Readers Write
THE CITY 0 Detroit has n eronomically infirms for e
tim Let the healing p begin
Th are th that exhort against an increase in crime. 1.00
t it this y, 're gonna have crime without ino gambling.
We all know that vice' an inveterate part of our society. Let us
not dwell on the dark side but rather, let us the ligh think of
the good it will do, not just financially but harmonio ly.
Our Commander in Chief persistently propounds us with "The
oourage to change." We am do this Detroit! The only thing to fear
is fear itsel£ I'd hate to think that we as a city are too calloused
and barbaric a people to inoorporate the gaming industry into our
oommunity.
Envisionyourselfrubbingelbows with uperstarathletea at the
blaclQack table or toeeingthe dice with premier entertainers, This
amino gambling�tesan uncommon bond between the common
man, the indigent and the prominent, executi and electricians,
the waitress and the school teacher, serves as a nexus for commu
nication, eoothingetbnic anxieties, casting a concentric point from
which to reverberate good vibes throughout our fair city.
CONSIDER THE revenue it will attract - Canada, Ohio,
Chicago. The Hen-Cen will bustle with business, and the Westin
Hotel, inundated with guests. Then there' the Ponchartrain, the
Millender Center. Why, even the old Hudson's Department Store
would make one heck-of-a-nice Hotel/Casino.
Corporate investo-, fcxxi distributors, laundry suppliers, limo
and taxi moaJ, junkets, excursions, b planes, trains, M0-
town BOOMINGl
An invigorating economy, that's casino gambling. Thousands
of gamblers leave our city weekly, monthly, headed to Atlantic
City' or Sioux Ste. Marie and with them goes thousands upon
thousands of dollars. Get the picture? Why not keep the currency
to help stimulate our own my. Come 'mon
it, get with the program. I say it' . got "back on
he map."
J.ryl B.rg near, Detroit
VIOLENCE IN' AMERICA
, fII1.I
"MORE AMERICAN 'nIAN APPLE PIE"
WDC-Dr. David Satcher, Director, Center for Disease Control and
Prevention: "Violence is the IeacliDC cause of lost Ufe ill America."
Por African A.n1erican , the various affects of institutional and
interpersonal violence poses the most serious threat to survival since
slavery. If aD Americans were killed by gun at the same rate young
Black male .260,000 people would'be murdered cb year.
Since 1900 aD estimated 850,000 dvlUans 'have been IdlIed
by bull 11. Between 1938-88, more Ameri lIS died from posbot
ounds (1,209,199) than from aD oureountry' ars (1,177,956).
Corponte violeDCe from cigarettes, alcohol and drup IdUs more
, than 500,000 people annually. There are 20 million jail admi i�
and releases annually.: One-third of all ':ftnant women are battered,
and 2.S mDUo dlDdreu are abused ann y. A woman is nine times
more at risk in bet home than on the streets. There are upwards of 100
mlWon private ftrearms, with 1.S mOUOD " band produced
each year. If the present pattern of incarceration continues. by the year
2(XX) 40.. of aU AfrlcaD·
American men let 18 .. 35 MAkES
will be in prison or Jail. 'IOU 'YoU
WoIk related death from CAM AWN!
corporate violence are six Wf1k 11ns $ftfF7?
times greater than homicides.
Every year occupational
diseases cause 350,000 new
Wn and up to 200,000 r
"or er die from such .. (] �
dlleases annually. "f.iiI ..
The U.S. h been lIAN�
the only country to use an atomic bomb, not once but ftJ4t7
twice, against the civilian populations of Hiroshima � ....
and N gasaki. Since W.W. II. the U.S ... h s bee� ���..,
involved in 2S overt or covert military mtervennons. The Cen
Bureau estimates that over 158,000 n, women and chUdren cUed lD
Iraq fro eGulfWar. TheU.S.accountsforS7�ofallanns es
in the world. Violence infec our mo t basic in titution and
relationships. Corporate crime and violence from the ites kills hundreds
of times many Americans as gunfire in the streets, yet th re
more animal.helters In the U.s. than lten for tiered 0 e t
ore I IUD dealer than I do t: 'The current orgy for more
cops, jailJ d punishment fro� the White House, the Conp and
Mayors; waging a w.ar a ain t Violence at home With the same means as
the Gulf Wat; holdmg 13-year-01d dren I y po
Lester's World
,in il-
Dercent of all
ing1 family om 0 eel by
inoom African Americans
i ured, oompared to 79
nt 0 all similar dwellings
o by 10 inoome whites. In
Minneapo . ,only 48 percent of
the black iJ)gle-family hom
re insured . 80 percent of
t hom in oomparable white
districts.
