Newspapers / Winston-Salem Chronicle (Winston-Salem, N.C.) / Dec. 26, 1991, edition 1 / Page 4
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Winston-Salem Chronicle "The Twin City's Award-Winning Weekly" Established in 1974 Ernest H. Pitt ? Ndubisi Egemonye Editor/Publisher Co-Founder Member in good standing with: National N*w?pap?f Putok?har? Association North Carolina Pros* AstoouUton Audit Bureau of Circulations Amalgamated Publisher*, Inc. A holiday story The Happy Prince Once upon a time there was a young prince who was known for his happy nature and smiling face. Alas, he became gravely ill and died. In his honor, the king had a beautiful statue built. It had sapphires for eyes, a garment of pure gold, and on top of the prince's sword glittered a ruby the size of an apple. Everyone loved the statue of the happy prince. ^ One day a sparrow on her way south for the winter decid ed to rest overnight on the statue. Nestling between the stat ue's feet, she tucked her head beneath her wing and fell asleep. Plop! Came a drop of water on her head. She lifted her head and looked for rain, but the stars shone brightly. Plop! Came another drop. She looked up at the statue and saw tears falling from its eyes. ^ "What is wrong?" she asked. "I thought you were the happy prince." "Before, I was happy, because I played in the palace and enjoyed only the best things of life," said the statue. "Now I am outside the kingdom walls, and from this hill I look over all of the city. Every day I see a young woman sewing in a small, cold room, and her hands are scratched from trying to sew so fast, and her baby cries because it is hungry. Please, sparrow, please take the ruby from my sword and give it to the girl." But the sparrow wanted to continue her journey south ward. "It is getting cold, I must move on tomorrow," he said. When the prince insisted, she agreed, and the next morning she took the ruby in her beak, flew through the open window and dropped the jewel in her lap. The young woman shouted for joy and went out to buy food and blankets for her baby. When the sparrow returned, it was late, and she slept at the prince's feet. In the morning, she began to fly away, but the prince pleaded with her to stay one more day. "I can see a matchbook girl who has dropped all her matches and they are ruined. Now she has nothing to sell, and if she goes home her father will be very angry. Please take my sapphire eye and give it to her." Once again, the sparrow wanted to fly south, but when the prince insisted, she plucked his brilliant eye, flew across the city and dropped it in front of the little girl. She cried out in joy and ran home to show her father the beautiful stone. When the sparrow returned, it was late, and she slept again at the prince's feet. In the morning, she bid the prince farewell, but the prince said, "Please sparrow, stay one more day. Across the city I see a man who is writing a play, but he has no heat and his hands are so cold he can not write, and no one will ever see his play. Please take my other eye to him." The sparrow protested because she knew the weather was getting colder and colder. Finally, at the prince's insistence, she agreed. In the morning, she plucked the prince's other eye, flew through the hole in the man's roof and dropped the gem on his writing table. Not seeing the bird, the man said," Aah, one of my admir ers has brought me a present," and went out immediately to get firewood and finish writing his play. In the morning, the prince thanked the sparrow with all his heart, and told her goodbye, but the sparrow said, "I can not leave you now, for you are blind." And so the sparrow perched on the prince's marble shoul der and told him all she saw. When the prince heard of all the hungry children and sick grandfathers and others who needed help, he told the sparrow, "Please take the threads of my gold en garment to them so they may sell it for food and medicine and blankets." So the sparrow stayed, and day after day she took golden strands from the prince's robe and gave them to the poor. When she was finished, she was very cold, and flew back to the prince and tried to warm herself between his feet. But she had waited too long to fly south, and now the cold winter winds chilled her through and through. The little bird died at the prince's feet. That same day, the town officials walked by and said, "Look at that horrible statue! Its gems are gone, its golden robe is gone, and there is a dead bird on it. Tear it down immediately." So the workers came and threw the bird's body on a pile ? of trash and tossed the statue in a fire. The next morning when the workers returned, the statue's lead heart was all that remained, and the heart was broken. When the workers threw ; the heart in the trash pile, it landed next to the bird's body. The next day was Christmas day, and God told his angels, "Bring me a present. Bring me the two most precious things on earth." Two angels swooped down from heaven. One picked up the prince's broken heart and one picked up the ; dead bird and they brought them to God. "You have chosen well," said God. "For they have truly loved, and love \i the greatest thing on earth." Kwanzaa: For Africans at home and abroad In addition to being an occa sion for celebration, Kwanzaa must also