Pearls of Wisdom

One day Allah’s Messenger, sal Allahu alayhi wa sallam, noticed a Bedouin leaving his camel without tying it. He asked the Bedouin, “Why don’t you tie down your camel?” The Bedouin answered, “I placed my trust in Allah.”

At that, the Prophet, sal Allahu alayhi wa sallam, said, “Tie your camel and place your trust in Allah” - Tirmidhi

[Lessons from this hadith] Placing trust in Allah means doing everything that is necessary for success! <--that's a big one!

By Elizabeth Brotherton
Roll Call Staff

Thursday, March 22; 5:02 pm

A measure that would grant the District of Columbia a full vote in the House was effectively stalled today when Republicans put forth a procedural motion to tie the bill to the controversial D.C. gun ban.

Following hours of debate on the D.C. vote measure, House Judiciary ranking member Lamar Smith (R-Texas) offered a motion to recommit that would repeal the city’s longtime ban on handguns.

Democrats then pulled the bill, postponing a vote on the measure indefinitely.

If the legislation had moved forward with such an attachment, the entire bill would have been in jeopardy, as dozens of Democrats from conservative districts would have had to address gun rights, said Rep. Tom Davis (R-Va.).

But Davis, who introduced the voting rights measure with Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-D.C.), added that he was not surprised by the Republican-backed move.

“It’s a ploy,” Davis said. “It’s politics. … Everybody was playing their best hand here, and the hand is still out.”

Republicans were only able to put forth the motion to recommit on the gun ban because of language Democrats added to the bill Wednesday to offset spending for Utah’s new seat, which effectively opened up the bill for other language. Otherwise, the motion to recommit would have been considered non-germane to the voting rights measure.

Still, there are a number of ways that Democrats could return the bill to the floor, Norton said, including by reintroducing the measure with rules that would prohibit similar attachments.

“You’ve got to be grown up in the Congress, and this is how the sides jockey,” Norton said.

The bill likely will not be taken up again today, as several hours of debate are expected on the Iraq supplemental bill.

But after that, things remain up in the air. But a spokesman for Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said that action to bring the bill back to the floor is expected “soon.”

“I don’t expect a lengthy delay here,” Norton said, later adding: “It was totally unnecessary, because the Republicans know they are going to lose.”

Davis blamed the setback on a lack of communication between leadership from both parties.

“It shows the huge partisan divide between leaders to sit down and work things out,” Davis said.

Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) said Democrats “shamefully exploited” rules allowing them to indefinitely postpone the debate.

“This is only the latest in a troubling string of failures by Democrats to keep their promises to the American people,” Boehner said in a statement. “House Republicans remain fully prepared to debate and vote on any proposal affecting the citizens of the District of Columbia.”

The District of Columbia House Voting Rights Act would give D.C. a full-voting House member as well as grant Utah an at-large seat. (Utah narrowly missed gaining a fourth representative after the 2000 Census.)

The motion to recommit emerged after several hours of debate on the House floor. A floor vote had been scheduled, with Democrats expressing confidence they would pass the measure.

Republican opponents argued that the Constitution only allows states to have full-voting Representatives in Congress, and the District is not a state.

In addition, some opponents argued that the move to give Utah an at-large seat would be unconstitutional, as Utah residents would effectively have two votes in Congress.

“The Constitution is not a cafeteria,” said Rep. Pete Sessions (R-Texas). “You simply cannot pick and choose the parts you are going to respect.”

But supporters of the measure argued the Constitution’s District Clause gives Congress the authority to grant D.C. a voting Representative in the House.

“We are correcting a wrong, an illness,” said Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee (D-Texas). “We are correcting a disease.”

If the bill eventually passes the House, it could face a more difficult time in the Senate, where support for the measure isn’t entirely clear.

White House officials also have said they would advise President Bush to veto the bill if it were to reach his desk.

But supporters have maintained they will continue to advocate for the measure. A march for the bill is expected to take place on April 16, and advocates said at a press conference Thursday afternoon they will continue to fight for the measure.

“I know that we are going to win,” Norton said. “And I have to tell you, nothing can take it away.”

http://www.rollcall.com/issues/1_1/breakingnews/17697-1.html

Barbara Ross-Lee, D.O., has worked in private practice, for the U.S. Public Health Service, and on numerous committees, and in 1993 was the first African American woman to be appointed dean of a United States medical school.

Born in Detroit, Michigan, and raised in a housing project, Barbara Ross-Lee faced discrimination as a young African American woman. Growing up in inner city Detroit, she and her sister shared a fondness for show business, performing with their brothers and sisters in the church choir. But while Diana Ross pursued a career in music that led her from urban poverty to celebrity as the lead singer of the “Supremes,” Barbara Ross made her mark in the sciences.

