Newspaper Page Text
4A
Upinion
Are we
truly free
We must understand that freedom is what we make it. Slaves
who had an enduring faith in their Lord learned how to create
their own heaven.
This heaven was created first in the mind. As spiritual beings, it
is of the utmost immmahtwm@towrm>o
the days where we depended upon our Savior.
Unul we accept the fact that we are mentally enslaved, we will
not be able to unify and work together to achieve true FREE
DOM. This freedom is not economic stability or accumulation of
wealth, but more soo a keen understanding as to why people of
color were able to endure such horrific physical, mental andipiri
tual abuse. .
As a people, we can surely adapt, but can we change our para
digm to see, for a moment, t}mt_jfist some forty years ago wcpvf::t
i&n some basic rights such as voting and equal treatment under
law. Undil we accept that we ncfi therapy individually and as
a whole, freedom (true freedom), will continue to be a figment of
most African Americans’ imagination.
How can a people who faired better during : tion, think
that they are better off spending their money Mfirfiir counter
parts? 'Rl\e -hological bondage that we have endured has man
ifested itscff)slyr: economically harmful ways in our community.
What we believe about minority business depends on how and
where we spend our hard fzmc(?, dollars. The shackles (old habits
and ideologies) must be broken {%mding our spending patterns
and faith in minority enterprise. We must open up our minds to
understand the big picture and how the lack of buying black hin
ders :nJ)loymmt opportunities for our people. It is a& that
ple tend to hire people who look like themselves. Until we Egv:
true equality in d!:() workplace we must depend on minority enter
prises to hire qualified minorities.
hchn the gd\:ir haxdg;lhow can a black migglc Cé? couple declare
ife is en they are one week a m being broke? Most
of ourg’?nnxidle class citizens pcmmved“qti"ncmsdvesnt% be equal to
their counterparts. They are under the illusion of irfiusion.
Instead of being front runners and advocates for the have nots, we
adgg( the mentality that many in the majority community have.
e forget quickly where we have come from. Have we not
leamned a thing about preservation of family values and tradition?
Wchadtomkccamofpmdomer.mviflageoonoeptwasindeed
fvfifi: of everyday life. We had no choice but to look out for those
were lacking,
While we may not have generational wealth, we have something
far more valuabrc. We have an awesome testimony and therefore a
relative experience that has stretched our faith. This valuable treas
ure within our a)mmw;xhnaity called ‘Faidll;cis the key (;(;n fivc;?‘om and
true independence. What good is it to be independent when your
mind is locked up? It isin%:,dabscnocoffin.%e within the black
community dt‘lcmt wcdl:oomc oomplace:nt.f[h cbtac\l'(e witnessed
t o of the communi
m leadasmwat wm when a grave injustice
took place. We have always rallied behind the underdog, the
ressed and disenfranchised.
op&/c have a natural tendency to stand for the little man, because
we can relate to being less than.
The lesson we must learn, which will enable us to truly enjoy life
and freedom in a country that has over time taken the si’mc{da off
of our hands and put them on the minds, is who can run fast while
chained? Has any runner has found a to run fast while
duined?Wchzwmnd\emm&standmgmdyaswemuld.
Howcvcr,whmwcgainedwlmwedlfixtwasdtimamfim
dom; we gradually strayed from our spiritual roots which feed our
faith. In other words, we were so happy to be free untilwestoged
doing what faith requires. This is recorded in scripture, “Faith
cometh by hearing, hufir&;iécwmdofGod"Amwc,asabody
of believers, hearing from God or are we so preoccupied with our
freedom that we have forgotten that true freedom ans?m,come
t}fifim having a spiritual mind, and a renewed mind? We must
ink a new.
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Publisher
Charles “Champ” Walker
S FOCUS Generd Manager
Since 1981 Michael Meyers
A Walker Group Publication Editor-in-Chief
1143 Laney Walker Blvd.
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'SICKO’ indicts America’s Health Care industry
I am not in the habit of
doing movie reviews but I rec
ommend everyone see Michael
Moore’s documentary
“SiCKO" about our health care
system which leaves 45 million
Americans uninsured includ
ing 9 million children. The film
shows how sick people and tax
payers are victimized by power
ful corporate interests guided
by profits rather than prevent
ing and curing health prob
lems.
“SiCKO” puts human faces
on our national health care cri
sis. A grieving mother whose
two-year-old daughter had a
high fever and was gripped by a
seizure and rushed to the near
est hospital was turned away
because the hospital wasn't in
her HMO's network. She was
told the child had to be moved
and that any care provided by
the receiving hospital would
not be covered. Leaving that
hospital denied the child vital
emergency care. She slipped
into a coma and died on the
way to the HMO facility.
Theres the middle-age cou-
The Death of Integration
The cover of Time Magazine
says it all, “Back to Segregation:
After four decades of struggle,
America has now given up on
integration. Why?” The article
states, “In fact, the high courts
action has accelerated the pace
at which cities across the coun
try are moving to undo manda
tory desegregation. And the
federal judiciary, which long
staked its authority on the
enforcement of desegregation
orders, appears eager to depart
the field.”
Chris Hansen of the Ameri
can Civil Liberties Union in
New York City is quoted: “The
courts are saying, ‘We still agree
with the goal)’l:?sd':ool desegre
gation, but its too hard, and
were tired of it, and we give
up.
The article observes, “The
combination of legal revision
ism and residential segregation
bold attempt to integrate the
public schools.”
Kevin Brown, a law professor
at the University of ln£am and
an expert on race and educa
don, stated: “We have already
::;l the maximum amount of
that will exist in our lifetime.”
