Newspaper Page Text
8A
JUNE 10, 1999
City should have seen
water crisis coming
-Odd-even day rationing; total out
door watering bans. I't amazing that
the city can be tumbled headlong
into a water crisis when the ther
mometers are just barely straining
te reach 90 degrees. :
“The city’s short-sightedness looms
large now that Mother Nature has
weighed in with a region-wide
drought that can have devastating
consequences if the current trend
continues.
‘The talk emanating from city hall
has a vaguely familiar ring and as
homeowners become water thieves
uPder the cover of darkness, the
situation is bound to get worse be
fore it gets better.
:Utilities Director Max Hicks and
his crews are going to get the oppor
-3
ALONG THE COLOR LINE By Dr. Manning Marable
® @ ® @
Dismantling diversity
nly two years ago, on June 14,
1997, President Clinton commit
ted his administration to pursuea
“national conversationaboutrace.”
Speaking in California, which had just
passed Proposition 209 eliminating affir
madtive action programs for racialized mi
norities and women, Clinton vigorously
defended the national goal of diversity.
“We must not resegregate higher educa
tion,” the president declared, “orleaveit to
the private universities to do the public’s
work.” A national race initiative was
launched with an advisory board headed
by esteemed historian John Hope Franklin.
Today, in the wake of Monica Lewinsky,
impeachment hearings and Yugoslavian
bombings, the Clinton administrationhas
shredded any moral credibility and most of
its political capital. Wall Streetis booming
on a financial tidal wave of speculation,
and corporate profits are a record levels.
The national media, which focused in
taqtly onaffirmative actionin 1994-1996,
fin to be preoccupied with other mat
. Thus, since Clinton’s 1997 announce
meht of a national dialogue on race, the
actual status of affirmative action nation
wide has been seriously eroded, if not
eradicated in its entirety.
On August 28, 1997, Proposition 209
when into effect. Six weeks later, the
Center for Individual rights, a conserva
tive legal group filed a lawsuit against the
University of Michigan, claiming that the
school’s affirmative action programs un
irly penalized “qualified” students and
rded “unqualified” minorities. On
N ber 3, 1997, the Supreme Court
aged to hear an appeal to review Propo
sition 209’s constitutionality.
Throughout the end of 1997 and much of
1998, there were mixed trends regarding
affirmative action. In Houston, city voters
passed a pro-affirmative action referen
dum by a ten percent margin. The San
Francisco Board of Supervisors defiantly
voted to continue and expand its set aside
for women and minorities. In
November, nine white Chicago fire
men who sued on grounds of “reverse
distrimination” were denied an appeal to
théSupreme Court. But at the same time,
votgrs in Washington state ratified Initia
tive 200, which outlawed the use of affir
mative action policies in state employ
contracts and university admissions.
In mber, 1998, the Federal Commu-
Commission announced that it
mld not appeal to the Supreme Court to
. Augusta
-~ Focus
| Since 1981
A Walker Group
‘ Publication
1143 Laney Walker'Blvd.
AUGUSTA FOCUS
tunity to play hero or goat before
too long.
If the city fathers think the people
in South Augusta are purturbed now
that their grass and prized petu
nias are wilting by the hour, what
do they think will happen when the
first brush fire rears its ugly head
and water becomes a matter of life
and death.
Let’s get serious about water p'an
ning because even though the summers
in the year 2000 and beyond may be
mild, weather is not the sole deter
miner of water woes. Runaway housing
development has its own demands.
While everyone is for develop
ment, the city fathers must under
stand that planning must precede
expansion or disaster looms.
reinstate affirmative action policies that
had promoted theemployment of racialized
minorities and women in the media.
In early January this year, the Univer
sity of Texas at Austin first abandoned its
extensive use program to recruit Black
and Hispanic faculty, because it feared
that it would be overruled by the courts.
On January 11, the affirmative action
program which had admitted many Afri
can American students to the University
of Georgia was declared illegal in federal
court. Seeing the legal handwriting on the
political wall, the University of Massachu
setts at Amherst decided to reduce its
emphasis on minority recruitment efforts
and to focus more on non racial criteria,
such as socioeconomic status, inits admis
sions policies. Then on April 1, a white
lecturer who had been denied employ
ment at a San Francisco State University
and had sued on the grounds of reverse
discrimination, won $2.75 millioninajury
trial. Step by step, in court decisions,
public referenda and shifts in educational
and employment policy, “diversity” is ag
gressively being dismantled.