be a time for Africans in Amer ica to focus on the future of the race. Centuries of slavery, colonial ism, neo-colonialism, and cultural aggression have had a devastating impact on Africans and the sons and daughters of Africa the world over. With the unfolding of the latest "new world over," there is the real possibility that Africa and African people will remain desperately underdeveloped and powerless . | unless there is a conscious and con certed effort to direct the energies of the Pan-African world towards the political and economic uplift and empowerment of Africa. It was the voice of Marcus Garvey which pro claimed "Europe for the Europeans, Asia for the Asians, Africa for the Africans at home and abroad." As we face the dawning of a new century, great regional eco nomic and political power blocs appear to be the wave of the future. In 1992, the European Economic Community will officially be con solidated making Europe an eco nomic and political power potential THEGM PLAN FOR A LEANER WORK FORCE.. AFTER ?# China. In Asia and the Pacific Rim, there is the prospect of the kind of regional economic cooperation that could produce a extraordinary power bloc. Faced with the challenges inherent in the emergence of an . VANTAGE POINT By RON DANIELS ly more formidable than the United States on the world stage. With the collapse of the Soviet empire in Eastern Europe and the disintegra tion of the Soviet Union as a unitary state, the European Economic Com munity will become the center of gravity for all of Europe. Hence, what was once Western Europe and Eastern Europe is destined to sim ply become Europe. In Asia and the Pacific Rim, Japan is already a world class eco nomic superpower. After decades of looking westward to the United States, Europe and other areas of the world, Japan is beginning to see it's future tied to Asia and the East. South Korea, Taiwan, Singapore and a number of other nations in Southeast Asia are also rapidly emerging as major economic pow ers. And of course, there is massive presence of the People's Republic of increasingly unified Europe and the prospects of an economic power tftoc in Asia and the Pacific Rim, the United States is forced to see the Western Hemisphere as it's focal point for forgiving a regional eco nomic power base. Hence the furious effort to negotiate a North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) between the United States, Mexico and Canada. The NAFTRA is sim ply a step in the U.S. strategy to establish economic hegemony over the entire hemisphere including Central America and the Caribbean. This may well be the only way that the U.S. can retain it's title as the dominant superpower in the world. The crucial question for African people is where will Africa and the Pan-African world fit into this global scheme of regional eco nomic and political power blocs? Africa, the richest continent on the face of the earth, is almost never mentioned as a potential regional power base. Even the Middle East, a region racked by the Arab-Israeli conflict, is noted as a region where the Arabs and Israelis will eventual ly form some type of regional eco nomic entity after a peace agree ment. The vast continent of Africa, however, is virtually left out of the global equation of developing regional economic and political power bases. Though some regional economic initiatives are underway in Africa, these efforts pale by com parison to the developments in the other major centers of regional eco nomic and political development in the world. Africa continues to suffer from the long travail of slavery, colonial ism and neo-colonialism. The wealthiest continent on the planet is terribly disoriented, disorganized and remains a captive of Euro American cultural values and Euro American economic and political interests. Becausc Africa is so disunited, weak and relatively powerless, all of the world's economic groupings can be expected to compete for shares of Africa's enormous wealth. If this happens, the Pan-African world will have failed to heed Gar vey's admonition that Africa must be for the Africans. Nowhere in the world can Africans boast that our current cir cumstances are promising-in terms of our own economic and political empowerment Everywhere in the world* even in the best of situations, the economic and political status of Africans is tenuous at best. What African people the world over must come to recognize is that all of us have a stake and vested interest in the rescue, resurrection and redevel opment of Africa. African centered ness and Afroceptricity, beyond mere rhetoric, must challenge Africans to embrace Pan-African ism-the idea that all African people must work for the development of Africa as the economic and political power base for African people everywhere. What current events on the world stage portend is a new world order in which Africa and Africans will be at the very bottom of the economic and political ladder. Unless African people wake up, we are destined to be dependents, beg gars and the unwelcome wards of chanty of other nations and regional power blocs well into the 21st cen tury. The emerging new world order with all of its complexities makes it quite clear that African people must develop a principled but uncompro mising commitment to self-devel opment