Newspapers / Winston-Salem Chronicle (Winston-Salem, N.C.) / Jan. 11, 2001, edition 1 / Page 6
Part of Winston-Salem Chronicle (Winston-Salem, N.C.) / About this page
This page has errors
The date, title, or page description is wrong
This page has harmful content
This page contains sensitive or offensive material
OPINION '11 Kianw Ituii Giaiuitia Ilia Mm The Chronicle Ernest H. Pitt Publisher/Co-Founder NdIBISI EGEMONYE Co-Founder ELAINE Pitt Business Manager fannie Henderson Advertising Manager kav stl ltz Production Supervisor National Newspaper Publishers Association North Carolina Praaa Association Certified Audit CAC of Circulation Amalgamated Publishers. Inc. Making Winston better The city and several community development corpo rations are doing their best to make Winston-Salem a better place. Plans are under way to give several spots around the city facelifts and to bring new businesses and employment opportunities to residents. But we should not forget that physical improvements are only one way to make our city a better place. Perhaps a more important path to bettering our city is by invest ing in its people and its most promising institutions. That's what Marshall Bass has done through his count less contributions to institutions like Winston-Salem State University and the Best Choice Center. Bass' '"investment in young minds will mean more for Winston Salem in the long run than a new sky-scraper downtown or chic eateries. His reputation in this city has been mainly from his business prowess, but his legacy will be his generosity and his ability to see the benefits of invest ing in human beings. The Winston-Salem Foundation also deserves kudos. The foundation, especially since it kicked off it's ECHO campaign, deserves a round of applause from everyone. The foundation has awarded several grants to organiza tions working to heal racial wounds and those trying to bring about equity in a too often unequal world. The foundation's recent grant to the Winston Lake Family YMCA will, no doubt, safe the lives of young Hispanics and African Americans in the long run. While construction workers hammer away downtown, the Win ston-Salem Foundation and Bass are doing building of their own. The city needs both types of building, physi cal and human. MLK Day Many of you will have Monday off from work because of the Martin Luther King Jr. Holiday. Don't spend the day at home in front of the television set. Sure, you prob ably deserve the day to sit around the house and relax; we're sure you work hard every day and a little R&R would hit the spot. But rest over the weekend. Use MLK Day to attend the many local events scheduled to honor the slain hero. A popular say ing states, "MLK day is not a day off, it's a day on." That saying could not be more true. King worked and died so that we could have jobs that give us a day off. His work is the rea son that we had the opportunity to attend universities so that we could King get the jobs in the first place. His efforts made it possible for us to own the homes that we come home to every day after we leave those jobs. Remember him and his dream Monday or give back in some way. See King Day activities in our special section. I Cj Submit letters and columns to: Chronicle Mailhag, P. O. Box 1636, Winston-Salem, NC 27102. 0 / o V\ I* I V*. 4 $ Please print clearly. Typed letters and columns are preferred. If you are writing a guest column, please include a photo of yourself. You can also e-mail us your letters or columns at: wschron@netunlimited.net StouVf/r PB OTHER wAy AROONb??? L jSWE laiiHE | RBs&aijg-o |?'j^ . iih i /Sib \ What would Martin think, do? Asa Spaulding Guest Column Since shortly after the first of the year, I've been thinking a great deal about the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. As we get closer to the celebrations surrounding the King holiday, it becomes increas ingly apparent that he is greatly revered and highly regarded by many outside the black communi ty. It is hard for me. personally, to believe that it has been more than 45 years since he and I first met. It was about 1 o'clock on a hot, sunny, summer day in Atlanta, Ga. I was sitting in the kitchen of the King family home on East Auburn Avenue with his brother, A.D. King. "AD" and I had been schoolmates in the late forties at Palmer Memorial Insti tute in Sedalia, N.C. AD was about three years older than I so we really weren't that close at Palmer. When I went to More house College in 1952, he was a junior and I, of course, was a green wide-eyed freshman. We quickly became re-acquainted. After the first semester, AD was drafted and went on to serve two years in the U.S. Army. He returned to Morehouse in 1955. By then, I was a semester ahead of AD. Since most of his classmates and schoolmates were gone, we re established our acquaintanceship and spent a good bit of time together. In the common parlance, it could be said we used to "hang . out together." So on that hot summer day in 1955, AD and I were sitting irr his kitchen eating baloney sandwiches and drinking milk. In strode this handsome,"clean" (gray suit, white shirt, tie, wide brim hat, long chain hanging from his belt and reposing in his right pants pocket) "brutha." AD said. "Asa, 1 want you to meet my brother, Marty." We exchanged pleasantries and Marty went to the refrigerator and poured himself a glass of milk. We chatted briefly and then he excused himself. Our paths would cross occa sionally over the next few years first, during the next school year with the Morehouse Ministers Union. This was a group of stu dents who thought they would be going into the Christian ministry. I was one of those students for more than a year and a half. Little did I know that the young Marty King I had met on that hot sum mer day would soon become the world renowned Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. I followed Dr. King's career very closely over the next few years, largely through the media and through occasional contacts with AD King. The last time I spoke with Dr. King directly was a brief encounter at a civil rights rally at White Rock Baptist Church in Durham, N.C. in the mid-sixties. As was the case for most of Black America, I was horrified by Dr. King's assassination in 1968. I was even more pained by his brother AD's suicide several years later. AD had found himself in the '60s, had become a minister, and was working loyally with his brother Martin when Martin was killed. AD King was never the same after his brother's death. He became consumed by alcohol and later drowned under rather suspi cious circumstances. As I look back at my own life's experiences and those of Dr. King, I often