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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 / ‘ ‘:‘«: 5 )?Y M # _ \\\ ’”,,W}H/AWPEL' %, .‘/A ‘i 3 . . Nl “ONE THING LED . TOANOTHER&..” , s ' | . = 11l ' . i . 1 , THE CONVERSATION NEVER ENDS WITH &. THAT'S WHY THERE'S & FROM ATal. With & you can get unlimited local & unlimited long distance from home, together on one bill. And it's only $49.95 a month, that’s just $1.67 a day. So now you can talk on & on & on. Call 1800 ATT 4ALL today and ask for unlimited local & long distance. It's another example of how the many ways we communicate all come together with & from AT&T. Call 1800 ATT 4ALL %ATGT and bring it all together with &. att.com/home Local & Long Distance & International & Wireless & Internet & VolP For domestic, direct-dialed calls. Not available in all areas. Must subscribe to AT&T Local, Local Toll and Long Distance to be eligible. Wireless Services provided by AT&T Wireless Services, Inc. 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 UNLIMITED LOCAL UNLIMITED LONG DISTANCE $49.95 A MONTH...ONLY $1.67 A DAY 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