The central idea behind affirmative ac
tion programs and racial preferences is
that they are necessary to redress and
overturn longstanding practices of exclu
sion and inequality that black Americans,
other racialized minorities and women
havehistorically experienced in this coun
try. In other words, corrective measures
are needed to enhande and guarantee
access and opportunity to Americans who
havebeen unjustly discriminated against.
To eliminate such programs, at a time
when blacks and Latinos remain grossly
under represented in colleges and most
better payingjobsis politically shortsighted
and morally indefensible.
The battle for affirmative action can
only be won if the blatk freedom move
ment relearns the lessons of its own his
tory. Centrist Democrats like Clinton will
never aggressively fight to uproot institu
tional racism. The president is only pre
pared to mouth platitudes about equal
opportunity for all, instead of placing his
entire political clout behind a struggle for
human equality. The courts and the legis
latures arein the end political institutions
which can ve pressured from below by
mass protest. A hundred thousand people
in thestreets defending affirmative action
would be far more effective thata hundred
presidential pronouncements and commis
sions.
Charles W. Walker
Publisher
Frederick Benjamin
Managing Editor
Dot T. Ealy
Marketing Director
Lillian Wan |
Copy Editor
Samuel Daniels
Production Assistant
Denise Lipscombe
Production Assistant
Adrienne Turner
Staff Writer
Tonya Evans
Office Manager '
Opinion
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CIVIL RIGHTS JOURNAL By Bernice Powell Jackson
Go Jesse, GoO!
s Tavis Smiley, the Black Enter
tainment Television commenta
tor said, he’s four for four. Four
| times Jesse Jackson has gone to
U.S. “enemies” to seek the release of
captives. And four times he has suc
ceeded. No President, no diplomats, no
soldiers have that record. And yet, he
still doesn’t get the respect, the accolades
or the approval of the American people,
the press or our leaders. What’s more,
they can’t understand how he succeeds
every time.
Jesse’s first release was back in 1984,
when he went to Iraq to see about getting
a U.S. pilot named Goodman released.
The nation was amazed when he was
released. Then there were the less well
known releases of hundreds of men,
women, and children by Syria and both
Cuban and non-Cuban prisoners by Fidel
Castro, both negotiated by Jesse in the
1990’5. Now, it’s the release of the three
American POW’s by Serbian President
Milosevic. Four for four.
And still norespect, only second-guess
ing and quick dismissals of the release by
network commentators and newpaper
columnist and editors. Only under the
breath griping by diplomat offical types.
Only passing interest by the general pub
lic. All fueld by jealousy, by misunder
standing, by cynicism and yes, by racism.
Racism because thereality is that some
Americans still can’t accept that African
Americans are smart enough, saavy
enough and sure enough to negotiate
with world leaders for the release of
hostages, political prisoners and POW’s.
TO BE EQUAL By Hugh B. Price
Avictimofhis environment
s Justin Volpe, the disgraced New
York City police officer who late last
month admitted savagely assaulting
an innocent man, the victim ofhaving
to work in a bad neighborhood?
A neighborhood that can be likened to
a “war zone?” A neighborhood whose
residents are so hostile and lawless that
the time he spent patrolling its streets
wore him down and corroded his sense of
ethical conduct?
Can Justin Volpe be accurately de
scribed as like a “marine that jumped on
the grenade™ Is he now a “sacrificial
lamb to satisfy a public demand for ven
geance” a “political prisoner”?
That’s the view Justin Volpe's father,
Robert himself a retired New York City
police detective, put forward in speaking
with a reporter from the New York Times
the day after Memorial Day.
I sympathize with parents whohave to
face the fact that their offspring have
committed a wrong, especially one so
heinous as Justin Volpe’s brutal sexual
assault on Abner Louima. ;
But Robert Volpe’s comments are way
off base.
For one thing, it’s more than a little
ironic in this era, when the lock em up
and throw away the key approach to
criminal behavior is ascendant, to hear
the environmental defense plea again
applied to excuse a police officer’s brutal
ity against a person of color.
When progressive analysts suggest that
such environmental factors as family
poverty, poor schools, economically de
It was true for Ralph Bunche, the African
American who helped negotiate the peace
in the 1950 Arab-Israeli dispute for which
he won the Nobel Prize, but never won
the acclamation by his own country, and
it seems to be true for Jesse Jackson a
half a century later.
And so the nay sayers ask the question
of whether Rev. Jackson was “used” by
the other side or they ask ifher didn’t get
in the way of the war. They ask if her
doesn’t realize that he’s dealing with
someone who may be charged with crimes
against humanity or they criticize his
style or question his motives.
