On A Wing And A Prayer
Sen. Joseph Lieberman's voyage to Detroit includes sharing
his thoughts on faith and civil rights at African American church.
p
HARRY KIRSBAUM
Staff Writer
F
lying into Detroit on his new plane, The
Spirit, Democratic vice-presidential candi-
date Sen. Joseph Lieberman of
Connecticut charmed African American
members of a Detroit church last Sunday. He
invoked biblical references, talked of a new "spiritual
awakening" rousing the country and related stories
of his activities in the civil rights movement.
"I come here in a narrow sense from a different
faith, but I feel right at home here because we all come
from the same God," he told about 250 members of
the Fellowship Chapel in Detroit.
Lieberman spoke of standing at the Lincoln
Memorial in Washington, D.C., in 1963 and hear-
ing Martin Luther King Jr. deliver his famous "I
Have A Dream" speech.
"When Dr. King let freedom ring, I felt like I was
standing on a mountaintop, too," Lieberman said.
"Three months later I went to Mississippi and, regis-
tering people to vote, I felt like I, as a child of God
and a citizen of America, had been liberated, too."
During a fiery introduction, the Rev. Wendell
Anthony, the church's pastor, threw his support to
Lieberman, as opposed to Republican candidates
George Bush and Dick Cheney.
"This ain't a political endorsement — it's a truth
endorsement. I ain't hearing about no
Bushes in Mississippi. I ain't seen no
Cheneys on no freedom buses," Anthony
said. "[Michigan Gov.] John Engler ain't
passed out no voter registrations. I ain't
seen none of that. But [Lieberman,] a
student from Yale University, a student
who has his spiritual priorities in order,
helped to shape the tree. He ought to
Rev. Anthony
share in claiming the fruit right now"
Saving swipes at his opponents for a
rally in Southfield later that day (see related story),
Lieberman spoke of the nation's "stagnating" moral life
in tones once the sole property of the religious right.
"As a people, we need to reaffirm our faith and
renew the dedication of our nation and ourselves, to
God and God's purpose," Lieberman said. "I miss the
days when I could leave my child alone with the
remote control, and not have to worry about what
she'd see. I miss the days when I could turn on the
radio and not have to shield my granddaughter's ears.
"Too many parents I talk to have a swelling sense
that much of our culture has become toxic, that our
standards of decency and civility have eroded," he said.
"I think America today is living through a new spir-
Related editorial: page 37
Related commentary: page 39
Rally Grows Support,
So Does Meeting With
Arab Americans
Sen. Joseph Lieberman speaks at Fellowship Chapel.
itual awakening. We as a nation live in our faith, but
we are citizens under the law and the Constitution,"
he said. "The Constitution guarantees freedom of reli-
gion, not freedom from religion. There must be a con-
stitutional place for faith in our public life."
Lieberman told the crowd he would reassure the
non-believers "that our faith is not inconsistent with
their freedom, that our mission is not of intolerance,
but of love."
Barriers Broken
Lieberman spoke about his breaking a political barri-
er when he became the first Jewish American select-
ed as a vice-presidential running mate on a major
party's ticket.
He recounted his conversation with the Rev. Jesse
Jackson three weeks ago, who told him, "'Each time
a barrier falls for one group or one person, the doors
of opportunity open wider for every American.'"
WING AND PRAYER on page 20
SEE OUR WEB SITE:
For Rabbi Barry Freundel's sermon at his
Washington, D.C., synagogue marking the first
Shabbat for vice-presidential candidate Joseph
Lieberman, visit www.detroitjewishnews.com
JN Online will provide regular news updates
on Sen. Joseph Lieberman's campaign.
art Democratic convention acceptance
speech, part Fellowship Chapel speech from
earlier that morning, vice presidential candidate
Sen. Joseph Lieberman led a rally at the
Southfield Civic Center that took the
Republicans to task on the "Texas-sized differ-
ence" between their campaigns.
The issues gaining the most applause from
the 1,500 who attended concerned the tax sur-
plus and drug costs for seniors.
Lieberman said he wants to use the surplus to
pay down the national debt, while "our oppo-
nents want to give it all away."
As for drug costs, while the Republicans are
proposing to rely on private insurance compa-
nies, Lieberman said he wants to make sure that
"every senior citizen will never have to pay more
than $4,000 out of their pocket for the pharma-
ceuticals they
need to stay
alive and well.
"This is, after
all, the genera-
tion of
Americans who
saw us through
b
the Depression,
fought World
War II," he said.
"They are the
The Liebermans greet Arab
men and women American community leaders.
who liberated the
concentration camps. They should not be forced to
choose between buying drugs and buying food."
Emery Klein, a longtime Jewish community
leader from Southfield, said Lieberman, his
friend, remains energized by the campaign, but
is a little more difficult to reach.
When Lieberman gave a speech in the area last
December, Klein drove him around in his car.
"Now to get to him, I need connections," he joked.
After the rally, Lieberman met privately with
about two dozen local Arab-American leaders,
The stop was important to the candidate
because Detroit has the largest Arab population
in the country.
Terry Ahwal, a member of the American Arab
Discrimination Committee and delegate to last
month's Democratic convention, said "anything
and everything was opened to discussion, from
Jerusalem to immigration, from profiling and
secret evidence to Lebanon and Iraq, everything
that could be discussed in one hour."
She said the choice of a Jew as a vice-presiden-
tial running mate is positive for any minority.
"It's opening the door for us and our kids to
aspire to be in a position like that," Ahwal said.
RALLY on page 22
9/1
2000
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