4A
EDITORIALS/ The Charlotte Post
Septembers, 1996
Wl)e Cljarlotte
Published weekly by the Charlotte Post Publishing Co.
1531 Camden Road Charlotte, N.C. 28203
Gerald O. Johnson
CEO/PUBLISHER
Robert Johnson
CO-PUBLISHER/
GENERAL MANAGER
Herbert L. White
EDITOR IN CHIEF
Tobacco attack and illegal drugs
GERALD O. JOHNSON
As I
See It
America’s reaction to its
violence in black and white
By Earl Ofari Hutchinson
NATIONAL NEWSPAPER PUBLISHERS ASSOCIATION
“Why is the FBI being so soft on them? They’ve got to do some
thing.”
The resident of Jordan, Mont, was bewildered that more than a
month after the beginning of the siege, a small army of FBI agents
waited patiently for a band of 20 Freemen holed up in a Montana
ranch house to surrender. The Freemen were wanted for land theft,
check fraud and the swindling of banks, public institutions, and busi
nesses of $1.8 million. The FBI wait-out cost the taxpayers $300,000
per day and Montana residents an added $250,000.
FBI officials say they wanted to avoid a repeat of the bloodbath that
followed sieges at Waco and Ruby Ridge, which touched off public
outrage and congressional investigations over FBI tactics. Ramona
Africa was probably bewildered that law enforcement didn’t take the
same precautions to avoid bloodshed and the destruction of property
in Philadelphia more than a decade ago. Afiica filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit in federal court against Philadelphia city officials for
the March 1985 bombing of MOVE headquarters that killed 11 mem
bers. The group was awarded $1.5 million in damages this year.
Although local police confronted MOVE and the FBI confronted the
Freemen, there are similarities. MOVE, like the Freemen, was a rad
ical fringe group. Their members were armed. They had members in
jail and a history of prior confrontations with the law. Women and
children were in the siege house. Neighbors and area residents com
plained about them. The bomb dropped on MOVE contained C4
explosive, which was reportedly supplied by the FBI.
But there are also differences between the law enforcement con
frontation with MOVE and the Freemen. The Freemen sunbathed,
rode horses, danced jigs, received visitors, and plowed their fields in
full view of the FBI. Their armed supporters patrolled the back roads
keeping the press and on-lookers out. Their .sympathizers had an
open platform in newspapers, on radio, and national TV talk shows to
spout their views. MOVE didn’t.
In less than 48 hours, a Philadelphia police helicopter dropped the
C-4 bomb on the roof of the MOVE headquarters. Six adults and five
children were incinerated, 61 homes destroyed, and 350 residents left
homeless. Three days after the MOVE bombing then-Attorney
General Edwin Meese told the California Peace Officers Association
that the bombing was “a good example for us all to take note of”
'The biggest difference, however, between the two groups is that the
MOVE activists were black men, women, and children. 'The Freemen
are mostly white males. In the decade since the MOVE bombing,
armed white “anti-government” militants like the Freemen have
committed dozens of bank robberies, shot it out with FBI, IRS, ATF
officers, attacked federal land agents, stockpiled mountains of
weapons, openly tested bombs, and conducted military maneuvers.
A year after the bombing of the federal building in Oklahoma City,
441 active “anti government” militia groups operate in all 50 states
and have paramilitary training sites in 23 states. One hundred and
thirty-seven groups have ties to white supremacist organizations like
the Klan and the Aryan Nation.
Last July, the Aryan Nation, active in 22 states, held its annual
Aryan World Congress near Hayden, Idaho. It drew 200 white
supremacists. Militia groups have more than 100 World Wide Web
sites to spew their hatred to millions in cyberspace. Their terrorist
threats, tactics, criminal activities, and violence are not the stuff of
nightly news reports, press features, editorials, and exposes. They are
not singled out as a menace to society in national debates over crime
bills, three strikes legislation, the death penalty, and prison construc
tion. In the immediate aftermath of the Oklahoma City bombing,
there were no mass raids on their headquarters or roundups of their
leaders. Clinton and political leaders assured, and the media
demanded, that their civil rights and civil liberties be scrupulously
respected.
The public veil over white violence is in stark contrast to America’s
open assault on black violence. In 1995, one out of three young black
men are in jail, or prison, on parole or probation. Nearly half of
America’s 1 million prisoners are black. The top heavy number of
Black men in jail reinforces the public view that they commit most of
the major violent crimes in America. They don’t. White males commit
54 percent of violent crimes in America, 60 percent of the urban hate
crimes and the majority of serial and mass murders.
