EDITORAL
SHIELDING
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VIEVVS OPINIONS
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In raJ wee John AI.I"'a'.r "1. ::
'1'- I'
di clple, Ramona Africa, wal ..
y from a cage that held ber cap- � :'
live for Yen Ion bitter years. She '(':' :.
DOt n j uce or one hour ' . ::
inoe the day sbe alked in. "� :.:
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READERS WRITE
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A lack of cour
Th major media eems unabl to recognize-let alone deal
with-the ubtle, pervasive raci m that permeate their publica
tions nd bro de ts, ever widening the hole in the ozone of
civiliza tion.
The are the arne publications that sup rficially attempt to be
thegoodguy ,printing omeofth new of the African community,
and making p ce for circulation-building wedding, birth and
graduation photo ordinary folk upply to them at no expense to the
pap r.
Their problem i fairly similar to that of the school districts: they
don't hire enough Africans, nor do they give those they do hire any
real voice.
Beware of what you read. Find offensive any paper that would
combine the photo of an African with headlines where the largest
type is the word "b d" and where there is an ccompanying arrow
pointing right to the picture. Th photo, by the way, is positioned
under a econd headline, "Schools pay to get rid of problems," in
e the reader did not get the first negative message.
Watch what they do to your mind when you're looking.
Highland Park Mayor Li y Port 1 is on the right track. Faced
wi th the pullout of Sears, Porter seems unruffled, calling on the
community to fill the gap.
He wants African-American investors. He wants community
input and involvement. When some fearful soul chastised Porter
because be called on African Americans to invest, the mayor
reminded the naysayer that he didn't see any white investors at the
door ..
Blacks try 0 hard to make up for America's ins. Blacks are not
racist, cannot be racist. They do not control that have power over
people. It takes power to be raci 1. .
Porter does not control the Department of Housing and Urban
development, George Bush doe . And it is HUD that has a big
financial take in the proposed hopping Sears was going to anchor.
Porter doe not control Chry ler, which does control DEVCO,
which has another big stake in the proposed shopping center. The
non-resident board of DEVCO has dragged their feet, carried on .
with tons of paper work while spending big bucks and this done
outside of community control, input or involvement.
The third piece, the third stake in any new project for Highland
Park is that of community involvement. It is a stake no one picked
up. It is the only viable stake to anchor any community project.
Dealing with the community is messier, more time consuming and
no one is quite sure where that road will end up, but if Highland
Park, like inner cities anywhere are ever, ever going to climb up out
of the decay, it is when the community decides to do so.
Porter's insistence on turning to the community to get the city's
development moving ahead I the only right road to take. We urge
Mayor Coleman Young in Detroit to turn, no to Blue Ribbon 21st
Century pres tige people, but his own people, the ones most affected.
There are other mayors who also need to listen to Porter. Emma
Hull in Benton Harbor has started off reappointing all the non-resi
dent folks named by her predecessor to the Enterprise Zone com
mi ttee, despi te their record of nothing for the ci tizens and much for
themselve .
We urge the community to respond to Porter when he calls for
a meeting. We urge churches to inspire their members to pool a
dollar per person per week to make a mighty investment fund. The
ways to accomplish the rebuilding of Highland Park, Detroit,
Benton Harbor, Muskegon Heights, Pontiac .. .lies with the people
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who live there.
Once they start working together on issues, not dividing on
personality, who knows, maybe even the federal government will
get turned around.
Because folks who discover their own strength, find a way to
make others feel the thrust of that power.
Keep going, Mayor Porter, the people will be with you.
There i definitely a lack of
courage in Blac leadership today.
Most of Our leaders today don't have
the courage to speak th truth or th
courage to unite.
Tbey are afraid that the European
community will see it as raci m or
segregation. But if you love
yourself, the real self the one within,
then you most love your people and
because there is noting more
important than us coming together
one.
As we can � Europeans
coming together in Germany.
Russia, Poland. They are tarting a
common currency for all of Europe.
George B h is talking about a
new world order, hich' j t a cod
word for the European community
coming gether,
And the same Bl 1 ders
are afraid to l.JN1T£ here in t
United Sta , ha the uda ity to
say to Nelson Mandela that he
hip
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with its worse enemy. (R ia) and u·
Nelon Mandela can it down with
th South African Government and �
Israel can it down with Palestinian,": t
then urely Blac leaders can it -. :'
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down and talk wi th our brother' "
who only mission i the liberation ", �:
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of Black People and to bring us ':
closer to GOD.