Were these fresh reactions to
last week's Supreme Court set
of race in the assignment of stu
dents w public schools in Seat
de and Louisvill? No. The
above quotes were taken from
the April 29, 1996 issue of
Time ne— more than 11
years ago. In essence, desegrega
on oil cncrry
high was abandoned
Marian W, Edelman
ple, both professionals with
health insurance, who were
bankrupted when their insur
ance company stopped provid
ing health coverage after her
bout with cancer and his heart
attacks. They were forced to sell
their home and move into their
daughters storage room. We
see a 22-year-old single mother
and cancer survivor from
Michigan who drives to Cana
da and poses as the common
law wife of a friend to get free
dinical care in that country.
And we experience disoriented,
indigent patients pushed out of
hospitals, put in taxis and
dumped, still in their dinical
gowns, on the streets of Los
) &
f
Georg‘g Curry
long before the Roberts court
ruling put yet another nail in
the coffin of integration.
The cruel irony is that at a time
when the US. is rapidly
becoming more racially and
ethnically diverse —in less than
50 years, Whites will become a
minority in this country —the
judicial system is mandating a
more segregated society.
Conservatives will no doubt
hail desegregation has another
faled American experiment.
That's far from the truth. Like
the War on Poverty, it has been
a half-hearted experiment lack
ing courageous or consistent
national lcadcm}u&w ip.
Altho people are will
ing to :fi:fit it, desegregation
was never truly a national
experiment. Most of the efforts
to tear down the walls of segre
gation were aimed at the South
while the rest of the nation,
practicing more subtle forms of
racism, looked on.
Because of the 1954 and 1955
Brown v. Board of Education
dfi;dsiom, t South shifred
m mostsfiptcd
rcgionbi‘:gemdonto e most
desegregated. The Harvard
Angeles’ Skid Row.
Moore exposes how far some
insurance companies go to
avoid paying for medical costs
and the voluminous list of ail
ments insurance companies call
“pre-existing conditions” to
deny treatment, cancel policies
or demand repayment for
already received medical servic
es. He presents doctors and
other employees of insurance
companies and HMOs pro
moted and given bonuses
based on the number of med
ical procedures denied sick peo
ple. In one case, a young
woman with cancer was denied
medical treatment because she
once had a yeast infection,
which the company daimed
was a pre-existing condition.
Moore takes us to Britain
and France, which have had
universal health care since the
19405. No child or adult would
be denied care in those coun
tries because they had a pre
existing condition or because
necessary care was “too expen
sive.” When he asks patients
how much they are being
Civil Rights Project, using fig
ures compiled by the Southern
Education Reporting Service,
had published a chart o cap
tures the dramatic changes.
In 1954, 0.001 percent of
Blacks attended majority
White schools in the South. In
1960, the figure was only 0.1
percent. In 1964, a decade after
the original Brown ruling, the
figure stood at 2.3 percent.
T%:-re was a tremendous spurt
from 1968 o 1988 when the
percentage of African-Ameri
cans attending majority White
schools in the South jumped
from 23.4 percent to 43.5 per
cent. After Gjmkmg in 19p862r3,
things started going downhill.
“One of the most consistent
trends offthc last decade is a
reversal of gains in desegrega
tion for blacfus:lsxdents made in
the South in the late 1960 s and
1970 s as a result of judicial and
executive enforcement of
desegregation orders,” says a
Harvard report. “In fact, court
ordered desegregation of black
students in Southern states
resulted in the South becoming
the most integrated region in
the country, with 43.5 percent
of black students in majority
white schools thin 1988.
“In the 19905, as the desegrega-
SEcne
proportion stu
dents in majority white schools
has decreased by 13 percentage
points. In 2000, black segrega
tion rates in ;s;m gu}:n:
to increase as
for over a decade. Today, fl
mt of Southem
ts are in majority white
charged for the care they
receive, they laugh and say
there is no charge because
everybody is incduded in the
National Health Service.
France, in addition to univer
sal health care, maintains a 24-
hour medical care service
staffed by doctors who make
house calls. When is the last
ume any of us had a doctor
come to our home? “SiCKO”
explores some of the myths
about health care in other
industrialized democracies
including supposed long waits
for care and underpaid doctors.
One of the most dramatic
segments of the film involves
three first responders o the
9/11 attacks on the World
Trade Center who are suffering
from severe respiratory diseases
and a host of other ailments
from exposure to dust and
debris at Ground Zero.
Moore took them to the U.S,
military base at Guantdnamo
Bay, Cuba, to get the same free,
top-notch health care that the
U.S. military claims it is pro-
Sce Slcko, next page 5A
schools, a rate lower than any
year since 1968.”
A study by the Harvard Civil
Rights Project titled “Racial
Transformation and the
Changing Nature of Segrega
tion” observes, “For the first
nineteen years following
Brown, the Supreme Court
simply ignored segregation out
side the seventeen Southern
and Border states and Washing
ton, D.C., those with a history
of state-imposed segregation.”
“Since 1980, the Northeast
remains the region with the
highest share of blacks attend
ing predominandy minority
schools, with almost four out of
every five blacks in these
schools,” the Harvard report
states.
That Time Magazine artide
carried an interesting quote 11
years ago by Harvard sociolo
discussion of d?m n is
corrupted by the fact that we
mix up race and class. You don't
gain anything from sitting next
to somebody with a d’%u'mt
skin color. But you gain a lot
from moving from an isolated
poverty setting into a middle
class setting.” The latest
Supreme Court ruling makes it
more difficult w travel that
route.
George E. Clarry former eds
tor-in-chief of Emerge magazine
and the NNPA News Service, is
a keynote speaker, moderator, and
media coach. He can be reached
as george@georgecurry.com or
through his Web site,
wwwigeorgecurry.com.