1 -�, 1 Debor o T info tion bout pplying, contact City Planning Commi ion t oom 202 of the City County Building (313) 224-7887. ormation on propertie can found t th or' 0 ce, Room 804 on the 8th floor of th City County Building (313) 21&-3010. To check city property taxe ,call Detroit' Property 'I Divi ion, oom 136 on the first floor of tb City County Building (313) 224-3560 and to look into county ta e , contact the International M r et Center, Fifth Floor, 400 Monroe, Detroit, MI 48226. Different city departments will provide funding, nd on ite technical . tance to individuals and groups that meet their requirements. The City Planning Commission compares this program to efforts in the old frontier days, when "helping was part of a community and personal philosophy", when neighbors got together to assist each other in raising barns and baving quilting bees, building up the communi ty and strengthening individuals who participated "by caring, sharing, and helping." AMY SCHUR, head organizer of the ACORN Community Organization that fought for this ordinance says that "A number of eople have gotten houses, who wouldn't have gotten them in any other w y." She adds that, "There could be a lot more and it could be done a lot faster." From calls coming in to ACORN, she believes that city departments takes a long time to let people know if houses qualify and they do not provide lists of houses which do. She' suspects that part of the problem was that some city officials "did not want this ordinance in the first place." ACORN got the ordinance by moving squatters into vacant houses, a tactics that lead to arrests. In 1984, the Detroit City Council passed the ordinance in response to ACORN protests, but Mayor Coleman Young, who, she says, was "harder to convince" refused to implement it. ACORN took the mayor all the way to the State Supreme Court and won, forcing the ci ty to put the program in motion. Those wbo wish to find out how the program works and wish to get help in processing the application smuld call Michigan Legal Services at (313) 963-1840. Those who want legal help should call Kevin . Kanoyton at the United Community Housing. Coalition at (313) 963-3299. While the Horn countries are among the poorest in the world, their governments spent over $6 . billion on military expenditures between 1977 and 1987.­ World Military and Social Ex- penditures, 1989 .... There are nearly 500,000 sol­ diers and only 967 doctors in Ethiopia and Somalia.-Bread for the World We accept all news. information and all signed letters to the editor: Send to Michigan Citizen P.O. Box 03560 Highland Park. MI48203 VIEWS OPINIONS STEAD 0 understanding the origins of Bl an and violence, linked to poverty and a of powerl , many hites leaped nized." READERS WRITE Muskegon pastor finds confusion surro nds Thomas nomination Dr. R. Thomas Coleman, favor Affirm tive Action, c Pastor of Bethesda Baptist Church, fully opposed the nomination of Muskegon county's oldest Black Luc . . congregation. Bush, who I am told I must per- ceive the foe of upward mobility for minorities, women, the disad­ vantaged, the disenfranchised, and the disenchanted, tried to place Lu in ch.ge of one of the most impor­ tant bureau in the U.S. Department of Justice. A post with the ultimate responsibility of enforcing civil rights legislation for all: colored people,. Black people, negroes, and African A.meria1s rally so a to wrongly defeat his appointment. I must confess that I am thor­ oughly confused. spent in of my early childhood a "colored" person, then I became a "negro". When I was colored or negro, if I or anyone else in my community called someone Black, that was cause for a fight. None of the colored people or negroes, I knew, wanted to be called Black. That was considered a perjorative de - ignation. Then "BI ck" became "beauti­ ful" and I was Black, and all of the oth r people of my hue (no matter what their complexions) were "Black and proud". I had barely grown accustomed to being Black, when I had to make another transi­ tion. Along with the rest of us, I became "African American". AS IF THESE transitions in identitie were not enough to con­ fuse me, along came something called "Affinnative Action," which ostensibly will rectify past injus­ tices done to Blacks or African Americans or whatever, in the cl oornandtheworkplace. The discussion revolved wound real and imagined distinctions between. "quotas" and "goals," and dded to the confusion of this colored, ne­ gro, Black, African American. In any case, while I was not re­ ally able, at all points, to see the fine line that distinguished "quo­ tas" from "goals," and am still not sure how you deal with implemen­ tation without some form of dis­ crimination, I thought I knew who ood where and why. PRESIDENT George Bush, I thought, was opposed to Affirma­ tive Action, while roo African Americam WEre in fa'Va' of it Bush. the arch-opponent of Affirmative Action, nominated Bill Lucas, a Bl lawyer frocn Detroit, who struggled to obtain his education and who.h impressive creden­ tials in government service on both local and tate levels, for the post of i ant Attorney General in charge of the Civil Rights Divi- ion. African American organiza­ tions, Bl ck Ie and veral negro and colored groups, along with a coalition of gay/lesbian and om n activists, and the pro-abor­ tion lobby, all of whom ostensibly JUDGE Qarence Thomas, lately of the district of Columbia, is an­ other case of a disadvantaged Black making it through the system. Tho­ mas, as chairman of the EEOC, has led the agency to improve the qual­ ity of life for a broad spectrum of the ppressed in this country, including our own people, women, and other minorities. Admittedly, his efforts did nothing for "colored" or "Afri­ can American" people