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Lommentary GUEST COMMENTARY By Joel Samuelson Government of, for and by the government Freedom in our country is speeding toward extinc tion at the hands of those who swore to serve us - the politicians. All one has to do to witness this is to take a look at a growing problem in our government known as eminent domain abuse. Eminent domain is the power that government gave itself, under the Fifth Amendment, to take private property with the prerequisite that it must be taken for public use. The Fifth Amend ment states, “...nor shall private property be taken for public use without pust compensation.” The root of the problem lies in the politicians’ inter pretation of “public use.” Legally speaking, “pub lic use” refers to high ways, post offices, public libraries, etc. These are all GUEST COMMENTARY By Ron Walters Is Kerry good for black America? Whether John Kerry is good for blacks is a fair question now that he has all but clinched the Democratic nomination for president. By handily winning both the Vir ginia and Tennessee pri maries, Kerry illustrated that he is the only candi date in the race who has won in all regions of the gountry, making him a truly national candidate. v What will begin now is the serious vetting process of focusing on the Aominee-in-waiting to see if his policy posture matches up with various constituencies. This process is complicated by the fact that there was not much difference between the candidates to begin with. That’s one of the reasons why the issue of which candidate is “elec table” surfaced early as a criteria for voting. smerry, - like other Democrats, would inter nationalize the war in Iraq, bringing the United Nations back into the Senators failed Augusta, YDC worked ‘Many of the former employees of Augusta YDC are stll unemployed. Some people feel that local employ érs and neighboring counties dre discriminating against them because of the slander and lies told by the former DJ]J Commissioner, Orlando Mar tinez. . Our local elected Senators, Cheeks and Hall, have not taken the time to investigate The views expressed on the Augusta Focus edimdpagzamtbmeqf‘tbeedimnhlbmdflwnwmflym#hpub&m things that are generally needed in any communi ty. However, the political connotation of “public use” has evolved to enve lope any use of a property that will increase the monetary resources in the money vault of the gov ernment. In the private sector, if one person or corpora tion wants a certain piece of property, they negoti ate a price with the owner, though the owner may not want to sell. At this point, that is the end of the matter. In the event of the gov ernment utilizing emi nent domain, the owner does not have that option; the government just takes the property and pays the owner “just compensation.” At least it is “just” in the govern ment's eyes. When such picture and restoring the honor of the United States in the international arena. He would roll back the tax cut enacted by George Bush to focus on a tax cut for the middle class, not the wealthy. Howard Dean would eliminate the entire tax. Kerry would fully fund the federal share of public education and reduce the emphasis that Bush has placed on dissembling public education. He has pledged to support a ver sion of health care for Americans that would not guild the pharmaceutical companies and private insurance HMOs, but insure coverage of all Americans with an effec tive plan similar to that which members of the House and Senate enjoy. Finally, Kerry struck a protectionist cord similar to other populists in the race — Al Sharpton and Dennis Kucinich — when he pledged to eliminate from the tax code any provision that gives rich LETTER TO THE EDITOR the damages endured by many families surrounding the dis missal of former YDC employees, all of who are resi dents and constituents within their voting districts. We may not see the two Senators now but they will be breaking down our doors in November and using our tragedy as apart of their political platform. If they did anything at all, “it was probably discussed behind closed doors.” We did not see anything then and we cannot measure any degree of success now. Is this representation or not, let’s vote today! This com munity needs news voices that will represent all people. The privatization of Augusta YDC AUGUSTA FOCUS cases arise, an agent pro vided by the government appraises the property, usually in favor of the government. There is nothing the owner can do about it - his property is gone. In August 2003, emi nent domain abuse reared its ugly head in the small town of Alabaster, Al. A private land developer named Colonial Proper ties Trust intended to build a Wal-Mart shop ping center, but Colonial did not possess all of the land it needed. The own ers, low-income families, who had lived in the houses for generations, refused to sell their land, forcing Colonial to take another route - govern ment. It seems Colonial had some powerful friends on the Alabaster city council. corporations the incen tive to take American jobs abroad. The problem here is that few people seem to be paying attention to the issues because of the over riding focus on “electabil ity.” They are weighing whether Kerry has the right stuff in terms of his military background, presidential deportment, ability to communicate and his willingness to aggressively confront Bush on the issues. The applause lines in Kerry’s stump speech seem to arise from his challenging rhetoric: “We have not yet begun to fight,” and “If George Bush wants to make this campaign about national security, bring it on!!” Recognizing that individ ual rights are under attack, Kerry promises “to appoint an Attorney Gen eral that is not John Ashcroft.” Looking at Kerry’s new found aggressive posture hurt Columbia County as well, and that is why Repre sentative Pete Warren stood up in support of state employ ees. Representative Alberta Anderson from Burke County was extremely supportive. Representatives Quincy Mur phy and Henry Howard from Richmond County were also consistently lending solid sup port. If I missed any names, it is only because you were nei ther vocal nor visible in your support. The former Captain of secu rity, Larry Butts was one of the six officers accused of miscon duct. If you chose to believe the lies told by the Depart ment of Juvenile Justice, you Since Colonial was unsuccessful in its bid to acquire the needed land, local politicians were per