Because of his race, these critics can’t
see that Jesse Jackson is one of the
world’s most astute politicians. Heis able
to speak comfortably with world’s lead
ers. He is able to discern the any layers
of diplomaticconversation and the myriad
positioning in the complex negotiations.
He is able to keep confidences and most
of all he is able to keep his eye singularly
on his own mission, that of securing the
release. As a two time presidential candi
date, as a clergyman, as a civil rights
leader and as a black man in America,
Jesse Jackson has had to use these skills
over and over again so it should be no
surprise that he is a consummate diplo
mat. Yet, because of his race, many of
these critics can’t see that Jesse Jackson
is no naive novice, no bull in the china
shop.
But the most important factor in Jesse
Jackson’s diplomatic successesis theone
to which the commentators and most
public officials seems to be totally blind.
pressed neighborhoods and lack of job
opportunities lead most so called street
criminals to errant behavior, they are
almost routinely ignored, if not derided.
No, neither the quality of the Brooklyn
neighborhood Justin Volpe patrolled nor
the ethnic heritage of most of its resi
dents can obscure the deliberate act of
horrificdepravity he perpetrated against
a person who had never been involved
with the law.
He is responsible for falsely arresting
Abner Louima, handcuffing him and beat
ing him on the way to the local precinct
station; and then, one there, sodomizing
him with a broom handle, which he then
smashed into Louima’s mouth breaking
several of his teeth.
Beyond that, Robert Volpe seems not
to wish to remember that hundreds of
thousands of police officers have carried
out their duties in even the toughest
inner city neighborhoods within the
bounds of the law and of human decency.
Nor does Robert Volpe seem to remem
ber that the neighborhoods of America’s
inner cities are residential areas where
many individuals and families who are
hard working, law abiding, and tax pay
ing live. :
He also seems not to remember that
crime has been declining in these neigh
borhoods, too, thanks to the work of, yes,
the police, but alsd of local community
organizations and individuals and along
term buoyant economy which has pro
vided jobs for many poorly skilled work
ers at the bottom of the occupational
By Jeff Stahler (stahler@fuse.net), The Cincinnati Post
It’s the faith factor. It’s the power of]
prayer and the power of God. On each of*
his trips, Rev. Jackson hasreached down
deeply into his faith in God in order tof
secure the releases. On each of his trips
Rev. Jackson has taken an interfaith
group with him to pray, to pray for the"/
hostages, to pray for the hostage keep-©
ers, to pray for peace and yes, to pray for“
release. In the end, it’s been the faith!:
factor which has ensured Rev. Jackson’s:
success every time. 9
In the words of Rev. Joan Brown"
Campbell, General Secretary of the Na-\.
tional Council of Churches and a member
of the delegation to Serbia, “Miracles do
happen.” Miracles do happen when we
acknowledge the power of God. Miracles
do happen when we drop our racism an[gi
our cynicism and allow God to use who
God chooses to effect release of the cap
tives and to work for peace. -
Or in the words of the mother of Spe-.,
cialist Gonzalez, one of the POW’s, about
Jesse Jackson’s trip to Serbia, “He was
determined to go there. He was deter-v
mined to see them, and he was optimisticu
about getting them even though there)
might have been doubt from a lot of:
people. I think he left it all in God’sJ
hands.” 3
Go, Jesse go. Ignore the nay-sayers:
and critics. Ignore the racism and the:
back biting. Free the captives and pro
claim Jubilee. And may God continue to
bless you. (P.S. A tiny little newspaper:'
articlejust shared the storythatthe U.S.»
Senate did pass a resolution of thanks to
Rev. Jackson. There is progress.
ladder.
Indeed, Robert Volpe’s comments com
ing from someone who was himself a
police officer for many years, do more
than show one parent’s willingness to
strew blame everywhere except where it
belongs.
They reveal what other evidence shows:
That some significant number of white
police officers have a very negative view
of the neighborhoods most in need of
police protection that they do consider
them war zones where they can ignote
rights enshrined in the Constitution, and
just basic rules of decency. A
It is that kind of thinking, and behav
jor, which has produced a widespread
distrust of police among African Ameri
cans ans other people of color.
That distrust has been on stark display
all across the county in the months since
Abner Louima was assaulted in August
1997. It intensified in the wake of the
police shooting death in New York in
February of the young Guinean immi
grant, Amadou Diallo.
It’s been re-affirmed again this week,
in the results of a poll published in the
New York Law Journal, a newspaper
which focuses on legal issues. The survey
of New York State residents, done by the
Quinnipiac College Polling Institute,
found that while 75 percent of whites
approve of the way police do their jobs
only 24 percent of African Americans did.
To put the findings another way, while
See VOLPE, page 9A .