TORIAL
You do
have a
choice
Complaints are frequent about the campaign waged by Bill
Clinton -800 the candidate himself.
Clinton has studiously avoided the inner city , cities and especially
African Americans. His slic "all things to all people" seems-too
packaged, too polished, too unreal. Despite aimon's repetitive use
of the word "change", we all have the sense that if he's elected, it
will be business as usual, with corporations aM fat cats in charge.
But, folks say, anything is better than Bush. We can't stand
another four years of what we've had for the last 12.
Agreed. What choice do we have? Lenora Fulani is not on the
. Michigan ballot this year. Nor' Ron Daniels, also an·African.
• Ametican candida , but one only it the allo' ill
I states.
I There is a choice. Yes, Ross Perot. He has addressed the under­
lying problem with the American economy: the deficit. He has'
provided some answers to correct the blem.
Also impressive is tbe fact that Perot has never divided the
country into classes, groups or interests in laying out �s plan. Perot
has said imply the problems are America's, the solutions are up to
Americans as a united country facing common problems.
Nor has Perot ducked the desolation of the cities. Echoing the
findi� of more than one study, Perot has argued that small busi­
nesses create the majority of all jobs, He proposes to create a lot of
small businesses in the cities.
To his credit, Perot has also laid out a reform program to return
the government to the people. In f�t, his appeal gains its greatest
.strength from his very direct, down-to-earth, unpackaged, down
borne, just-me approach. People feel they can trust him, because they
feel he's real.
Whatever the pros and cons of either Clinton or Perot, one thing
is for sure. We are sick of being treated like a step child, that has to
be hid in the kitchen when company comes. The Democrats want
and need the African American vote aoo election after election they
get it. But the rewards that are supposed to follow never come
through for the African American community. ,
AIx1 things are getting worse rather than better. Now, in the "new
era" of the Democratic Party, we see a real effort by the head of the -
. ticket to avoid African American voters, communities and issues.
Thus, our choice is to take our vote elsewhere. We want our vote
to say something. It is time to build a political bloc of voting strength
that'politicians have to work for, not take for granted and actually
�re��� ,
We'll vote for Perot and hope it sends a message to all politicians
that we want our government back; we want solutions to our prob-
'Ierns; we won't be taken for granted. We want our vote to say that
our issues are worthy of public deliberation and consideration; and
what's good for us is also good for everyone else. Perot comes
closest to recognizing that we're all in this together.
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VIEWS/OPINIONS
re both
important
opportunti for
hole to practice
dem y. t is, refore, aiti
to note th presence or the nee
ofreferen to th plightofmilli
o pe of color in the tional
political debat .
Is the sight of three white men
runnin fortbe WhiteHo e in 1992
ign of the P t or of the future?
During the large rallies in some
both. Democrats and the
Republic n , well a the
Perotians, h ve drawn almost
e elusive white udiences with just
a mall prinkling of persons of color
to be found. Now, there is nothing
wrong when white voters come out
to cheer and upport the candidates
of their choice. That is not the i ue.
The issue is, after what happened
just a few months ago in Los Angeles
following the unjust verdict in. the
Rodney King beating case, how can
the national political debate ignore
the growing national problem of
racial injustice?
The domestic agendas as
articulated by the three leading
candidates thus far have not included
communitie .
true on the
loreign policy front. Clinton, Perot
or B h pi ced pri rity on
rai ing the i ue of prolonged
partheid in South lea, nor on the
i billty in An ola, ozambique,
Z ire, Liberi , Sud n, nd in
Somali.
ei ther the awful plight of people
in Haiti nor th racial discrimination
again tHai ti n refugee by the
United States have been raised
ignificant campaign i ue.
We know that there are orne who
would y that campaign hould be
kept po itive and these i u would
be negative and divi ive. We take
e ception to th t view.
In fact, too much of the body
politic of thi SOCiety rest on
"dodging the real' ue." But the
painful reality in 1992 i not that the
i ues dear to people of color
communitie are being deliberately
ignored.
For example, the Free Trade
Agreement was debated as if Latino
Americans did not even exist.
Celebrations of the so-called
discovery by Columbus went
clear up I the "m ith
b in ppro h to gove
Clinton OUD ood hen Is
for c ge but d not pecify
how this n tion can becom truly
multiraci and multicultural ociety
with economic empo rment for all.
