VIE\\,S & OPINI()N
A Roc River, A Tree
H<»t to p ie Ion since dep rted,
M r ed the rna todon,
The din r, w�o left dried token
01 their ojourn here
On our pI net floor,
Any broad I rm of their ha tening doom
I 10 t in the gloom of du t and a e .
But od.y, the Rock erie out to u clearly,
[l elully,
Come, yOUmay t nd upon my
Back nd la our distant de tiny,
But elt no h in my shadow.
1 will Qjv'e you no hI ng place down here.
You, created only a little lower than
The angel have crouche oolontin
The brui ing darkness
H ve lain too long,
Face down in ignorance.
Your mouths spilling words
Armed for slaughter.
The Rock cries out to us today, you may
tand upon me,
But do not hide your face.
Acro the wall of the world,
A River sings a beautiful song. It says,
Come, re t here by my side.
You the Ashanti, the Yoruba, the Kru,
bought,
Sold, stolen, arriving on the nightmare
Praying for a dream.
Here, root yourselves beside me.
I am that Tree planted by the River,
Which will not be moved.
1, the Rock, 1, the River, 1, the Tree
1 am yours - your passages have been paid.
Lift up your faces, you have a piercing need
For this bright morning dawning for you.
History, despite its wrenching pain,
Cannot be unlived, but if faced.
With courage, need not be lived again.
Each of you, a bordered country,
Delicate and stranAely made proud,
Yet thrusting perpetually under siege.
Your armed stru les for profit
Have left collars of waste upon
My shore, currents of debrIS upon my breast.
Yet today I call you to my riverside, ,
If you will study war no more. Come,
Clad in peace, and I will sing the songs
The Creator gave to me when I and the
Tree and the rock re one.
elore cynici m bloodJ' r across
your
Brow and when you yet Jcnew you still
Knew nothing.
The River sang and sings on.
Lift up your eyes upon
This Clay breakin for you.
Give birth 8gain
To the dream.
Women, children, men,
Take it into the palms of your hands,
Mold it into the shape of your most
Privete need. Sculpt it into
The image of your most public self.
Lift up your hearts
Each new hour holds new chances
For a new beginning.
Do not b wedded forever
To fear, yoked eternally
To brutishnes .
There is a true yearning to respond to
The singing River and the wise Rock.
So say the Asian, the Hispanic, the Jew
The African, the Native Amerrcan, the
Sioux,
The Catholic, the Muslim, the French, the
Greek
The Irish, the Rabbi, the Priest, the Sheik,
The Gay, the Straight, the Preacher,
The privileged, the homeless, the Teacher.
They hear. They all hear
The spea king of the Tree.
, The horizon leans forward, •
Offering you space to place new steps of
change.
Here, on the pulse of this fine day
You may ha e the courage
To look up and out and upon me, the
Rock, the River, the Tree, your country.
No less to Midas than the mendicant.
No less to you now than the mastodon then,
They hear the first and last of every Tree
Speak to humankind today. Come to me, here
beside the River.
Plant yourself beside the River.
Each of you, descendant 01 some passed
On traveller, has lieen paid lor.
You, who ,ave me my first name, you,
Pawnee, Apache, Seneca, you
Cherokee Nation, who rested with me, then
Porced__on bloody feet,
Left me to the employment of
Other seekers - desperate for gain,
Starving for gold.
You, the Turk, the Arab, the Swede, the
German, the Eskimo, the Scot,
Here, on the pulse of this new day
You may have the grace to look up and out
And into your sister's eyes, and into
Your brother's face, your country
And say simply
Very imply
With hope-
Good morning.
Mu
•
I
,
A OR AND MOR
prediction are being made
concerning an early up wing in the
economy of ,th United S�es, will
the economi lot of the African
American community also improve?
History ha hown that the
socieconomic conditions of the
African American coinmunity have
not always improved at the pace of
economic growth for the nation as a
whole.
The trickle down theory has not
worked to the benefit of the majority
of thirty million African Americans.
First, African Americans must
invest in the uplift of the community
not for the short term but for the long
term development goals of the entire
communi ty. The economic
infrastructure of the African
American has to be Ii terally
recon tructed to meet new the
COPYF;IGHT 992
;::0 D!::SIGN INC
TH P I THEREi to simply
tate th obvious: "All of the pre ent
effort within and external to the
African American community to
enhance overall economic
empowerment appear to be
insufficient to meet the economic
need of the African American
community.".
While there are increa ing
example of tremendous individual
economic uccess or in some cases
the uccess of African American
owned companies, there i still a
growing economic disparity between
the majority of African Americans
and other Americans who have ot
Le ter s wsna,
DR.
