian people. Moreover it gives us a quick example of how these conducts affect our society. Two of the behaviors observed, are prejudice and stereotyping. These were identified as the major causes leading up to the events surrounding the violence associated with the Earthquake and the Cholera epidemic. These behaviors manifest themselves in every aspect of the story. Including the behavior towards the Haitian people and a government being pressured for results. The book  expose the international community’s rational for the negative attitudes and perception about Haitians based on assimilation and stereotypes garnered through prior experience with former and past regimes. The story captures the age-old issue that has always existed in humanity, which we thought would have dissipated in the 21st century. Taking into account that in these days we are better informed and educated and should understand that one group's actions should not be applied to stereotype an entire nation.

Love & Cholera exposes how the Haitian community coped with the Earthquake the Cholera outbreak and their National elections all coming in the same Year. How the world had a predisposed picture of Haiti and the prejudice’s were simply an attitude that remained internal to its owner.  The book  explores every ones behavior; their negative attitudes on the basis of differences translate into murder and survival of the fitness. The end result is social inequity, death and disease and an entire nation in turmoil.

And in this jungle for survival one woman’s faith and love for her country. A love that transcends all barriers and an uncanny functional and respectful relationship between her and her people. Love & Cholera deviates to show prejudice and stereotypes can be a destructive force both in the world and in individual societies, especially when in turmoil.

Throughout the story, pride and prejudice becomes threatening when it reaches its most extreme form. Class survival and rush to judgment of a nation floundering to regain its dignity. This movie shows us the different points of view of a nation dealing with catastrophic events. It sheds light and gives us insights of the stereotypes we have built within our society, within the world. It invites us to see and understand how such a small stereotype and negative attitude can go a long way and affect a nation. Love & Cholera is a powerful symbolism of Love & Hope.

The movie will show how important it is that we learn how to control prejudice and the stereotypes we hold against other groups, since these are attitudes and feelings that are learned and are not innate. The key to this book is its powerful depiction of the children of Haiti who were affected. The movie exposes the assumptions that we make about others and questions how these assumptions arise and where they came from. Love & Cholera shows how one woman’s love saved a nation.

A powerful true life love story …. LOVE & CHOLERA