It is extremely disheartening and disappointing to receive the news that Amazon is discontinuing its philanthropic division, AmazonSmile.
Thousands of organizations, nonprofits, schools and churches worldwide benefit from Amazon shoppers who choose to have a very small percentage of their purchases support the charity of their choice. It was a win-win for humanity.
At the Ezekiel Taylor Scholarship Foundation, we provide college scholarships and mentorship to African American males who’ve been impacted by gun violence. Many of these young men are desperate for opportunities for survival and education. They rely on us for college funding, mentorship and life skills programming. Our goal is to impact their lives for the advancement of our community. As partners with AmazonSmile, we are successful in creating change.
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Members of our community spend billions of dollars with Amazon. Our dollars are why Amazon is successful. And in turn, it’s good business practice to support the communities that patronize a business, especially communities of color, along with disadvantaged, marginalized and indigenous communities.
It’s an insult to witness Jeff Bezos become one of the richest men in the world and then have his company release a statement that reads ”our ability to have an impact was often spread too thin.” How did they arrive at that conclusion? Did Amazon survey the nonprofits that benefit from the program? Let’s not forget the tax advantages of this program for Amazon.
Truthfully, we’re actually the ones “spread thin” on the ground. as change agents for a better society. We’re giving our hard-earned money, time, blood, sweat and tears to make a difference in the lives of young people. Many of the volunteers, like me, work long hours with no salary. It’s a labor of love.
While Bezos gets richer by the minute, our foundation is just trying to make college education affordable and equitable for young Black males. Those quarterly AmazonSmile checks aren’t enough money to put fuel in Bezos’ private jets or to pay for his space rocket adventures, but it makes the world of difference in the lives of people we serve.
As an AmazonSmile partner for the past seven years, we ask that Amazon reconsider this move. Let’s all be better global citizens. As Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. once stated ”Life’s most persistent and urgent question is, ‘What are you doing for others?’”
Tenisha Taylor, CEO, Ezekiel Taylor Scholarship Foundation
Police have a right to push candidates for oversight councils
Police and their union should in no way have to halt their efforts to make police district councils more widely representative. The councils are being put together for multiple purposes, including shaping police policy on certain issues.
Critics of the union’s actions at least hint the union’s actions are an effort to undermine a primary purpose of the councils: To address alleged police misconduct. Conversely, the union argues they want some candidates who will not have an anti-police agenda. They want to ensure evenhandedness in oversight of alleged misconduct.
At least one candidate who criticizes the union claims its efforts demonstrate the police do not view the councils as a way to improve “safety.” Where is the evidence for this claim? Longtime civil rights activist Frank Chapman tells the Sun-Times he believes the councils should consist of people in communities of color, not the police. Where is it written that certain citizens should be excluded ? Why should police misconduct be addressed only by people from specific communities? Has a presumption been created that anyone who is not a community activist, or any person who will be neutral on issues concerning police oversight, will be prejudiced in favor of the police?
There is nothing unfair or unusual about concerned, organized groups making attempts to put a candidate of their choosing on such councils. There should be oversight councils for police misconduct. But not all members of the councils need be people from pre-selected communities who have gone to great lengths to get greater control over police departments.
Councils must be fair, unbiased and represented by any interested Chicagoan willing to provide such government service.
Terry Takash, Western Springs
U.S. debt and Ukraine
In light of the news regarding our debt ceiling, it seems like a parallel should be drawn to the billions in aid being sent to Ukraine. Vladimir Putin doesn’t need to invade or bomb our country to harm us. All he needs to do is continue his barbaric acts against Ukraine, thereby causing the United States to drain its financial resources and leaving us vulnerable and lacking the financial means to take care of our own country.
We don’t need to overtax our businesses and citizens. We need to stop sending money. It makes no sense to say it is humane to send money but not stop the horrific war.
The message really being sent is that money is all that matters, and saving human lives and making a stand for humanity are not worth the effort.
Cecile Bolton, Westchester
