Newspaper Page Text
8A
OCTOBER 4, 2001
Walker to media:
Just print the truth
I am writing this in re
sponse to a recent Augusta
Chronicle article implying
that my ethical behavior
is being questioned.
Let me state first that 1
have been the target of jeal
ous and overzealous re
porting for 25 years. My
business practices have
been scrutinized over and
over. That doesn’t bother
me as all public officials
are subject to scrutiny, but
what concerns everyone is,
in spite of numerous un
founded allegations, there
has never been an instance
where my integrity has
been demonstrated to have
been compromised.
On the contrary, the
news articles - which for
the most part have been
poorly researched and
heavily laden with innu
endo, half truths, and
would-be “scoops” - have
never delivered the truth.
The rock is thrown; the
window s’ roken;thedam
age is done. One wonders if
that is not the point of
these types of stories to
begin with.
My children are grown
men and women. They are
as entitled to make a liv
ing as anyone in the na
tion. Why should they be
hamstrung just because
their father happens to be
a state legislator. My son,
Anti-terrorism action
should be swift, measured
Now that the dust has
settled in New York and
Washington, D.C., Ameri
cans have been discussing
what to do about the Sept.
11 attack. Turning the
other cheek just won'’t do.
This type of atrocity calls
for a strong response. The
world is watching the
United States of America
very closely right now, and
we need to show them that
we will not take terrorist
attacks lying down. To do
that, we need to implement
a counter-attack that is
strong, decisive —and swift.
~ But we cannot afford to
lose our heads.
In taking action against
thisbrutality, we must prac
tice restraint, and keep our
retaliation focused only on
military targets. The
huddled masses of Afghani
stan should not be required
to pay the heavy cost of con
stant bombing. The United
States, as well as the United
Nations, should do all they
can to avoid exacerbating
Augusta ...
; Publisher
Focus Frederick Benjamin
Managing Editor
Since 1981
A Walker Group
Publication
1143 Laney Walker Blvd.
Sales/Admin. News/Features
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AQLL \] Jerome Turner '
N\‘ /& Production/Graphics ~ Copy Desk
Dennis Williams Lillian Wan
\jfi% Samuel Daniels
William Lucas
AUGUSTAFOCUS
who is 33, has a family to
support and unlike those
who hold public office, he
does not report to the pub
lic concerning his busi
ness endeavors.
Anyone who does busi
ness with any major cor
poration in America will
indirectly be doing busi
ness with the State of
Georgia.
Dcing business with
Coca Cola, Georgia
Power, AT&T, Southern
Bell, the timber industry
or the information tech
nology industries is not
mutually exclusive to be
ing a devoted civil ser
vant.
Must the alternative to
children of legislators be
to move out of this great
state or cease striving for
financial independence?
My business practices
are standard and are sub
ject to scrutiny in the
same fashion as other
businesses.
Charles W. Walker has
in the past, and will con
tinue to create jobs for
hundreds of Georgians. I
have never violated and
will not violate the pub
lic trust in any way. My
only wish is that the re
porting in this state
would commit to doing
the same.
the refugee situation that
already exists there. And
they should avoid actions
that would cost the Ameri
can people the freedoms
for which our country
stands, including the free
dom to travel the world.
So, while we need to act,
it would not be wise to
think that we can stop at
mere retaliation. As hei
nous a crime as this mur
der of thousands of Ameri
can citizens and foreign
guests was, it happened for
a reason. If we are to en
sure that it never occurs
again, we must find out
what those reasons are —
we must discover the deep
rooted cause of such in
tense hatred of American
foreign policy. And then
we must modify that
policy so that our neigh
bors around the world fo
cus, not on American ag
gressiveness, but on the
generosity of which this
great nation is more than
capable.
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THe TERRORST ATraCK PROVES WHAT UIE KNEW ALL ALONGL.
CHILD WATCH By Marian Wright Edelman
Triumphing over the terror
n a beautiful morning
notlongago, I wasprivi
leged to be at an inter
faith prayer breakfast
in Atlanta. Everyone in the
room, including former United
Nations Ambassador and At
lanta mayor Andrew Young,
was moved to tears as the
Christian, Jewish and Mus
lim children of every color in
the Harmony Choir — who
looked like the reality of our
nation and world — sang “We
Shall Overcome” more sweetly
than I have ever heard in my
life. I was deeply touched as a
Protestant minister, a Catho
lic priest, arabbi,an Imam and
aßaha’ifaith leader each spoke
of the urgency of building a
movement to create a beloved
safe community in Atlanta for
all our children. It was inspir
ing to break bread with hun
dreds of people of goodwill —
people of all races, faiths, back
grounds and ages; business,
civilandreligious leaders; pub
lic officials and child advocates
—committed toreweaving the
fabricof community, familyand
justice for every child.
Asthegatheringended, I was
TO BE EQUAL By Hugh B. Price
In the aftermath of terror attack
here are two images
which [ just can’t
shake. One is that of
people falling out and
jumpingoutofthe World Trade
Center, some holding hands.
People who were thrown out
of the building by the initial
impact and those who must
have made a choice to die in
their own way rather than
remainin the burning towers.
The firefighter who waskilled
by someone who jumped.
The other image is really a
collage of images —the sto
ries of the victims which have
been appearingin newspapers
and on th~ television. Ordi
nary people — loving fathers
and husbands, mothers and
wives; the man who was a
tireless worker in his church,
the man who was a calypso
aficionado, the window
washer, a sister and a brother
who both worked in Windows
on the World, a woman who
lost her husband and her
brother, the firefighter —story
after story of ordinary people
killed in an extraordinary way.
I am deeply disturbed by
theseimages. But lamequally
disturbed by our leaders who
seem to believe that the an
swer to violence is violence.
