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January 24, 2013 - Image 26

Resource type:
Text
Publication:
The Detroit Jewish News, 2013-01-24

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points of view

>> Send letters to: letters@thejewishnews.com

Publisher's Notebook

Editorial

Turning
Point For
Civil Rights

Senate's Rand Paul: A
Poor Committee Pick

A

Five months in 1963
shaped the future of
our state and nation.

W

hile the annual commemoration of Dr.
Martin Luther King Jes birthday and
civil rights legacy concluded this week,
additional celebrations are planned later this year to
recognize the 50th anniver-
sary of his 1963 march on
Washington and his stirring,
movement-defining "I Have a
Dream" speech at the Lincoln
Memorial.
For Detroit's Jewish commu-
nity, three events over a five-
month period in 1963 helped
to clarify and solidify its place
in the civil rights movement:
approval of a new Michigan
Constitution, Dr. King's march
down Woodward Avenue and
the March on Washington two months later.

1 WC II VY 4U1101111.4



While President John E Kennedy and Congress were
struggling with civil rights initiatives that would
come to fruition under President Lyndon B. Johnson
in 1964, delegates to Michigan's Constitutional
Convention were redefining the role and shape of
their state government. Voters approved the work of
the convention on April 1, 1963. One of its hallmarks,
according to then-U.S. Commission on Civil Rights
chair and Michigan State University President John
Hannah, was a Michigan Constitution that "does more
in the field of civil rights than has been done in any
state Constitution." At its core was creation of a civil
rights commission accorded constitutional status and
endowed with investigatory authority not found in any
other state constitution.
In the debates leading up to the approval of the civil
rights language that would be
placed before voters, Republicans
held a 2-to-1 advantage in con-
vention delegates. Moderate
Republicans, led by George
Romney, finalized the ground-
breaking wording and provisions.
Professor Harold Norris, a noted
legal scholar from the Detroit
Harold Norris
Jewish community who had a
more expansive position on the
subject, nonetheless played a
significant role in shaping these sections of the docu-
ment.
The new Michigan Constitution became effective

26

January 24 • 2013

ina

The Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial in

Washington, D.C.

Jan. 1, 1964, and its first Civil Rights Commission,
comprising eight members with no more than four
from one political party, was appointed. Sidney
Shevitz, at the time the president of the Detroit Jewish
Community Council and already active in civil rights
causes, joined such notables as Damon Keith, William
T. Gossett and Rev. A.A. Banks Jr.
as its inaugural commissioners.
For almost every year since the
appointment of Shevitz, a member
of the Jewish community has served
on the Civil Rights Commission.
The chronological line, starting
with Shevitz, comprises Avern
Cohn, Hilda Gage, Alan May,
/Mk
Mark
Sondra Berlin, Gary Torgow, Mark
Bernstein
Bernstein, and currently, me,
Arthur Horwitz.

Dr. King's Detroit March

Detroit was the focal point of a June 23, 1963, civil
rights march down Woodward Avenue, led by Dr.
King, with police estimates of more than 100,000 par-
ticipants. It culminated with Dr. King's initial version
of the "I Have a Dream" speech at Cobo Hall.
"... And so, this afternoon I have a dream. It is a
dream deeply rooted in the American dream. I have
a dream that one day, right down in Georgia and
Mississippi and Alabama, the sons of former slaves
and the sons of former slave owners will be able to live
together as brothers. I have a dream this afternoon,
that one day — one day little white children and little
Negro children will be able to join hands as broth-
ers and sisters ... I have a dream this afternoon that
my four little children — that my four little children
will not come up in the same young days that I came
up within, but they will be judged on the basis of the
content of their character, not the color of their skin. I
have a dream this afternoon that one day, right here in

Turning Point on page 27

s U.S. Senate appointments go, it's shame-
less. Outrageously, Republican Senate leaders
appointed Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., no friend of
Israel, to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. It's a
high-profile position for a senator who fiercely opposes
foreign assistance, including defense aid to Israel,
America's closest Middle East ally.
Paul roots his opposition to supporting Israel's defense in
"freeing" Israel from undue American influence and control.
He told the Jerusalem Institute for Market Studies that the
U.S. will always be Israel's friend, but "it will be harder and
harder to be a friend if we are out of money."
Reining in national overspending is commendable, but
turning instead to an isolationist approach is imprudent by
any measure. That's not to say demanding greater account-
ability among "wayward" allies before recommitting or
upping foreign aid to them doesn't make perfect sense.
It's not farfetched to think Egypt couldn't one day turn
American-made tanks against Israel.
Paul stressed he wasn't suggesting that
ippk
the U.S. disengage from Israel or stop
selling it arms. He promoted arms sales
over outright grants, which he character-
ized as a "one-way street." But he twice
has pushed to end what he termed U.S.
"welfare" for Israel; you wonder about the
limits he'd put on Israeli arms orders.
Rand Paul
Huffington Post reported that Paul
suggested Israel would actually benefit
from less aid by enhanced independence and sovereignty
because Jerusalem would not have to approach the U.S.
"on bended knee" come decision-making. The problem with
this line of thinking is that there's little knee bending given
the cool relationship between the Netanyahu administration
and U.S. President Barack Obama.
The Senate's Appropriations Committee is the pri-
mary policy shaper on foreign assistance, but the Foreign
Relations Committee does set the Senate's foreign policy
agenda. So Jews would be wise to monitor Paul's votes on
the $30 billion a year business of dispensing foreign aid.
On his January trip to the Middle East, Paul declared
he would like to see "gradual" cuts to Israel's military aid,
which he pegged at about $3 billion a year, 74 percent
of which must be spent in the U.S., meaning primarily on
weapons. At least he called for cutting foreign assistance
to potential enemies of Israel and America – such as
Pakistan, Libya and Egypt – more swiftly.
Yes, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has in the past
expressed weaning Israel from world assistance. But clear-
ly, that was more a yearning, not a burning desire, given
the tenor of the tenuous Middle East.
There's minimal relief in knowing Paul's approach
to Israel is less brazen than his father, Rep. Ron Paul,
R-Texas, a perennial presidential contender, who tinges his
opposition to Israel assistance with anti-Israel canards.
Rand Paul, who is trying to woo the pro-Israel community
through Christian Zionists, has been bandied as a 2016
presidential hopeful.
With the Pauls and their followers becoming legitimate
forces in American politics, it's incumbent for American
Jewry to press them on their intentions, challenge them on
their actions and take them to task on their principles. ❑

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