Th three Ie ding candid t for
Pre ident 11 h ve tre ed the
importance of their re pective
e perience in government or in
busine . The problem with the
1992 campaign is th t no one yet
to tate a clear vi ion of how to bring
the gifts of diversity of this nation
together in manner where the
contributions of all the vario cia!
and ethnic communitie re
welcomed and celebrated rather than
feared and ignored.
Politically peaking, it is as if th
1992 Presidential Campaign h
covertly condoned type of "ethnic
cleansing" where it h become
taboo to even mention racial or
ethnic concerns.
THIS IS IRONIC when a close
Lester's Wo Id @
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992
el tion ill be dependin upon 0
well the m e of the
underprivileged re mobilized to
vote for w di tion d change­
in the occup ncy of the" hite
o e."
Of co e, we encouraging a
1 r e voter turnout ne t month.
D pi the b nee of racial justice
and other critical i ue in thi
c mp ign, it i import nt to
particip te in th political process.
Too many . ters and brothers have
uffered nd died to get th right to
vote and large representation of
vote will ensure that change
come with mandate.
Y ,we are all in the rue boat.
But in 1992 too many people of color
in the United States are till chained
nd h ckled in the degrad tion
coasigned to the bottom of the boat
while others remain on tb top deck
of pro perity.
SEND SIGNED
LETTERS TO: MICHIGAN
CITIZEN. P.O. BOX 03560,
HIGHLAND PARK, MI
48203.
. '
DARNELL
"TH E BABY MAKER"
JOHNSON
'* NO EMPLOYMENT
o EDUCATION
.. NO AMBITION
.. NO SENSE OF
, RESPONS\BILITY
.. NO COMMITMENT
.. NO MORALS
*.NO BUSJNESS
A ING CH'LDREN
re dom from f
Dhoruba threa
For just over a year, former
political prisoner and ex-Black
Panther, Dhoruba bin-Wahad has
been free from the clutches of the
state that squeezed almost 20 years
from the rich, productive years of an
innocent man's life, many spent in
NY's restrictive maximum security
hell-holes.
It took over a decade, and
painstaking review of over 300,000
government Counterintelligence
Program files to uncover the policy
of subversion of the "justice" sys tern,
used to illegally teal Dhoruba's
freedom before a state judge
overturned his conviction.
In his first "free" year in nearly 2
decades, the fiery speaker has broken
no laws, but has cro ed the COUDtry
to peak on behalf of Black
nationalist political prisoners, and to
condemn the tactics of the repressive
U.S. government.
Now, the government, the same
forces that initially stole 19 years
from Dhoruba's life, are angling to
take still more!
, IN PAPERS recently fired in the
New York State Court of Appeals,
prosecutors seek Dhoruba's return to
the pits of NY prisons, until their
petitions are decided!
It should be clear, that Dhoruba's
only "crime" ha been to boldly,
vocally oppose the repressive states
quo.
Dhorubas prior pleadings
revealed high-level government
plots to destabilize the Panthers, as
well as se t up, and, in the
government's word , "neutralize,"
ar;
ned
key party members, such as
bin- Wahad, which, in his case,
meant hiding evidence of his
innocence, as well as introducing
false testimony of his guilt.
Now, after 19 years, the tate
wants to do it again. The same
government that recently slashed
10,000 city employees, now elects to
spend upwards to hundreds of
thousands of dollars, in a vicious
gutter-ball political attempt to
silence, once again, a militant
government critic.
Political activists,' nationalists,
radicals, civil libertarians, all should
strenuously protest this naked
pollticat assault. '
FOLK'S INTER'ESTED'IN
supporting Dhoruba bin-Washad's
MUMIA
ABU
JAMAL
FROM
DEATH
ROW
fight for freedom sbould contact:
Campaign to Free Black Political
Prisoners/POWs in the United States
P.O. Box 339
Bronx, NY 10463-0339
For nearly 20 years Dhoruba
bin-Wahad fought, valiantly, the
state's attempt to make him
invisible,and the prison's attempt to
sap his God-given sense of self and
personhood.
It is past time' for the people to
stand up and say, with one voice:
"enougb!"
Continued Freedom for Dhoruba!
Free All Political Pri onersl