While they often get kid glove treatment from law enforcement, mil
itant groups like MOVE get swiftly attacked and harshly prosecuted.
Violence may come in black and white, but law enforcement does not
treat both the same.
EARL OFARI HUTCHINSON is an author and columnist.
Responses may be sent e-mail to him at: ehulchi344@aol.com
The Clinton administration
has asked the Food and Drug
Administration to declare ciga
rettes a drug. If this request is
granted, then cigarettes will be
federally regulated. This can be
construed as another attack on
the tobacco industry. 'The tobac
co industry has been under fire
since it was discovered that cig
arette smoking is hazardous to
your health. But cigarettes are
stiU legal products.
The government approach to
attacking this industry has been
educating the public about the
dangers of smoking. This
approach is being used to influ
ence the public to stop smoking.
The strategy was to drive
down the demand for the prod
uct and help drive the compa
nies out of this line of business.
The strategy is working.
Cigarette consumption is down
in the USA and it continues to
fall each year. Because smok
ing has been made taboo, the
government tactics are viewed
by the public as acceptable.
But here is the problem.
Cigarettes are still a legal
product. Tobacco companies
are still doing legitimate busi
ness. To what extent can we
sanction the government
spending tax dollars to drive a
legitimate business out of busi
ness?
If the product is harmful and
killing people, why not declare
it illegal? Case closed. Sounds
simple enough. But the tobac
co industry has plenty of
money to fight the government
on this and could tie this up in
courts for many years. Plus
making tobacco illegal will
cause many states financial
hardships, including North
Carolina. Tobacco fanners will
be hard hit, not to mention the
hundreds of thousands of jobs
that will be lost if the plants
that produce tobacco products
are shut down.
As much as we would like to
take one side over another, this
is a veiy complicated issue. We
have to choose the public’s phys
ical health over its economic
health. It’s a situation where
the government has to be a
major player. I agree with the
actions taken. By educating the
public to the dangers of smok
ing, the government in effect
addressed the physical health of
the public. Since the educational
approach is a slow, gradual
process, it allows the tobacco
industry to position itself in a
way to absorb the impact of a
decreasing demand of its prod
ucts. Thus the economic impact
is lessened.
If tobacco products come
under the jurisdiction of the
FDA, then the government will
be able to take more direct
action in controlling these prod
ucts. But this leads to a much
more interesting question. If we
take a legal product and classify
it as a drug for more govern
mental control, why can’t we
take an illeged drug and make it
legal for more government con
trol?
I would think that the war on
drugs could be made manage
able if the illegal drugs were
made legal. There are two
aspects to illegal drugs: social
and criminal. The social aspects
are not significantly different
from what we are seeing with
the tobacco industry. The crimi
nal aspect could be eliminated
with the legalizing of these sub
stances. Just something to think
about.
GERALD O. JOHNSON is
publisher and president of The
Charlotte Post
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Mary McLeod Bethune’s legacy
Bernice P.
Jackson
Every now and then it is good
to remind ourselves of the lega
cy left to us by om ancestors.
It is good to remember the
endurance of our great grand
mothers who lived in slavery
and had their children snatched
away from them. It is good to
remember the patience of our
great grandfathers who were
farmers and knew how to sur
vive at the whim of crops and
weather. It is good to remember
the courage of former slaves
who were hungry to learn to
read and did so sometimes as
senior citizens. It is good to
remember those who were beat
en and died for the right to vote
in this nation.
One of the richest legacies left
to Afncan Americans is found in
the words of Mary McLeod
Bethune. If only we can recap
ture those words and that lega
cy, we may have a chance to
survive as a people.
I leave you love. Love can
stop the violence in our homes,
in our communities, in our
world. Self-love and the lack of
it is at the heart of the problem
for many Afncan Americans.
I leave you hope. Cornel
West says that too many young
people have no love, no hope
and no meaning in their lives. A
hopeless person is a dangerous
person and too many of our
young people have no hope - no
hope of a job, no hope of chance
to survive, no hope even of life.
I leave you the challenge of
developing confidence in
one another. There are still
Afncan Americans who will not
use black physicians, lawyers or
contractors because they believe
they will get inferior service. As
African Americans are better
educated and trained, we must
have confidence in each other’s
abilities, each other’s skills,
each other’s gifts.
