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Spelman Spotlight Page 2 September 1981 Anwar Sadat A Man Of Love by Valerie Peete Political Reporter While people in Atlanta were busily turning out to the polls in what was the largest voter tur nout in Atlanta history, Anwar Sadat, President of Egypt, lay engulfed in a pool of blood. Pulling for threads of life, un consciously crying for violence to cease, this man, this Prince of Peace, this great leader, lay in silence with bullet holes inside his chest. October 6, 1981 was a cold, grim day in Cairo, Egypt. The man who strived for peace in the Middle East was dead. The man who spoke out for what he believed in was dead. The man, who in the face of odds, signed a peace treaty with Menachem Begin - a historical landmark between Israel and Egypt - was dead. Some say his fate was destined. Others say no one is destined to bullet holes, tempestuous and ruthless, knowing no shame nor mercy, ripping through one's body tearing away at all life. I say no one is destined to violence. Cataclysm has once again rocked the land in which it was nourished. We live in a destruc tive, barbaric society. Through war we make killing people legal. Terrorist groups who do nothing but destroy want political recognition. Bombs are made daily, while the creators wait for the right moment. Never forgetting what happened at Hiroshima, we were unable to replace the lives lost and mutilated. And, we continue to accept violence in our everyday worlds. It is a way of life, we rationalize. However, all we are really doing is coddling the wound . . nurturing it while allowing turmoil to accumulate. And, what was once an insignifi cant mound has transformed into a giant mountain. We kill without conscience, without remorse, without regret, without mercy. It is ironic that the very men who struggle for life outside the violent realms are the very ones killed because of it. John F. Kennedy, Bobby Kennedy, Mar tin Luther King Jr., each lie in a cold space in the ground. Each of them fought for peace; each of them are dead. Now we add Anwar Sadat to the running list of men who challenged the idea of freedom from violence. Perhaps the world will understand that history is slowly but surely repeating itself. Where do we go from here? And where does it all end? Anwar Sadat leaves behind an undying legacy because he was different. He was a man of love. Wilkins And Jordan: Changing Of The Guard As the world continues to mourn over the loss of Anwar Sadat, the Spotlight feels it is imperative that we take time to reflect. We must reflect upon the plight of the Black race after having lost yet another great leader of our people. The following is an exerpt from “From the Grassroots”, written by Manning Marable. We hope that you understand the connection. We hope that you realize our people stretch across the globe and that events happening in the Middle East are not separate and apart from the events happening in America. Two events of some impor tance to the Black Freedom Struggle occurred last month separated only by several hours. Roy Wilkins, national secretary of the NAACP for 22 years, died at the age of 80. Vernon Jordan, the victim of an attempted assassination which still remains unresolved, resigned his post as head of the National Urban League. Unquestionably, both men contributed much to the struggle for Black civil rights and social justice. Yet history forces us to assess the relative strengths and weaknesses of these two men, their politics, and their organizations. The greatest opponents of black people recognized that Wilkins was an unwilling but invaluable tool in their own assault against black rights. Reagan commented that “Roy’s death darkens our day” - - noticeably referring to Wilkins in the first person, a typical carryover from the antebellum slavery era. Roy had “a quiet unassuming manner” which in Reagan's view, served the in terests of “Civil and Human Dr. Manning Marable rights." Vice President Bush reiterated that “our nation has suffered a great loss with the death of Roy Wilkins.” The New York Times, in a feature story declared that Wilkins was “a solid leader, consistent, stable and thoughtful.” Yet, “he refus ed for some time to give up leadership of the NAACP, even when he became too ill to function adequately.” TheTimes suggested that Wilkins was no longer an adequate spokesper son for the Black Movement. “The times have changed, and maybe Wilkins himself would have been confused by the problems of inflation and employment, lack of housing, resurgence of conservatism and cooling of interest in minority rights.” Vernon Jordan is a later-day version of the Wilkins/Water White/Whitney Young model of “Negro Leadership.” Trained as a lawyer, Jordan assumed the leadership of the Urban League in 1971, after serving as director of the Soutern Regional Council and later as director of the United NegroCollegeFund. Like Wilkins, Jordan rhetorically sup ported the goals of black libera tion. But his actions, such as joining a series of corporate boards, spoke louder than words. In the 1979 report of the Urban League, he warned that Black America was “at the brink of disaster.” But after the elec tion of Ronald Reagan, Jordan led the pack in making a series of pathetic concessions to the reac