By MU IA ABU-JAMAL
i
in his
M rch lIed d h nd dis -
ter when a Boston police SWAT
quad ruck; kicking in his door,
and when the ntl clergyman
fled in t rror to hi bedroom,
kicking in that door a well,
w tling th old man to th
ground, cuffin hi han into
immobility.
R v. Wiman , writhing in
terror on the floor of hi Dorch -
ter home, died of a he rt attack.
Th Boston police SWAT at­
tacked and raided the William
home when a confidential in­
formant supplied them with in­
formation about wh re lar.
che of cocaine, m rijuan and
guns could be found.
Turns out the informant gav
cops the wrong address.
REV. WILL M, A r tir d
Methodist minist r, was a native
of Antigua, a tiny island nation
located in the east rn Carribean
. Sea, who came to America with
his wife Mary, to b with th ir
child, a college student.
What they found instead, was
rampant Ramboism, the jack­
boot against the door, all in th
name of a "war" against drugs,
that seems to be a war on the
poor, and the Black.
Boston's mayor and police
chief, upon confirmation of the
Rev. Williams' identity, and the
-fai lur of the heavily-armed
SWAT team to find the alleged
ca he of drugs and guns, issued
tJ ,.. .. ,
or Thomas Menino at­
tended church services in a Black
bapti t church and called for
"healing. "
Fo_! Rev. Williams, there will
be no healing, for " ... the dead
. know not any thing, neither have
th y any more a reward ... " (Ec­
lit 9:5; Bible [KJV]).
ALTHOUGH unintended,
Rev. Accelynne Williams' death,
and p ially its manner, points
to the folly of the way the para­
military "War of Drugs" is being
waged. For the question inevita­
blyari es: 'what if the Rev. Wil-
liam was in pos e sion of
drugs?
Are the tate' m th ; ra-
military trik ; humiliating ar­
r ; dr ining trial ; corrosive
imprisonmen ; d igned to re­
ally "help" omeone?
Is it more how than ub­
stan ?
Ev ry day, the liberty of thou­
sands is stolen because they
have used a ubstance dubbed
illegal by the government. Every
year, the lives of thousands are
lost because they have used a
ubstanee considered "legal" by
the government.
THERE ARE approximately
6 to 7,000 deaths annually at­
tributed to cocaine.
There are approximately
400,000 deaths annually attrib­
uted to cigarettes.
Guess which one is illegal?
Guess which one funnels bil­
lions to government tax coffers?
The Rev. Accelynne Williams'
violent and ignominious death at
the hands of 13 armed agents of
the state points to a ludicrous
War on Reason, not on drugs.
Readers Write
Sen. David
Holmes:
A Warrior
If it can be said that Martin
Luther King was a "Drum Major
forJ ustice," it must be said that
State Senator .David S. Holmes
was a Warrior. He was a friend
of Organized Labor. He knew
politics. He was accessible and
helpful to people all over the
. state. lfhe could help, he would.
He was especially concerned
with youth. Entrepreneurs
would get any assistance he
could give. He was always trying
to represent his constituents. He
looked after his people like no
other politician. He was serious
See HOLMES. AS
y
T C fur
peopl or h alth care for profit
i ue i that crucial qu tion
hich ordinary Am rica m
nsw r in terms of th outcome
of h lth care reform and th
future di ction of t nation.
President Clinton cam­
paigned on a pledge to ma
health care reform a ey corner­
stone of his pre idency. He has
indeed kept faith with th prom­
ise. The problem is that P i­
dent Clinton, in a manner
similar to the North American
MikeK
The Denver Post
d('PIXlon F atures
Readers Write
w
need a health ca
A f w months ago I was in the
em r ney r m of CI veland
hospital w it.ing for a friend.
While I t there a moth r with
two small children came in seek­
ing medical re. Her children's
ye were red and swollen;
clearly they w r suffering from
what is commonly called pink
y , a highly ontagious condi­
tion which children often get.
Wh t w just as clear was
that whil this ondition must be
treated, it was not, really an
erner ney room . Ye for
many r moth rs.: the em r-
ney r m i th only medical
treatm nt facility which they
know. For 0 ,it is th only­
treatm nt cent r anywhere near
wh th J liv .
Th re' om thing wrong
with th h alth care system in
Am rica. tori. lik th on
abov prove that. S ' tistics also
prove that. Statistics show that
while whit Am ricans are liv­
ing Ion r, African Americans
are living horter lives. .
For example, African Ameri­
n bi are more than twice
as lik ly as white b bies to die
b for they cel brate th ir fi t
birthday.
T E R T OF. A D
among African American is
e
By Bernice Powell Jackson
more than triple that of whites.
Young African American males
experience a homicide rate more
than 700 times that of white
males ..
African Americans face high
rates of alcoholism and drug ad­
dition. African American chil­
'dren are morelikely to have high
levels of lead poisoning. Indeed,
African Americans face dispro­
portionately higher mortality
rat from can r, hearth-dis­
eas and troke, cirrhosis, and
diab tes.