wonder what Would Martin think of the black experi ence were he alive today? What would he do? What would be his assessment of how we have responded to the challenges facing Black America? Would he approve of the conduct of such black lead ers as Jesse Jackson, A1 Sharpton. or Ron Daniels? How would he counsel us? What about his dream and its fulfillment? I believe that Dr. King would be generally pleased with Black America's progress in some areas, but he would also be saddened and disappointed by our lack pf progress in others. I believe he would applaud the successes of the large numbers of black men and women who have broken through the glass ceiling, but he would be visibly anguished by the still large numbers of blacks living below the poverty level. I believe he would be encour aged by the increasing numbers of young black men and women attending college, earning their degrees, and going on to have pro ductive' lives. However, he would be dismayed because so many of our youngsters continue to drop out of school, and end up in our jails, prisons and even killed in drive-bys. I believe he would be appalled by the conduct of some of our so called leaders due to their continu ous spewing of, vitriolic venom , and half-truths as a means of arousing the troops to demon strate and create unnecessary havoc. 1 believe he would be preaching non-violent behavior and demon strations in support of our causes, while at the same time working behind the scenes to negotiate and bring about positive changes, j I believe he would be coun selling us to put aside our partisan and petty differences to work together both within the system and outside, to achieve a greater good for the masses of the people. I believe that Dr. King would be a continuing positive influence on society, including on the world stage, but he would be facing con tinuing challenges from within. Sadly, many of his detractors would be so-called "friends" who feel he is passe and that his pres ence would be blocking their opportunities for leadership.- J The list of issues and items of concerns to Dr. King could g?f> on and on. But in the final analysis, I believe he would have been a cata lyst for bringing about positive changes in society. No doubt he would have been frustrated by the inordinately long time it would lake to achieve worthwhile objec tives. He would have had a diffi cult time dealing with his dream deferred. As we celebrate the life and death of Dr. King, we should remember that God never makes a mistake. Perhaps, had he not died when he did, the way he didp he might have become a symbol of our society's good intentions. asa spaulding' ? a Triangle-based management ?j consultant. His e-mail address is: "aspauldingjr@cs.com Thanks for not prejudging me Jamal Toshumha Guest Columnist To a lady and everyone like you .... A thank you note ... with an apology: I could offer an excuse but there is really no excuse for pre judging. stereotyping or judging a book by its cover. Well, let me start at the beginning. It is two days after Christmas and I am at the mall taking advantage of the sales, sales and more sales. With more than two and a half hours of walking and shopping under my belt. I thought this is a good time to take a break and get off my feet. This is when I sought respite, by taking a seat where other shoppers where congregat ing. I spotted enough room to squeeze in and was making my way once I made eye contact with a well manicured, smartly attired, mid-forty-ish, middle class, female quietly eating a light lunch. Unbeknownst to me. as I was taking my seat thinking I had made this person to a "t," I found myself sitting next to an opened, unmonitored purse with a coat partially cov ering it with several packages. Once becoming aware of my sit uation 1 prepared for the inevitable. This nice, mannerly woman would quietly and unas sumingly move her items closer to her and away from me. A few moments passed and nothing happened. A few more moments passed still nothing took place. Now as curious as it might seem I started to get con cerned that this lady was not ifhore attentive to her packages and purse. What I thought would be a typical encounter never took place. This lady was not acting as I anticipated and now it was perplexing that there was no noticeable recognition by this lady of my presence and my proximity to her items. This con cern continued. I began feeling uneasy about this lady giving so little attention to her purse and packages. Hence, I began my vigil of watching and carefully noticing any and everyone in the vicinity. I found myself becom ing nervous and actually consid ered tapping her. and asking her to keep a closer watch of her things. But before it got to that point, she finished her snack, turned and picked up her belongings, gently smiled at me and walked off. Then sitting there and pro cessing what just took place, it dawned on me that I should have stopped her before she left to say. "Thank you," because per haps to her nothing of any sig nificance took place, but for me. it was something special and I will be eternally grateful. I am sure almost anyone reading this is thinking "no big deal." But for me, I was just given a nice gift - the gift of not being prejudged....Oh. by the way, did I bother to mention, I am 6 feet tall. 165 pounds with a full beard ... and I am black. Needless to say, the woman 1 was sitting next to was white. Now do you understand the sig nificance? I have "taken the time to write this thank-you note to this woman because without her knowledge she gave me a won derful gift. It is not often that as a black man you are shown this attitude from white America. I have become cynical over the years and have come to expect just the opposite. But this woman gracefully reminded me that I should not do to others what I despise when it is done to me. Yes, I was wrong, very wrong for prejudging her and what her actions would be when I sat beside her and her items. So please, I humbly ask you to accept this thank-you note because your gift to me was gen uine. I apologize for lumping you in a general category and stereotyping you based solely on your appearance or linking you to some previous experience that was humiliating or unpleasant. I was reminded of an important lesson. Thank you and I do apologize. Jama! Toshumba, M.A.. LPCIC, is the owner/operator of C A P. PS (Children and Parents Partnership Services), a counsel ing and consulting agency.
Winston-Salem Chronicle (Winston-Salem, N.C.)
Standardized title groups preceding, succeeding, and alternate titles together.
Jan. 11, 2001, edition 1
6
Click "Submit" to request a review of this page. NCDHC staff will check .
0 / 75