suaded to use the one right government has that Citizens do not have —the right to use force to accomplish its goals —and seize the land under emi nent domain and sell it to them so the shopping center could be built. The payoff would have been more tax revenues in the form of sales taxes and higher property taxes rather than considerably less in property taxes alone. Wal-Mart has surfaced as the centerpiece in another eminent domain abuse situation. In Den ver, Colo., Wal-Mart found an ideal piece of real estate to place a store. The problem existed that there was already a strip and willingness to carry the fight to Bush as few Democrats have done in recent history, it also looks like his issue profile would produce a change in the White House were Kerry to win it. Never theless, championing the issues raised above and others still does not answer the question of whether he would be good for blacks. The problem is that Kerry has laid out a series of gener ic fixes to the mess that Bush has made and he could well accomplish them and blacks remain substantially where they are today. Kerry and other Demo cratic presidents must return to the view that disproportionably, the black community needs targeted investments to be able to achieve the American dream in edu cation, community devel opment, minority busi ness development, home See Kerry, page 15A also need to believe that Cap tain Butts is currenty awaiting a $55,000 setdement for the slander that he and his family endured. Captain Butts was the first to be falsely accused, the first to sue and the first to win. It is not much money, but it is victory for all of us that were publicly out their offices and kicked into the unemployment lines of Augusta. It was not a good fecling Brett. The laws were violated when he smiled upon his new contract, but he allegedly had no comment when the media contacted him because he was watching See YDC, page 12A mall at the location and no one wanted to sell. So, off to the city council where Wal-Mart sought to convince the politi cians to seize the property and sell to them. Costco, the retail super store, also engages in uti lizing eminent domain as a tool for corporate expansion. According to the book, Mugged by the State (author, Randall Fitzgerald), Costco regu larly petitions local gov ernments to seize desired properties for the devel opment of new stores. The book also exposes the intentions of the compa ny citing a comment made by a legal officer of Costco. The officer admitted to a shareholder that, “‘there are probably dozens’ of Costco expan sion projects nationwide ‘wWhere eminent domain GUEST COMMENTARY By George E. Curry Freedom Summer revisited During the height of the Civil Rights Movement in the 19605, protest leadets liked to' tell the joke about a Chicigo seminary student who was suddenly awakened at 3 a.m. by a voice imploring him: Go to Mississippi! Go to Missis sippi!! Go to Mississippi!!! The student said, “Lord, you said that you will be with me always, even until the end of the earth. If I go to Mississip pi, will you go with me?” The heavenly voice replied, “T'll go as far as Memphis.” The idea, of course, was that if God was afraid to go to Mississippi, mortals had no chance of surviving. Without a doubt, virulent Mississippi racists were the most brutal in the nation. Bob Moses and his comrades at the Student Non-violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) decided to launch a campaign against fear in vio lence by organizing Freedom Summer in 1964, a project designed to create a show down between Mississippi authorities intent on main taining segregation and a fed eral government obligated — at least on paper — to protect the rights of African Ameri cans, who were denied their right to vote and live as full citizens. Moses favored what he called an “annealing process.” He explained, “Only when metal has been brought to white heat, can it be shaped and molded. This is what we intend to do in the South and the country, bring them to white heat and then remold them.” Key to remolding the South was arranging for white col lege students from around the nation to descend on Missis sippi. Clayborne Carson, in his book, “In Struggle: SNCC and the Black Awakening of the 19605,” said that Moses February 19, 2004 or the threat of it has been involved in acquir ing land for redevelop ment.”” Allegedly, some Costco officials have threatened local govern ments saying they would move existing stores out side city limits if the city would not cooperate with the property seizures. There are politicians in our government who do not believein the concept of individual property rights. Recently, Presi dent Bush appointed Cal ifornia Supreme Court Justice Janice Rogers Brown to the D.C. Cir cuit Court of Appeals in . Washington. The appointment was met with disapproval by many in Congress, mainly because she is conserva tive and a strict constitu- See Abuse, page 15A and Allard Lowenstein, a white activist who had partic ipated in ' Southern protests; came up with the'idea of Freedom Summer. “They assumed that Missis sippi officials could not crush such a massive force of civil rights workers and that national sentiment would not tolerate assaults against white students, especially those from leading colleges and prominent families,” Carson wrote. It became clear very early that there wouldnt just be assaults on visiting activists — some would be killed. On June 21, 1964, SNCC workers learned that three civil rights workers — James Chaney, a black Mississippi an, and two whites, Michael Schwerner and Andrew Goodman — did not return from a trip to Meridian, Miss. to investigate the burning of a black church. The three had been arrested in Philadelphia, Miss. and released at night without being permitted to place a telephone call. Responding to the mount ing public outcry, President Lyndon Johnson authorized 200 Navy servicemen to help in the search for the missing workers and assigned 150 FBI agents to the case. On August 4, the bodies of the three civil rights workers were found in an earthfill dam near Philadelphia, Miss. Seven white men were even tually convicted and sent to prison. Freedom Summer played an important part in the pas sage of the 1964 Civil Rights Act, the 1965 Voting Rights Act and other groundbreak ing federal legislation. Because of that early work, Mississippi now has more Black elected officials than any other state. Last weekend, many of the See quor, page 15A 9A