Willi m Eva
Droit
Chec
bouncin
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uld it down and talk with the
South African Government, ho is
responsible for the death of
thousands of African men, oman,
children.
And they don't bave the courage
to sit down with mini ter Louis
Farrakban and the ation of Isaiam
to t I about solutions to the
mentally dead state that mo t of our
people are in.
H the United State can sit down
,
..
h real world"
VfIrJ recently,. I wrot a tiny
cbec for $10.50 drawn on my
account at NaD that didn't clear.
And in the interim, that tiny check
had been presented for payment and
refused three times electronically
before I bad been notified even once
y regular scbeduled mail! And
e I'm not in the habit of
'*t'lttn..aoverdrafls, my account was
8$Sj�� a penalty of $27.50 each
time that tiny check had been
upport childr ri' d f
fund 1992 campaign'
�
OIC�ltcd and re� payment. The •
total penalty charge to my account ,
was a whopp�g $82.50.
More than anything else, race and
location remain paramount as to how
a banking customer is treated-i t I
remains bameful.
Mike Ty ftOt the bo er), V. .
at National Banko 1)etroit':_ needS
to come down to the real world of
banking on the corner of Michigan
and Junction Avenue here in Detroit,
really!
In a new paper article of March
18, Tyson, in explaining N.B.D's
procedure for handling typical
customer overdrafts is quoted as
saying, " ... we would send a notice in
all cases - whether we returned the
c an y it, e '4
p Y the c
He th n oes on to say that at
NBD, a computer mulls over every
overdrawn cbec received. If the
amount of overdraft i tiny and the
customer has good record, the
computer may let c go
throughr I not the
e
Peggy A. oor, Director,
lack Wrft.ra Guild
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Well, to refute the above
statement I offer the following:
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Amidst the political
electioneering of the 1992
Presidential campaign, there is one
campaign that we endorse
enthusiastically and wholeheartedly.
It is not a campaign of an individual
seeking to be President of the Untied
States. But, we are endorsing a
campaign of a national organization
committed to save millions of
children entrapped in poverty
throughout the nation.
Marian Wright Edelman and the
Chil dren s Defense Fund deserve
support and endor ement.
Beginning in March 1992, the
. Children's Defense fund will launch
a national campaign, "Leave 0
Child Behind," around a national
agenda for children in the United
State .
The statistics concerning children
in thi nation are alarming: Every 32
seconds a baby is bom into powrty.
Every 61 seconds, a baby bom to
a teen mother.
Every 111 econds, a baby is born
at a low birth weight. Every 13
minutes, a baby i lost to infant
mortality. Every 21(2 hours, a child
in the United State i murdered. In
each of these tatistical categories,
African-American, Hispanic
American, N tive American, and
Asian-American children rank very
high.
THE PROBL M i that our
ociety ha become a "care-le s"
society when it come to the plight
of infant and children. Thi
problem i compounded in a�
election year tbat pe tri
of the interests of the young who can
not vote. A nation that di regards the
interests of its children is a nation
with no future.
support.
First, every child in the nation
should have a "Healthy Start," i.e.
"All children and pregnant women
mu t have heal th-Insurance
coverage; all children must be
immunized; cammunity and migrant
health centers and the National
He�th Services Corps must be
fUD4ed tuny."
Secondly. all children should
ve a "Head Start." In other words,
, "All children must be able, through
inaeased funding, to participate in
programs to help them get ready for
caool."
Thirdly, all children should have
a "Fair Sl&rt." According to
Edelman, "E ry family must get the
resource to provide basic needs for a
child, such as refundable tax credit
for children and establishment of a
child- upport system in which
government'provides upport when
nt does not. "
o THLy,�areother
actions that all children should
receive as a resul t of using the "peace
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BENJAMIIN
CHAVIS
CIVIL
RIGHTS
JOURNAL
dividend to fund projects and
investments in children and their'
families; pass legislation on child·
abuse prevention and family
preservation, raise basic benefits for
families on food stamp ."
We appeal to all who stand for' :
justice to support the efforts of the :
Children'S Defense Fund. Our �:
children are our future. We must' ,
engage the politicians in a manner' ,
that rectifie the current absence of
this is ue in the national political
debate.
Edelman is correct when she
emphasized. "The country is either
going to go real bad or we're going
to flip the paradigm and, hopefully,
move in a positive direction. And
that i t I hope can be the debate
in this election year." Thi is also our
hope and it i also our demand.