economically and political ly. Central to this commitment must be the determination that Africa will be for the Africans at home and abroad. Caution light signals lingering mistrust A few days ago I had an inter esting chat with U.S. Rep. Pete Peterson, who represents Florida's Second Congressional District. Our talk was frank, and I got experience some of the hatred and prejudice that for so long have been an everyday occurrence directed at blacks. I told him that for many AGAINST THE GRAIN By ROOSEVELT WILSON the feeling the Democrat is an hon est man trying to do what he thinks is right. He asked some straightforward questions and I gave straightfor ward answers. And the kind of questions he asked further con firmed my belief that blacks and whites simply don't communicate enough to understand each other. At one point, I did a lot of the talking, explaining how no white person could know what it's like Jo blacks, regardless of how well they think they know whites, some where in the dark recesses of the mind of the black is a caution light that says, "Don't let your guard down." * . It is a basic mistrust of the white system that some blacks equate with white people. I explained that I don't think there's anything inherently bad about white people. There are too many good ones. But this racist system is a white system and often it is very difficult to distinguish the people from the system. "We need to know things like that," Peterson said. But Peterson was puzzled. If there is this basic mistrust, how do you explain the blacks who have "made it" and have a different opinion? I told him that one of the many great myths about blacks is that we are a monolithic people, that we have one voice or that one person can speak for us all. The Clarence Thomases, I said, have their own frames of ref erence. Sure, Thomas had it rough growing up, but so did many white people. There's a big difference be tween growing up under difficult circumstances and growing up under oppression, and most of the blacks in this country my age and older grew up under blatant, legal oppression. Peterson agreed that Reagan and Bush created a climate that made it OK for racists to come out of the closet, but I'm not sure he agreed with me that David Duke's popularity in Louisiana reflects the racial mood of the country. He also admitted being taught bigotry at home until he learned better. He said he was still shocked, though, the first time he saw signs that said, "White only," and "Colored served in rear." "Of course, I never had to suf fer as you must have, but I was shocked. 1 had never seen anything like that in my life." I think (caution light) Peterson left with a little better understand ing of the complex racial problems we have in this country and why so many blacks and other minorities are discontent and feel bitterness toward whites. Of course, I speak only for myself, and there is no way in the hour or so we spent together that Peterson could have learned much more than the fact that he has a lot to learn. Wallace, Bush, and Duke: 1992 and beyond No one was surprised when David Duke formally announced that he was running as a Republican candidate for the office of President of the United States. Remember, the majority of white voters in the state of Louisiana voted for Duke to be Governor of the state in spite of the fact that Duke is a former Ku Klux Klan Grand Wizard and Nazi sym pathizer. Likewise, no one was surprised when President Bush chose not to forcefully challenge Duke from the ranks of the Republican party because of Duke's racist "anti American" views and political posi tions. Politically, we realized that the Reagan-Bush era has helped to till fertile soil in the national politi cal landscape for the seeds of racist politics to grow. Remember, no one was sur prised in 1968 when George Wal lace launched a vote-getting marph toward the White House for the lace campaign was that in spite of his staunch segregationist reputa tion, he received large numbers of Democratic, Republican and inde pendent votes in the South and in CIVIL RIGHTS JOURNAL By BENJAMIN F. CHAVIS JR. Presidency before being critically wounded by gunshot. In fact, Wal lace did surpass his standing in the national polls and received millions of votes in favor of him becoming the President. Another lesson about the Wal other sections of the nation. Unfor tunately, racial politics in the histo ry of American politics has had a long history. Will Bush again utilize racist campaign advertisements in 1992 as he did in 1988? Duke's formal entrance into the presidential campaign will certainly influence both Republican and Democratic strategies. There is another interesting similarity between Duke and Wallace. Both announced that the real reason for running for President was "for the good of God and country." In other words, in the tradition of George Wallace, David Duke will attempt to use Christian language and sym bols infused with racial fear and hysteria. Duke stated, "We've got to begin to realize we're a Christian society, we're part of Western Chris tian civilization ... our values are being torn away by immigrants and others." Duke intends to whip up Please see page A6
Winston-Salem Chronicle (Winston-Salem, N.C.)
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