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OCTOBER 4,1996 — THE DECREE — PAGE 5 Government actions breed mistrust By GRANT LONG Do you trust your government? Does the American population have faith in the servants we elect and in the government agencies that our tax dollars support? If this question was asked to the average individual the answer would be no. It is also kind of ironic that people would respond that way, especially in a presi dential election year, but in this day and age it is not surprising that more and more people are starting to look at politics in an increasingly cynical manner. Two recent events that may have made people feel this way are the trag edies in Waco, Texas, and Ruby Ridge, Idaho. Although these are just two isolated incidents, the question still lingers, can we trust our government? Before we all rush to a hasty conclusion, let’s examine the lat est accusations of wrong-doing by our government. Could the CIA (Central Intelligence Agency) be responsible for start ing the crack-cocaine epidemic? Before you start to dismiss this as empty rhetoric let’s look at the facts. Gary Webb, an investiga tive reporter for the San Jose Mer cury News, wrote a series of ar ticles in mid-August of this year that linked the CIA to drug traf ficking activities. These activities can be traced back to the presi dency of Ronald Reagan, when the U.S. was involved in a covert war in Nicaragua. Supposedly two Nicaraguan refugees, Oscar Blandon and Norwin Meneses, sold huge quan tities of cocaine to drug dealers at cheap prices. The reason Blandon and Meneses sold cocaine was to buy military supplies to support the anti-government forces in their country. These two men, al most single-handedly flooded the streets of California with cocaine. After this the details are un clear. The then director of the CIA, William Casey, was sup posedly obsessed with crushing the Sandinistas in Nicaragua. Casey allegedly encouraged all the people that worked under him to do the same. Even though no Opinion one in the CIA has been accused of any wrong doing, we still must ask ourselves how much did the CIA really know? The immediate response to this was outrage by many leaders in the African-American commu nity. Rep. Maxine Walters, from California said in an interview in the Christian Science Monitor, “I think it is unconscionable that the intelligence community or the CIA could think so little of the people of color that they would be willing to destroy generations in an effort to try to win the war in Nicaragua.” The Nation of Islam paper, the Final Call, went a step deeper, with its headline: “How The U.S. Government Spread Crack Co caine In The Black Ghetto.” Joseph Madison, a radio talk show host in Washington, and a member of the NAACP, summed it all up when he said, “I’m not Building on the ‘Artes Liberates By DEAN MARY RUTH COX The students of North Caro lina Wesleyan College are among a host of other college men and women in this country and around the world, who are poised at the edge of a moment in history that comes only once in a thousand years. First-year students, sopho mores, juniors, and seniors — to gether, you literally form a bridge to the next century, and into the next millennium. Class of 1997, your final year at Wesleyan begins the momen tous countdown to this new year. Class of 1998, you’re not far behind as you begin the second half of your college career. Class of 1999, you have passed the first-year milestone and are moving ever closer to your goal as the world moves closer to this historical moment. And then the Class of 2000, the newest members of this cam pus community. The year that you earn your baccalaureate degree will be the year that all of hu mankind will cross a significant boundary of time that holds both great promise and great uncer tainty. What is required of you as stu dents of this college in eastern North Carolina to prepare for such a critical time? North Carolina Wesleyan is a liberal arts college. The term, “liberal arts” is used in several different ways today, but it originated during the Roman Empire and referred to a type of training that was intended for free Roman citizens—only privileged males in those days. The Romans bonowed the Greek idea that free men must be educated in a certain way as to ensure that society would remain stable and well-govemed. The literal translation of the Latin “artes liberales,” or the lib eral arts, is “work befitting a free person.” We in the twentieth cen tury might put it this way: the liberal arts is a type of education that helps ensure that the citizens of a free society know enough, and understand enough, and ques tion enough, and learn to be re sponsible enough, to remain free. It’s appropriate .to call a lib eral arts education “work.” Being a student is your job. Just as with any job worth doing, it takes great personal effort and discipline to become, a fully-developed fully- liberated human being. But if you give yourself wholeheartedly to this task, your baccalaureate de gree from North Carolina Wesleyan will prepare you for many things, including a voca tion. Ultimately, however, the fac ulty and staff and the programs of this college are dedicated to the task of helping each one of you develop as a free citizen of the world, ready to assume lead ership and responsibility wher ever you chose to live and work in the next century and the next millennium. (Adapted from Dean Cox’s Sept. 9 Convocation remarks.) dropping it. We’re standing up for all crack babies, all innocent bystanders hit by stray bullets dur ing gang-related warfare over this poisonous white powder. The re action to this story has definitely grabbed the attention of African- American political leaders every where.” But what if this story turns out to be true, what then? That means the United States government, the one that is excessively bureau cratic and taxes its citizens roy ally, is responsible for flooding the inner-city streets of America with crack. This means that the govemment had the intentions of pushing drugs into the African- American community, but no where else besides that. How of ten does anyone ever hear of a drug bust in Beverly Hills? I very rarely see the police from 90210 making drug busts on Cops. The crack epidemic didn’t really become a problem, until crack found its way out of the inner city. As for the war on drugs, it’s just a cover up. The war on drugs is just another ex cuse to put more people in jail. It is very sickening to think that one of the most dangerous drugs on the street today may have been put there by our govemment. Another negative aspect of the Crack Epidemic is the increase in gang activity. Gangs were around before the Crack Epidemic and will be around afterwards, but when crack came on the scene, gang activity increased dramati cally. It started out in L.A. with the Bloods and Crypts selling crack and competing for drug addicts, but as the popularity of crack in creased so did the competition among dealers. This led the Bloods and Crypts to relocate to different areas across the country and wherever they went they usu ally controlled the local drug mar ket, and crack cocaine made them most of their money. It is also because of crack co caine that a lot of innocent people had to die, either at the hands of crack, in drive-by shootings, or by other means related to crack. And what about a generation of children bom to mothers who abused crack? If anyone is a vic- fim, they are! Is it still possible that our govemment could be re sponsible for this? Is the American govemment to be trusted? Answer: Hell No! First of all, any govemment that might have been responsible for the assassination of a president (JFK), had the head of the FBI (J.Edgar Hoover) keep persorlal files on the people he hated be cause he thought they were a threat to national security, supply our enemies with guns (Iran), and purposely start a war that it should not have been in (Gulf and Viet nam) cannot be free of any guilt. If a govemment can help to kill a president, then it is by no means above starting a Crack Epi demic. Whose interests are the CIA or other govemment agen cies serving if they allow things like this to happen? Let this ques tion marinade in your brain: can you really trust your govemment? K flu/WY-oF ePKffioii eoW, SIR... HWTOV SOKA wiitwteiMWiai? peittwiei? co«wiE85? CTfr men m
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Oct. 4, 1996, edition 1
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