Newspaper Page Text
Abuse
Continued from page 94
tionalist. However, Cali
fornia Senator Diane
Feinstein, was opposed to
the appointment of Jus
tice Brown because she
was a steadfast defender
of personal property
rights for all Americans.
Eminent domain may
have started out as a
viable channel for
expanding the interstate
system and building
schools, but it has
become a tool of govern
ment plunders. Too many
politicians today are
making their own inter
pretations of “public use”
and “just compensation.”
I guess that's what we get
when we have a presiden
tial candidate call the
Constitution a “living,
breathing document”
that can be interpreted to
suit agendas and changed
%n a whim.
Our forefathers never
intended for the govern
ment to abuse Americans
in this way or in any of
the other ways that it
does. Some politicians
feel that the United
States is the greatest
country on earth -
because of our govern
ment. Contrary to what
their indoctrination dic
tates, the U.S. of A. is the
greatest country that has
ever existed because of
one simple little thing —
Freedom. One of those
freedoms is the right to
own property and the
right to be compensated
fairly for the transfer of
pownership of that prop
’rty. The politicians need
get their hands out of
ur pockets and let us
njoy our freedom.
| Joel Samuelson is a
graphic designer, web
Pesigner and editorial car
onist. He can be reached
t joelnsamuelson@aol.com.
Gibson
Mflfl.‘ from page 8A
Dessert. Africa was connected
m;i it was in Eastern Africa
t biblical history takes
Elaoc. East Africans of that
period were as dark as I am.
They were black. Mel Gibson
;’ln‘d his co-writer Benedict
Bitzgerald intentionally
ignored these major historical
as they cast their racist
ovie that they filmed in Italy
ot Africa. Were these minor
fis% or simply another act
of white supremacist capitalist
iflizn;hy at work? I expect
%’tz conservative right wing
#Christians” to run to theatre
worship the lie of white
but what about African
ericans? Are we going to
to the theatres because
can't wait to worship at the
ne of whiteness? Will we
the first at the box office
we have been so brain-
Washed that we will not even
*lsn'onthclicormkcintodw
unt the danger of such
ist representations? Wil
u enter into the lie and be in
llusion with the racist?
Dr: Watkins is a sociology pro
at Augusta State Universi
and the author of the book I
int Afraid to Speak My Mind.
can be reached through his
bsite at: www.ralph
oy
Kerry: Position on affirmative action unclear
Continued from page SA
ownership, drug treat
ment, decriminalization
and fair employment. His
position on affirmative
action, for example, is
unclear. His competitors
pointed out that he once
held the view that it
should be based on class
rather than race.
In a 1992 speech at Yale
University, his alma
mater, he said, “This shift
in the civil rights agenda
has directed most of our
Summer: Mississippi freedom fighters remembered
Continued from page 9A
veterans of Freedom Summer
were brought together for a
conference at the University
of Tennessee organized by
Professor Cynthia Griggs
Fleming. They included
Chuck McDew, who suc
ceeded Marion Barry as chair
man of SNCC; Rev. James
Bevel, a key SNCC and
SCLC organizer; Bob Zellner,
the son of a white Alabama
Methodist minister who
became a SNCC field secre
N R / ‘
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AUGUSTA FOCUS
attention and much of
our hope into one inher
ently limited and divisive
program: affirmative
action,” he said at the
time. “The truth is that
affirmative action has
kept America thinking in
racial terms.”
Does Kerry still hold
that view today?
I remember that in the
2000 elections, Joe
Lieberman had the same
problem and the Con
gressional Black Caucus
had a come to JC meeting
tary and Freedom Rider;
Timothy Jenkins who joined
the movement as the Nation
al Student Association’s repre
sentative to SNCC; Avon
Rollins, a former SNCC field
secretary; Lawrence Guyot, a
SNCC field secretary and
later head of the Mississippi
Freedom Democratic Party;
Unita Blackwell, the first
black female mayor of a Mis
sissippi town (Mayersville),
Charles Jones, a SNCC veter
an and leader of the Char
lotte, N.C. sit-in movement
with him just before the
convention in order to
get him straight. Will
they have to do that with
Kerry?
Will Kerry select a run
ning mate and not seek
advice from the black
leadership the way Gore
did in 2000? How far is
he willing to go to pro
mote public policies that
would court the black
vote which constitutes 20
percent of the Democrat
ic party base? All of these
questions and others
as well as many others.
I was asked to serve as a din
ner speaker at the event and
was struck by the courage and
commitment of those assem
bled in Knoxville. Many of
the whites in the room were
Southerners who had joined
the Civil Rights Movement
because it was the right thing
to do. One of them, Con
stance Curry, who served with
Ella Baker as adult advisers to
the young activists in SNCC,
observed that whites are not
as active in the Civil Rights
must be answered and the
black leadership must
pose them.
Answering these ques
tions will be difficult
because the margins by
which Kerry is winning
should signal that this is
not all about him, but
about a wind that is at his
back. That momentum
was created by the core
base of the Democratic
Party. Their message is
clear: They want Bush
out at all cost, even to the
extent of overlooking
Movement today as they were
in the 19605.
“They think the movement
is over,” she explained. “They
think it ended with the 1964
Civil Rights Act and the Vot
ing Rights Act. Young blacks
think it’s over, too. It was hard
to ignore when people weren'’t
served at lunch counters —
that hit you in the face — but
they don' see the less subde
things like the prison
pipeline. We must educate
them.”
Any education about the
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February 19, 2004
some issues. We should
slow this down some and
take a good look at Kerry
real soon.
Ron Walters is the Dis
tinguished Leadership
Scholar, director of the
African American Leader
ship Institute in the Acade
my of Leadership and pro
fessor of government and
politics at the University of
‘Maryland-College Park.
His latest book is “White
Nationalism, Black Inter
ests” (Wayne State Univer
sity Press).
Civil Rights Movement must
include Freedom Summer.
Without Freedom Sum
mer, we might not have some
of the freedoms were now
enjoying. .
George E. Curry is editor-in
chief of the NNPA News Ser
vice and BlackPressUSA.com.
His most recent book is “The
Best of Emerge Magazine,” an
anthology published by Ballan
tine Books. He can be reached
through his Web site, georgecur
ry.com.
15A