BE JA IN
CHAVIS,J
on Malcolm
9
Thanks to the effor 'of pr mier
filmmaker, Spike Lee, the nam .
Malcolm X, is once again on millions
of lips.
Traced largely on the
Autobiography of Malcolm ,
penned by the late Alex Haley, the
film tells the epic tale of a man who
was indeed, larger. than Ii fe.
This column is not, and cannot be,
a film review, for I have n ver een
the film, for reasons that hould be
obvious. Rather, it i a "musing" on
the life that gave both Haley and
Spike gri t for their null .
de i ned to protect It own
intere ts-imagine the m t Violent
nation on Earth', the heir of Indian and
African geno ide. the only nation
ever to drop an atomic bomb on a
ivilian population, the world's
ig t arm dealer, the country that
napalmed over 1 million people in
Vietn m (to " ave it" from
Communi m), the w rid: biggest
Jailer, waving the rp e of King,
allin for lin nviolen e"!
The Blac Panther Party
n rd e re d it elf the on ef
Mal olin (at lea t many male
Panthers did for the ons h never
had al 1m and hi wife, Dr. B tty
ha an. had a pa el 0 tunning
d ughtcrs), and irrherited on of their
ntral t nets, Bla k I f-dcfcn e
from hi te chin .
While the el quent. soaring
oral ry 0 Dr. Kin t u h d. moved
and m tivated th . uth rn Black
chur h. middle and uppercl and
ONE
CANNOT
QUTRU
A OTHER.
• •
CIVIL
RIGHTS
JOURNAL
demand of the pre ent hi torical
mom nt.
Some of tho e who dvi ing
P ident lect Clinton on economic
matters have routinely referred to
inve tment a "creating omethin
that will add to the economy' ability
to produce later on."
TOO OFT TH African
American community is viewed only
a "taking from the economy" rather
than "contributing to the economy".
But what tho e who would
economically discriminate against
the African American comm ity do
not fully understand is that the
spending of the African American
communi ty i more than a 300 billion
dollar a year economic force in the
nation's economy. .
The problem is " pending" is not
the-same thing as "investing". We
must invest not just in 'banks and
other financial institutions. Our
highest priori ty ought to be to invest
all that we can in our youth:
financial 1 y, educationally, and
spiritually.
What are our long term economic
goals and how are going to achieve
tho e goals? These are the question
that must be answered if we are to be
serious about fulfilling the dream of
true African American economic
empowerment.
_,
.. LOOKING GOOD THERE SIMPSON. EVERYTH1NGS RIGHT ON SCHEDULE."
white, liberal, predominately lewi h
intelligencia, his me age did not
find root in the Black working class
and urban north a fact noted by his
brilliant devoted aide-de-camp, Rev.
Ralph Abernathy, who, In hi
autobiography, n led h w Kin ,
coming to hi ag . Ill. met la ial
white hatred. Bl k mdifferen .and
near dJ a ter.
Northern r d Blac preferred a
more defiant con rontational and
militant me age than
turn-the-other-chc k, and Malcolm
X pr vided it, in clear,
uncompromising terms, and hi
m age of Bla k elf-defens and
Afro-American elf-determination
struck both Muslim and n n-Muslirn
alike, a logical and re onable
given th _d idedly un- hri tian
behavi r di played by Arncri a t the
Black, Brown, and Yellow world.
The media, a Mal lrn predi ted,
would attempt t hornoge mz c
J' __ � _
whiten and di tort hi mes age. How
many have read of him in a recent
newspaper; described a a 'civil
rights" leader-a term he loathed!
Storie telling of 'his " oftcnin "
toward white after hi' ojurn to
Mecca, conveniently ignoring
that Malcolm continued to revile
white Americans. till In th grip I
racist sy tern that ru he Black
life-still!
P -M i MALl found
among whit -skinned Arab and
European converts to I lam a onen
that he found lackin in Americans.
So deeply entrenched was ra i m in
American whi te tha 1
Malcolm/Malik ensed the intrin i
difference in how the two people
aw and de cribed them elv .
Arab calling them clve white,
referred imply to s in lone;
Arne r ican mean t so m th In
altogether different; "You know
MUMIA
ABU
JAMAL
,..'
what he means when he. y , 'I'm
White,' he mean he' Bos!, It
Malcolm thundered.
Malcolm, and the man who
returned fr m Me. ,HaJJi Malik
Shabazz, both rc sc ur cs of
American ra i m wh
evil a ainst hurnanit
that formed them.
He tood for-and died
for-human rights f clf-defen e
and a people' etf-determinau n
not for" ivil righ ", whi h, a the
upreme urt h indeed h wn,
chang fr m day to day. ca e to
a c , ad rru ru: tr a u n t
admini trauon.