Barbara Ross began her pre-medical studies at Detroit’s Wayne State University in 1960, during the growth of the Civil Rights movement. Although a few medical schools offered admission to minority students there were no federal or private funding to help support students from poor families. At Wayne State, her pre-medical advisor did not believe women should be physicians, and so she declined to authorize Ross’s request to study human anatomy as her major. Ross graduated with a bachelor of science degree in biology and chemistry in 1965 and, abandoning her original goal of practicing medicine went on to train as a teacher.

She joined the National Teacher Corps, a federal program, in which she could earn a degree while teaching simultaneously in the Detroit public school system. After completing the program in 1969, a new educational opportunity arose. Michigan State University opened a school of osteopathic medicine in Pontiac, a Detroit suburb, and so Ross applied and was accepted. As a single mother she needed help with childcare to be able to focus on her studies, so she sold her house and moved in with her own mother.

After graduating from the Michigan State University College of Osteopathic Medicine in 1973, Dr. Ross-Lee ran a solo family practice in Detroit until 1984, when she joined the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services as a consultant on education in the health professions. As well as serving on numerous committees Dr. Ross-Lee was also community representative on the Governor’s Minority Health Advisory Committee for the state of Michigan from 1990 to 1993. In 1991 she was also the first osteopathic physician to participate in the prestigious Robert Wood Johnson Health Policy Fellowship.

In 1993, Ross-Lee became the first African American woman dean of a United States medical school. She remained dean of the College of Osteopathic Medicine of Ohio University until 2001. During her tenure there, she reformulated the entire course of study, and drafted a women’s curriculum, earning a reputation as a “change agent.” “It is my goal,” she said, “to establish a seamless continuum of education rather than all of the fragments that we have now; to be able to incorporate learning strategies as opposed to the old memorize-and-regurgitate methodology; and to train a physician who is just not technically skilled but who is also capable of being responsible and accountable for the health status of the person he or she treats.” For Barbara Ross-Lee, medical education is a collaborative enterprise between teachers and students, which, in turn, influences the interaction between doctors and patients.

Dr. Ross-Lee is a fellow of the American Osteopathic Board of Family Physicians, a member of the American Osteopathic Association’s Bureau of Professional Education, and the Trilateral International Medical Workforce Group. She was recently appointed a member of the National Institutes of Health’s Advisory Committee on Research on Women’s Health and served as a member of the National Advisory Committee on Rural Health of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Ross-Lee and her husband, Edmond Beverly, have raised five children—two daughters and three sons—all of whom have pursued professional careers.

Dr. Ross-Lee was awarded the “Magnificent 7″ Award presented in 1993 by Business and Professional Women/USA. She has received the Women’s Health Award from Blackboard African-American National Bestsellers for her contributions to women’s health, the Distinguished Public Service Award from the Oklahoma State University College of Osteopathic Medicine and an honorary doctorate of science from the New York Institute of Technology. Ross-Lee has lectured extensively, and has published more than thirty scholarly articles addressing a variety of medical and health-care issues.

In 2001, Dr. Ross-Lee was appointed vice president for Health Sciences and Medical Affairs at the New York Institute of Technology, and in 2002, she became dean of the New York Institute of Technology’s New York College of Osteopathic Medicine.

http://www.nlm.nih.gov/changingthefaceofmedicine/physicians/biography_279.html

As salaamu alaikum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuh,

Dear Muslim Brothers and sisters….

We recieved a call from a sister that is in desperate need, she has eight children, her husband is incarcerated, she works part time and has been able to maintain her finances so far (rent, food etc.) The problem is this, the sister has been struggling to maintain and yesterday morning she woke up to find a sherriffs sale notice taped to her front door, apparently her landlord has been accepting her rent and he hasnt been paying his mortgage. The sister is afraid because of her eight children, she is not able to pay out monies for security cost and another rental payment this month because she just paid her rent to this current landlord… If anyone has a house that is empty or will soon be ready to be rented or could send monies that can accommodate this sister and her children please call us or send us an email.
She is a hardworking sister that is in need and this just goes to show that we need to really work harder on securing our own housing and shelters within our community because when we have situations such as this where the Muslims have to use the non Muslims to just keep a roof over their heads this is the kind of thing that happens. This landlord obviously doesnt care for this Muslim Woman or her Muslim Children all he cared about was getting her rent every month and this is what she is stuck with…. Please inshallah make dua for this sister and her family and if anyone needs any personal information about the sister you can call me direct on either our hotline number or the business number. If you would like to talk directly to the sister that can be arranged inshallah…. The sister has spoken to the landlord and he claims that it is nothing to be concerned with however we all know that is not true because usually when a house has been marked for sherriff sale it is too late to negotiate any thing …. We would like to pool whatever resources that are available at this point and time to try to secure a place for the sister and her children so that we dont have to send her to a shelter or seperate her family ….

May Allah continue to guide us all, amin
Sista2Sista
S2S Inc.

sistas@sista2sista.org