Ther 's something wrong'
with a health system in the
wealthi t country in the world
which allo these disparities to
exist and even to grow. There's
something wrong with a health
system that does not addr
these issue head-on with. an
singl pay r, culturally- ensi­
tive, community-based health
tr atment and education pro­
gram for everyone, pecially for
the �1 ase oft e."
What we need in the eommu­
niti of people of color is not just
health care reform, but a health
care revolution. Yet even with
all th talk bout health care
reform in the country today, lit­
tle is bei ng said about the unique
needs of our community with
health care problem more
closely parallel to those of Third
World countries than those of
white America.
Take, for instance, the need
for health care provide to be
members of the comm unity they
serve. A generation ago the ma­
jority of African Am ricans re­
ceived their medical treatment
from African American.doctors.
WHEN I WAS growing up in
Washington, D.C. in th 195'0's
and 60's, for example, I never
saw a white physician until I
was an adult. My d or and th
doctors of all my family mem­
bers were African Americans.
Tod y, it i est.irn ted that
less than 20 percent of African
Americans receive their health
care from African American phy­
sicians. That is not to y that
white physicians cannot give
quality health ca 0 African
American patients. But they
have not lived many of the com­
munityexperience and cultural
sensitiviti that omeone from
our community has. And from a
community economic develop­
ment rspective, w need more
dollars to stay in our communi­
ties.
Ioreover, as the health care
reform debate goes on, it IDS
likely that whatever plan is en­
acted, there will more man-
aged care being encouraged or
mandated. Managed care means
more Americans will be using
Haith Maintenance Organiza­
tions (HMO's) for their primary
ca . Although only a decade ago
there w re 4'0-BJack-owned
HMO'sacro the country, today
there are only seven Similarly,
52 African American hospitals
ha ve closed b tween 1961 and
1985.
It i cl ar that without federal
int rvention and protection, Af­
rican Am rican and other un­
d r-r pres nted health care
provid rs could become extinct.
Likewis , without federal
prot ion for African American
and other people of color health
care consumers, our particular
needs will not be met.
For instance, our health care
n s a so critical, so burden-
orne, so vital to the very exist­
ence of our communities, that we
must have immediate universal
co�rage.
THE P OPO ED long­
term phase-in of this coverage
over the ne ve years or so will
not save the babies dying today.
Also, the omission of prisoners
and undocumented workers
. from many of the health care
plans ing uggested is unac-
ceptable when nearly half of the
prison population is African
American and when the Hi .­
panic community is dispropor­
tionately impacted by uch an
omi ion.
Last month 100· repre-
sentati from African .
can h alih
for the Clinton plan, they
ched the logical
conclu ion that health care
bould be for people and not for
profit.
THE CLI TONS HAVE
t dfastly refused to support
proposals that ould eliminate
the insurance compames from
the health care system alto­
gether. Inst d they have pro­
posed a "free market" for profit
ystem that would provide dif­
ferent levels and quality of
h th care based on economic
and ability to pay.
Poor and wor ing people
ould b guaranteed a "bare
bon " package of benefits while
the wealthy would still be able to
purchase the best health care
that money could buy.
The alternative vision is a
health care system that places
the needs of people' first; a sys­
tem that is equitable (treats eve­
ryone the same in terms of
benefits irrespective of in­
come/status), provides for maxi­
mum choice in terms of doctors,
hospitals. clinics etc. and saves
the taxpayers and the nation
money by reducing the overall
coat of hee.lth care.
• I 'Of eq im�� such a
sjstem should advance the prin­
ciple that people are more im­
portant than profit an that the
guarantee of basic human rights
i.e., jobs, housing, health care,
education, clean environment
will make for a much more
healthy and humane society.
This vision is captured in the
concept of a single payer health
care system modeled after the
Canadian system.
IN ADDITION TO Con­
gressman Conyers, most of the
members of the Congressional
Black Caucus and the Rev. Jesse
Jacbon upport the health care
for people principle as reflected
in the : . ngle payer concept and
th McDermott-Conyers Bill.
And, though single payer has
been subjected to a virtual me­
dia �hite out, the leading budg­
etary agencies within the
Congress have indicated that
single payer . ould be the least .
. costly of all the current propos­
als, saving the American tax­
payer billions of dollars in
reduced health care cost.
The key to this cost savings is
the elimination of the health
care profit rs - th insuran
compani s. . is th with
Medicare, a non-profit govern­
ment agency would be the
sole/ ingle payer thereby aving
billions of dollars in unn ry
. 0 head/administrati cost.
As of thi writing the conv n­
tion wisdom is th t h insur­
an lobby is th pow rful for
ingle pay r to ha ch n of
p ingCongr
Ron Daruel. .. ,pn·. (1' /-: '1l11lW I),
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nlghl3 Ln Neui York (',t.)' II mu be
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