OPINION Chronicle , Ernest H. Pitt Pubiisher/Co-Founder u ELAINE Pitt Business Manager Michael A. Pitt Marketing T. Kevin Walker Managing Editor AMOcMtlon Angelou's Olympic Contribution 4 ngelou Our very own Dr. Maya Angelou has added another glorious accomplishment to her already stellar resume. Angelou, a longtime Winston Salem resident and a Wake Forest University professor, was asked to pen a poem for the 2008 Olympics, which are going on as we type in Beijing, China Of course. Dr. Angelou is no novice w hen it comes to writing poems for high profile events. Her poem. "On the Pulse of Morning," which she wrote and recited for Bill Clinton's 1993 Presidential Inauguration, is a classic. We think this one will be too. Amazement Awaits By Maya Angelou Sheer amazement awaits Amazement luxuriant in promise Abundant in wonder Our beautiful children arrive at this Universal stadium They have bathed in the waters of the world And carry the soft silt of the Amazon, the Nile. The Danube, the Rhine, the Yangtze and the Mississippi In the palms of their right hands. A wild tiger nestles in each armpit And a meadowlark perches on each shoulder. We. the world audience, stand, arms akimbo. Longing for the passion of the animal And the melody of the lark The tigers passion attend the opening bells, The birds sing of the amazement which awaits. o The miracle of joy that comes out of the gathering of our best, bringing their best. Displaying the splendor of their bodies and the radiance of their agile minds to the cosmos. Encouragement to those other youth caught in the maws of poverty. Crippled by the terror of ignorance. They say Brothers and Sisters, Yes, try. Then try harder. Lunge forward, press eagerly for release. The amazement which awaits is for you. We are here at the portal of the world we had wished for At the lintel of the world we most need. We are here roaring and singing. We prove that we can not only make peace, we can bring it with us. With respect for the world and its people. We can compete passionately without hatred. With respect for the world and its people, We can take pride in the achievement of strangers. With respect for the world and its people, We can share openly in the success of friends. Here then is the Amazement Against the odds of impending war In the mouth of bloody greed Human grace and human spirit can still conquer. Ah ... We discover, we ourselves Are the Amazement which awaits We are ourselves Amazement. President Hearn We join the rest of the com munity in mourning the passing of Thomas Hearn. the man who helped to put Wake Forest, and by extension, Winston Salem on the map. The former presi dent of the university died this week after a lengthy battle with brain cancer. Hearn retired in 2005, soon after having surgery to treat the can cer. Contrary to popular belief, he did not step down at Wake because of his illness; he had made plans to retire way before that. Looking hack at his more than two decades at the 'school, there's no wonder why he felt there was little else he could achieve. He was only 45 when he arrived at the campus in the early 1980s to start his run as the school's 12th president. During his reign. Wake Forest flourished. The school had really only been known in local circles for its aca demic vigor and flair. Largely because of Hearn, the world would learn that as well. He increased the school's cof fers, recruited academic super Htarn stars and made the controversial decision to sever Wake's gover nance by the Baptist State Convention of North Carolina. As a result, the school's aca demic rigor has been constantly attested to by U.S. News &World Report and student enrollment rose through the roof. And few schools can boast that they've hosted two pres idential debates like Wake has in 1988 and 2000. Heam had his detractors, like all successful leaders. Some stu dents complained that he wasn't warm and fuzzy; some faculty members lobbied similar com plaints. But Heam was Heam. and Wake Forest and all of us should be thankful for that. A memorial service will be held on Friday at 3 pm. in Wail Chapel. In lieu of flowers, memo rials can he made to the Wake Forest University Brain Tumor Center of Excellence, Office of Development, Medical Center Boulevard. Winston-Salem, NC 27157-1021. Doin^ the ? SiUne over... xMucJ result ... AA/^a&uLizs Bi-racial 4 Black' Leaders George Curry Guest Columnist If you had a choice of color Which one would you choose my brothers If there was no day or night Which would you prefer to be >,? right. - Curtis Mayfield, "Choice of Colors" While Barack Obama was pondering whether to seek his party's nomination for presi dent, there was another devel opment already taking place in the Black community. More than any time in memory, there has been a growth in the number of people of biracial parentage assuming leadership roles in largely Black cities and organizations. They include Washington, D.C. Mayor Adrian Fenty, NAACP President/CEO Benjamin Jealous and Maryland Lieutenant Governor Anthony G. Brown. As with so many things in the African-American commu nity, the issue of color is a complicated one. From the days slave mas ters forced themselves on Bla@k women, there have been bi-racial children, some taking on the color of their mother and others looking as white as any White man. Even today, more than nearly 400 years later, some Blacks can still pass for White. Complicating matters within the community, howev er, are the mixed signals Blacks have historically sent on color. In many social gath erings, a premium was placed on what was then called light bright-and'damned-near White. Some social clubs required potential members to Mayor Fenty pass the paper bag test - if you were darker than a paper bag, you couldn't join. But all of that changed - or, at least was challenged - during the Black Power Movement of the late 1960s. Black was in. White was out. No more White dolls, no more European beauty standards, no more self-hate. We were taught to love ourselves. Of course, the Black Pride Movement never took full hold in our community - after trying an Afro, James Brown even went back to hi? scary curl - but it represented a sig nificant step in the right direc tion. Now some of us would rather cuss and make a fuss Than to bring about a little trust But we shall overcome our beliefs someday If you'll only listen to what I have to say. With remnants of the live and-let live spirit of the 1960s still in place, color isn't any less complicated today. Clarence Thomas, a dark skinned man, is more