I leave you a thirst for edu
cation. Too many of our yoimg
people taunt those who want to
learn and say they are trying to
be white. They’re trying to be
black - to follow in the footsteps
of our Egyptian ancestors who
were some of the most learned
people in history and in the foot
steps of those slaves who
endured beatings and death so
that they might read. Without
education, we are doomed as a
people.
I leave you respect for the
use of power. African
. Americans have been elected to
Congress and mayoralties in
unprecedented numbers. We
are wealthier than we have ever
been in this nation. With this
new-found political and econom
ic power comes increased
responsibility in how we use it.
I leave you faith. It was faith
in God which enabled our fore
mothers and forefathers to
endure the Middle Passage,
slavery, lynchings and Jim
Crow laws. Without that kind of
faith, we cannot find real hope
and real love. We must re cap
ture that kind of faith if we are
to siuvive.
I leave you racial dignity.
Racial dignity is not just racial
pride, but also the canying high
of one’s head. Racial dignity
comes with having faith, hope
and love. It comes with loving
education and having confi
dence in others of your race. It
comes with using power with
respect. It means standing tall
because all is right with your
relationship with God, with
community, with family, with
self.
It is good to revisit those
words of Maiy McLeod Bethune
and to center our lives as a peo
ple around them once more.
'Thank you Mrs. Bethune. You
left a rich legacy to us all.
BERNICE POWELL JACK-
SON is executive director of the
Commission for Racial Equality
in Cleveland, Ohio.
To build America, ‘Let us move boldly into this new world’
By Harvey Gantt
SPECIAL TO THE POST
Remarks prvjxired for delivery
by Harvey Gantt la.st week at the
Democratic national convention
in Chicago.
Ladies and gentlemen, fellow
Americans, I want to begin by
telling you that in North
Carolina I will defeat Jesse
Helms in November.
I am an architect and I am a
Democrat, which means that I
am a builder. We don’t believe
in tearing people down. We
believe in building the future.
'These days, families are facing
a whole new world of chal
lenges. And we need to find
whole new ways to help them
reach the American Dream.
That’s something I know a lit
tle about. My parents didn’t
have much money and precious
little formal education. But they
were rich in the values and
dreams of America. 'They taught
their five children that with
hard work and perseverance,
faith in God, and personal
responsibility, anything was
possible in this country. And I
watched our family move from
poor to middle class, from par
ents with little education to chil
dren with college degrees, fix)m
public housing to home owner
ship. As a child I held the 2-by-
4s for my daddy as he built oiu-
first home with his own hands
— determined to build our piece
of the American Dream.
Where did they find that opti
mism? The home I was born in
had no running water. The com
munity we lived in treated us
like second class citizens. We
did sit in the back of the hus.
We did go to ditt’erent schools.
But my family never doubted
that the promise of America
could be made real for each and
everyone of us...and it was.
How do we renew the promise
of America today?
Folks, we have to begin by
being clear about what we
value, and what we do not
value. We value strong families
that struggle to stay together.
We do not value deadbeat par
ents who abandon their chil
dren. We honor our parents. We
do not honor those who would
slash their Medicare to cut
taxes for the wealthy. We value
hard work. Welfare dependency
if you can get a job is not some
thing to flaunt before those who
work two or three jobs just to
get by.
And we most definitely value
our children and their educa
tion.
Last year, my opponent and
the Republican Congress tried
to cut the heart out of education.
Thank God, President Clinton
stopped them.
We have to get passionate
about education again. It’s time
for new ideas...like a tax deduc
tion to help middle class fami
lies pay for college tuition or job
training.
We have to teach our children
the basics again...the three R’s
of reading, writing and arith
metic...but also a fourth R.
Respect. Respect for teachers.
for parents, for each other.
My parents had it right...the
simple values of hard work, per
severance, faith, and education
will always be the path to the
American Dream.
So let us move forward boldly
into this new world. Let us edu
cate our children and train our
workers better than anyone
else.
But let us also understand
that government cannot be a
cure-all for aU of our problems.
It never had been and it never
will be.
Ordinary people, not unlike
my momma and my daddy, will
change America.
They always have.
And we Democrats should
remember that they always will.
'Thank you and may God bless
Gantt
you.
HARVEY GANTT of Charlotte
is a Democratic candidate for
U.S. Senate.