ACORN also disoovered in its
reb tbat African Americans
and Latino invariably pay
much higher ra than whites
to insure hom of identical
val For emmple, in Kansas
City, ACORN found that insur
ance cost .88 percent of a home's
value in low inoome minority
neighborhood i in majority
white, low income oqmmuniti ,
iD8\U'8DC9 cost only .45 percent
of home' value.
B1acb pay more and recei
..
.
Alon
Color
In
"
'.
IN TERMS 0 th care,
our greatest public health crisi
is the AIDS/HIV epidemic. �
relatively few hi m to
reoognize the unequal impact of
AIDS within minority communi
ti . As of 1993, half of all AIDS
cases and Ameriams living with
HIV disease ere African
Americans and Latinos. But
Yale la pro r Harlon Dal
ton 0 , within minority
"oommuniti there is a justifi-
able fear that public concern for Dr. Mcmning MCJTCJ!Jl« i. Pr0(4 � 0(
the epidemic will wane. . . HulDryand Political � � �
soon it becomes understood . tDroftMA{riCX1Jl,.oAmma::IAStud.altUJli..
that the face of AIDS bas dar - tute. Columbia UnivuaUy. New Yo"
City.
SORRY KIOS ... BUT WE
JUST DON'T HAVE THE
MONEY FOR STUFF
LIKE THAT.
- .
. "
the u.s. Death Row population,
and 46% of state prisoners.
Increasingly, . nee th
lious 60' , prison populations
have become blac er and,
blacker, a reality that can only
be perceived as threatening and
fearful to the average white pris
oner.
For far too many Blac pris
o have become a arped rite of
passa , a malevolent mar of
"Manhood," and a dark e eta
tion.
For whit , ho ever, even
or . ng cl , prison a mar
of social expulsion in extre .
and an affirmation of on ' out
cast tatus.
Blac ha longer history
of rejection from this ociety
than the relati ly OO11t era of
grudging acceptance. any
have n socialized into oppres
sion, with prison just 0 more
By
'umia Abu-I amal
Florida Death Row prisoner
Michael Alan Durocher sent a
letter to the governor, literally
begging to be emcuted
When Fla� Gov. Lawton
Chiles signed his death warrant,
Durocher sent him a thank you
note.
On Aug. 25th, 1993, at 7:15
a.m., Durocher, 33, got his wish.
California's Death Row con
vict, David Mason, fired his ap
pellate lawyers, stating his
willingn to die in th gas
chamber.
Mason, 36, was angrily criti
cal of hat he called the "ind
try" of lawyers capitalizing off of
capital appeals.
Despite his elevent h hour
conversion from his previous de
termination to die, the Mason
case came to symbolize the ap
parently growing occurrence of
Death Row prisoners ho de-
manddeath. .
THE CEO demon-
strates the differenCe bet n
popular perception and reality.
Of the approximately 2,700
men and women on U.S. Death
Rows, only 26 people, I than
1 %, have volunteered to be
cuted.
The Washington, D.C.-based
National Coalition to Abolish
the Death P nalty has m
bled data detailing the racial
breakdown of of those opting for
execution, and found follow
ing;
Whi co titute I than
51 % of all Death Row prisone
in t U.S., but make up over
80% of all volun for execu-
. Why? . naIl Afri
tion. . atio y, can-
Americans mar roughly 40% of
From'
Death
Row
grim e rienee, in a bitter
. ten .
T L RE
equally, however, is th relent
I regime of loc down, 10 li-
, isolation and hopeless.DeEI8
hile 0 a waits th, e ding
a terrible yehic, spiritual, psy
chological and familial toll.
A flight to d th th n, is oft
tim a flight from th soul-kill
ing conditions of Death Ro