hostile to civil rights than any of the White conservatives on the U.S. Supreme Court. Yet, Walter White - who, by all appearances, looked White - was an ardent civil rights activist with the NAACP, serving as executive secretary from 1931-1955. Derrick Bell, a law profes sor at New York University, Lieutenant Gov. Brown reads nothing special into the inceasing number of bi-racial leaders. "It shows that interracial unions are on the rise," he explained. "Obviously a num ber of young Whites, male and female, are looking beyond race in choosing whom they wish to marry." Until the U.S. Supreme Court struck down anti-misce genation laws in 1967 (Loving v. Virginia), interracial mar riages were illegal in 16 states. According to the Census Bureau, the number of interra cial marriages increased from less than 1 percent in 1970 to slightly more than 5 percent in 2000. And not all products of these unions accept others' definition of them. Consider this exchange between Michelle Martin, host of NPR's "Tell Me More," and Ben Jealous. ? MARTIN: One other interesting thing about you is that you are also biracial as is Barack Obama, as is the lieu tenant governor of Maryland, as is the mayor of Washington. JEALOUS: Can I, can I make a small correction there? MARTIN: Of course. JEALOUS: I'm black, you know the only thing that we have, you know, the only definition that's out there on the books if you will, are state laws, and my family is from Virginia. When I was born . . . the law said ... if you were at least l/32nd of African descent, you were black, end Jealous of story. White was an exclu sive definition; black was inclusive definition... The real issue, says Luke Harris, a professor at Vassar College, is not what people call Jealous - whose father is White and mother is Black - but how those in that group relate to the Black conjmunity. "Biracial folk have always played significant leadership roles in the Black community. We need only think of Frederick Douglass," Harris said. "Whether their increased participation in these roles signals something good or bad depends on the ways in which they relate to the Black com munity. Do they see them selves as full-fledged mem bers of our community? Do they offer a politics that gen uinely reflect the interests of our community? These are the sorts of questions that will have to be asked." / said now people must prove to the people A better day is coming for ypu and for me With just a little bit more education And love for our nation Would make a better society. George E. Curry, former editor-in-chief of Emerge magazine and the NNPA News Service, is a keynote speaker, moderator, and media coach. He can be reached through his Web site, www.georgecurry.com . Juveniles don't belong in adult prisons Marian Wright Edelman Guest Columnist Jails and prisons are dan gerous places for anybody, but especially for children and teens. Many of these institu tions house vicious predators who have been locked up for brutal violent crimes. Yet on any given day, approximately 9,500 juveniles under the age of IS are locked up in adult penal institutions. Children as young as 15 can be prosecute^ as adults in many states with out review by a judge or a court hearing. The Campaign for Youth Justice report, "Jailing Juveniles: The Dangers of Incarcerating Youth in Adult Jails in America," released in November 2007, outlines the challenges to keeping chil dren safe in adult jails. It cat alogs the numerous jurisdic tions throughout the United States where teens are placed in great danger because of the variety of flawed policies and laws governing juvenile incarceration. In 44 states and Ihe District of Columbia, juveniles as young as 14 can be tried in the adult criminal system. Forty states either permit or mandate the jailing of young people in adult facil ities before trial. The report argues that children and teens should not be held to the same standard of accountability for their actions as grown-ups, citing research that shows the devel opmental differences between adolescents and adults. These findings indicate that the pre frontal cortex, which governs the "executive functions" of reasoning, advanced thinking and impulse control, is one of the last areas of the brain to mature. In numerous cases, there is no public safety justification for locking up these young people in adult prisons. Juveniles may be held in adult jails for months or even years, although most of them are not charged with a violent crime, and many will not be convict ed of any crime. Nevertheless, they languish behind bars with dangerous criminals and are at great risk of being raped and beaten. Many are pushed to attempt suicide. As in the administration of many laws in this country. Black and Latino children and teens end up in adult facilities in numbers disproportionately higher than their representa tion in the general population. Nationally, according to the Campaign for Youth Justice report, three out of four young people admitted to adult prison in 2002 were either Black or Latino. At issue is the Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Act of 1974 (JJDPA). When originally enacted, it was designed to prevent young people from going to adult jails and pris ons and to separate young people from adults while incarcerated. These protec tions were called "Sight and Sound Separation"? a young person would be beyond the sight and sound of the adult inmates. Over time, however, these provisions have been eroded and do not apply to young people being tried in the adult criminal system. Now judges in juvenile courts are often excluded from the decision to prosecute children and teens as adults. In many states, these deci sions are made at the discre tion of prosecutors, no matter how minor the infraction might be. The JJDPA does not provide a level playing field for Black and Latino youths who are more likely than White youths to end up in adult prisons and jails. We have an opportunity and responsibility to do better in our country. Placing juve niles in adult jails and prisons is an appalling injustice ? and it doesn't work to reduce crime. With the JJDPA set to be reauthorized this year. Congress must amend the Act to ban the placement of_chil-- _ dren or teens in adult jails or prisons no matter what court hears their case. This is the right and sensible thing to do. For more information about Marian Wright Edelman and the Children's Defense Fund, which she established, C go to www.childrensdefense .org .

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