For I truly believe that vio
-4
~pinion
told of the horrors that had just
taken place at the World Trade
Center and the Pentagon. It
was Tuesday, September 11. In
one jarring moment, I found
humanity’s amazing and un
conquerable capacity for good
juxtaposed against unimagin
able evil.
The world and all of our lives
changed forever that day. Sep
tember 11 was a family, com
munity, national and global 9-
1-1 emergency wakeup call for
every adult. Every one of us
has now learned and must teach
our children that we are part of>
asingle family wherever we live
and whatever or color or in
come. Dr. Martin Luther King
dJr. delivered a Christmas Eve
“Sermon on Peace” at Ebenezer
Baptist Church in Atlanta
nearly 34 years ago whose words
are more prophetic now than
ever: “Ifwearetohave peaceon
earth, our loyalties must be
come ecumenical rather than
sectional. Our loyalties must
transcend our race, our tribe,
our class, and our nation; and
this means we must develop a
world perspective. No indi
vidual can live alone; nonation
lenceisadownward spiral lead
ingtonowhere. Overand over
again in the world we have
seen evidence of this. Martin
Luther Kingdr.isoften quoted
as saying that the philosophy
ofan eye foraneyeandatooth
for atooth will just leave us all
blind and toothless.
In the midst of the mourn
ing, some Americans are be
ginning to understand Dr.
King’s warning in a new way.
This week, still numb with
grief, the wifeofavictim of the
World Trade Center attack
joined others in speaking out
against the violence. Judy
Keane spoke to a prayer vigil
of 5,900 in Connecticut and
later said, “The World Trade
Center attack was in retalia
tion for something else and
that was the retaliation for
something else. Are we going
tocontinue thisin perpetuity?
We have to say at some point,
okay, let’s find another way of
doing this.” Similarly, Con
gresswoman Barbara Lee was
the only member of Congress
to vote against President
Bush'’s resolution of war, cit
ing her fear of givingthe Presi
dent and the military carte
blanche will only result in
more innocent people being
killed.
canlivealone;and aslongaswe
try, the more we are going to
havewarin thisworld. Now we
must either learn to live to
gether as brothers or we are all
going to perish together as
fools.”
We must all continue to pray
for the victims, their families,
the brave and tireless rescue
workers, and our country and
world as we share the horror
and grief of this global, na
tionaland human tragedy. But
we must also redefine our pri
oritiesand learn fromand teach
our children some crucial les
sons that can bring great good
out of a great evil. While our
world changed on September
11, our ability and responsibil
ity to transform the world for
good did not. Yes, we learned
thereare forces in the world we
cannot control and no persor.
or nation is an island. But we
alsolearned —inthesacrificial
acts of the firefighters, in the
generous outpouring of people
togiveblood, in the candlelight
vigils, in the unprecedented at
tendance at our places of wor
ship —the importance of what
we do control: our own atti-
Martin Luther King studied
nonviolence, as taught by
Mahatma Gandhi. So this
week, I went tothe Internet to
see what the M.K. Gandhi In
stitute was saying about the
tragedy and what they felt our
response should be. There
were several important points
that were made by Arun
Gandhi, the grandson of Ma
hatma Gandhi.
First, he pointed out that
nonviolence is not a strategy
which canbe used onlyin times
of peace and which can be dis
carded or ignored during a
crisis. “Nonviolence is about
building positive relationships
with all human beings,” he
said. It is also about not judg
ing peopleas we perceive them
to be, “that is, a murderer is
not born amurderer; a terror
ist is not born a terrorist.
People become murderers, rob
bers and terrorists because of
circumstances and experiences
in life.” He warned that kill
ing terrorists is not going to
rid the world of terrorism be
cause, “For everyone we kill
or confine we create another
hundred to take their place.”
Secondly, he pointed out that
the consequences of amilitary
response to the awful terror
ism we experienced are fright
tudes, behavior and actions.
Youandlstill have the power
to make the vision of brother
hood and sisterhood I shared in
Atlanta triumph over the night
mares that were occurring at
theverysametimein New York,
Washington, D.C. and Penn
sylvania. I believe with every
fiber of my being that we can
and must buildaworld in which
love triumphs over hate, light
shines brighter than darkness,
commitment to the common
good overcomes extremism, tol
erance drives out the forces of
hate and bigotry, justice and
peace trump injustice and vio
lence, and in which all of our
children’s needs come first and
overcome ideology and greed.
In the weeks ahead we must
talk to our children often, hold
them close, keep daily rituals
established, assure them we will
do everything we can to keep
them safe and secure, and try
our best to answer their honest
and hard questions that many
of us are still asking ourselves:
“Why did somebody do this?”
“Whydid God allow it?” “Were
See TRIUMPH, 9A
ening. Many thousands of
innocent people will die as a
result of them, both in the
countries we attack and here
as they retaliate once more in
kind. “What will we gain by
destroyingnalfthe world?” he
asks, adding the question of
whether we really want other
countries to respect us only
for our strength, in the way
that school children respect a
bully.
Thirdly, Mr Gandhi calls
onustoappreciate that we are
ina position to play a powerful
rolein helpingthe “other half”
of the world attain a better
standard of lifeby committing
ourselves and our dollars to a
constructive economic pro
gram for the worldrather than
in a destructive and costly
military action. That begins
to get to the heart of the ques
tion of why the U.S. is hated
by so many in other nations.
It’s not as simple as President
Bush might want ustobelieve.
Inasermon at Theßiverside
Church in New York exactly
one year before his assassina
tion, Dr. King called on our
nation to find anew way — an
alternative towarandviolence.
He said, “This call for a world-
See ACTS OF KINDNESS, 9A