tionaries. “I do not think that we can prejudge Reagan on what he said in his campaign,” Jordan stated in late 1980. Conservative Republican programs, par ticularly the now-notorious “free-enterprise zones”, tax in centives and zoning exemptions to huge corporations were in his view positive ideas. Jordan was willing to wait and see “if equali ty can be achieved by conser vative means.” Jordan even went so far as to make recommen dations in the writingof Reagan’s inaugural address! Jordan’s effectiveness as a civil rights spokesperson was severely curtailed last year when it was learned that he was with a white woman, Mrs. Martha C. Coleman, when he was shot in Fort Wayne, Indiana. The issue at once sparked a semicomic debate both within the Urban League and across black America. A number of the league's 117 affiliate directors even called for a national meeting “to discuss the Jordan shooting and any potential damage to the league’s image." Years ago black activist A. Philip Randolph observed that “radicalism is a relative term and three decades hence may pronounce the radicals of today as the reactionaries of tomorrow.” Wilkins and Jordan are prisoners of the Afro- American’s past. They lacked any theory of social change which Where Does Reality Begin For Us? All day Tuesday my thoughts were not with Young, Bond or any_other candidates. Instead, my mind had travelled across the seas to Egypt, because I had just heard the confirmation of Anwar Sadat’s assassination. Now I realized that beforehand I had little regard for the Egyptian President, although I was very aware of his desperate efforts for world peace. But on that day, the day of his death, I walked around numbly, for I knew this violent event would have a dramatic effect on our future. I was abruptly taken out of the depth of my thoughts as I walked by the TV lounge in the student center. While the television newscaster spoke of Sadat’s life, his efforts for peace, and his untimely death, my attention focused on a fellow student saying, “This stuff is going to be on TV all day long. How am I supposed to keep up with my stories?” As I began to open my ears to the voices around me, I found a general air of "so what” regar ding Sadat’s death. Here I was wondering exactly what would be the effects of the outcome of Sadat's death on Egypt and also on America; and the majority of my peers seemed to be thriving on the fantasy relationship of Luke and Laura. I soon began to question vyhether we are living in and dealing with the real world, or whether we are still playing grown up in momma’s closet. It is to my understanding that we are here not only to gain knowledge, but also a true sense of reality. These gates around this campus are designed to protect us from physical forms of harm; they are not here to entrap our minds and prevent us from adequately dealing with reality. We must rid ourselves of the false concept that we are alienated from the Middle East - from Africa. Anwar Sadat is a Moslem - a man of color; he is one of us. And what he did to encourage world peace, he did not do just for his people in Egypt, but for all his people, including you. True, we all tend to wrap ourselves into the fantasies of television and other means of entertainment mainly to escape the pleasures of the real world. However, if we must escape, we must first have a firm concept of what we are escaping from. It is essential thatweasa peopledo not center our lives around the scandalous escapades of im aginary, white soap opera stars. Instead, let us focus on the possibilities of our future in a world where peace makers are assassinated (such as Anwar Sadat) and makers of neutron bombs are commended. would advance the economic, educational and cultural in terests of the black community in the age of Reaganism, racism, and reaction. The only way to honor the many positive and constructive aspects of their respective programs is to go beyond them, building a new Black Movement for self- determination, which relies more on confrontation than compromise. Dr. Manning Marable teaches political economy at Cornell University, and is an activist in the National Black Independent Political Party. Elis column appears in 135 newspapers in the U.S. and the United Kingdom. Editor-in-Chief Circulation Manager Reporters Bridgett M. Davis Valerie Pinckney Nancy Bouman Yolanda Cooper Associate Editor Co-Circulaton Manager Carla Johnson Lisha B. Brown Lillian Jackson Elena Jordan Valerie Peete, Managing Editor Public Relations Chairman Carolyn Robinson Susan Hart Eric Blocker Emily Patterson Yolanda Williamson Office Manager Business Manager Kimberly Harding Carla Thomas Denise Reynolds Contributing Writers News Editors Copy Editors Daphne Ward Karen Burroughs Ronda Killens Vernoica Green Diane Moss Glenda Patterson Spotlight Advisor Feature Editors Layout Editor Judy Gebre-Hewitt Lisa Thomas Tony Magby Lynne Shipley Photography Editor Special Features Editors Rugby Hall Angela Moore Whitney Young The Spelman Spotlight is a bi-monthly publication produced by and for the students of Spelman College. The Spotlight office is located in the Manley College Center, lower concourse, of Spelman College. Mail should be addressed to Box 50, Spelman College, Atlanta, Georgia 30314. Telephone numbers are 525-1743 and 525-7404.