6A
NEWS/tC(e CJarlatte
Tuesday, December 23, 2003
Capnirano reason for gloadng
Continued from page 1A
do we have or ever had any
evidence that Saddam is
connected with A1 Qaeda?”
Rangel said that the
answers to each of these
questions “no.” “Therefore,
what we have here is an
international villain who vio
lated the mandates of the
United Nations and that he
mistreated his own people,”
he stated.
According to Rangel, the
U.S. took it upon itself, with
out support of its regular
European allies and the
United Nations, to attack
Iraq and kill its people, as
well as cause suffering and
the loss of Americans lives,
just to “capture one bum.”
Therefore, Rangel contin
ued, the real question is,
“Don’t we have a bigger vil
lain in North Korea who
suppresses his own people,
violates international law,
and who we know has
weapons of mass destruc
tion?” Rangel went on to ask
why the U.S. hasn’t also lib
erated North Korea from its
ruling tyrant.
The Harlem lawmaker
also said the United States
shouldn’t have gone to war
against Iraq in the first
place. “I think the interna
tional community could have
gotten rid of Saddam with
out the loss of lives,” he stat
ed. “We have paid a heavy
price to capture Saddam
Hussein, and I don’t know
where this is going to take
President Bush in terms of
another so-called victoiy.”
Should the Iraqi dictator
receive the death penalty?
“I am vigorously opposed to
the death penalty,” Rangel
declared. “We don’t have the
right to take a life.” Rangel
also said he was vehemently
opposed to the assassination
by the U.S. of Saddasfs two
“I thought it was uncivi
lized to kiU these two men
and wash and shave their
bodies before putting them
on public display for the
world to see how barbaric we
are,” Rangel declared.
Rep. Major R. Owens (D-
Brooklyn) hailed Saddam’s
capture but said that the vic
tory does not justify the war
in Iraq.
“We must now demand
that they bring our troops
home,” he stated. ‘We must
also stop spending a billion
dollars a week in Iraq and
bring our dollars home.”
Activists: Thurmond affair should be placed in
context of American sexual and racial relations
Continued from page 1A
there’s not enough troops in
the Army to force the
Southern people to break
down segregation and admit
the nigger race into our the
atres, into our swimming
pools, into our homes and
into
Thurmond
our
churches.”
In 1957 -
three years
after the
U.S.
Supreme
Court out
lawed segre
gated public
schools in its
famous
the Board of
says Bond. “How a man can
preach racial separatism
and practice interracial sex,
in defiance of the then-cur
rent laws of his state and
defiance of his entire public
life. You wonder if Strom
Thmniond and others like
him ever
had any con-
Bond
“Brown
Education of Topeka, Kan.”
- Thurmond filibustered a
civil rights bill for a record 24
hours and 18 minutes. The
bill, which eventually
passed, was the first civil
rights legislation passed
since 1875. It provided the
authority for establishing a
civil rights office at the
Department of Justice to
enforce federal anti-bias
laws and to investigate com
plaints of civil rights viola
tions. It also provided for vot
ing rights enforcement and
established criminal civil
rights violations.
NAACP Board Chairman
Julian Bond notes the con
tradiction between a White
Southerner who considered
Blacks inferior while sexual
ly exploiting an African-
American teenager in pri
vate.
“It is a story most of all, of
great personal hypocrisy,”
victions
about any
thing at all.”
The vari
ety of com
plexions and
hair textures
among Black
people are
everyday
reminders of the slave own
ers who took advantage of
Black women.
‘We are like a rainbow,”
says Hare. “And we’re still
suffering from that because
we bought into those fight-
skinned, dark-skinned
issues... .It took us into good
hair, bad hair and can you
pass the paper bag test,
these types of things.”
Rep. James E. Clybum (D-
S.C.) says the CBC is an
example of that rainbow.
“You look at the
Congressional Black
Caucus,” he says. “Do you
think Harold Ford [D-Teim.]
is a hundred percent
African-American?”
Psychiatrist Frances Cress
Welsing of Washington, D.C.
agrees that Thurmond was
involved in more than an
interracial affair.
“I think that the first thing
that black people should
think about is the context in
which this occurred,” she
says. “And that this woman,
this teenager, did not have a
choice. If she wanted to
protest and say, ‘He was forc
ing me,’ who would have lis
tened to her?”
Roger Wilkins, professor of
history and American cul
ture at George Mason
University in Fairfax, Va.,
agrees.
‘People have said to me,
‘Can you believe this? I say,
‘How can anybody my color
not believe this?”’ chuckles a
fight-complexioned Wilkins.
“This should open up a much
more honest conversation
about who we are. There are
really two things to be said
about this, that we’re aU a
part of the same species and
there are no innate differ
ences.”
Hypocrisy - the failure to
match private behavior with
public utterances - also
dogged Thomas Jefferson,
the nation’s third president.
As author of the
Declaration of
Independence, Jefferson
extolled the virtues of liberty.
Yet he owned almost 200
slaves, none of whom he
freed on his deathbed. DNA
tests confirm that Jefferson
fathered at least one of the
six children of one of his
slaves, Sally Hemings.
“Jefferson was a very com
plicated human being. He
was inconsistent on a lot of
things,” says Wilkins, author
of “Jefferson’s Pillow: The
Founding Fathers and the
Dilemma of Black
Patriotism,” He explains, “I
Seniors perplexed by Medicare laws
Continued from page 1A
for House Republicans.
“There is a curiosity which
could lead to confusion
unless we act,” Crist said.
In Georgia, Republican
Rep. Phil Gingrey, a physi
cian who voted for the over
haul, said he has made some
headway among older con
stituents who have attended
his public meetings about
Medicare.
“They have heard a lot of
Medi-scare rhetoric about
being forced out of Medicare
and losing prescription drug
benefits they already have,”
Gingrey said. “It has been an
educational task of mine to
make sure they understand
the truth as opposed to the
rhetoric.”
The competing meetings
and public relations efforts
serve almost as a continua
tion of the partisan debate in
Congress on the legislation.
President Bush and his
allies tell people the drug
benefit is voluntary. “If you
don’t want to change your
current coverage, you don’t
have to change,” Bush said
when he signed the bill this
month.
But Cardin argued strenu
ously that it is not voluntary,
stressing that the
Congressional Budget Office
predicts that 2.7 miUion peo
ple will lose the more gener
ous drug benefits they have
from former employers.
“Public opinion, the jury is
still out,” Cardin told the
dozen or so older people at
the Resurrection Catholic
Church in Laurel.
Cardin said he wants them
to understand what the law
says so they can make
informed decisions. But he
offered a critical presenta
tion tfiat appeared to rein
force doubts about it.
“It’s got a lot of flaws in it,”
said LaVonne Hanlon, 65, of
nearby Maryland City.
At AARP, which endorsed
the legislation as it pro
gressed through Congress,
representatives have
received a steady stream of
questions - 45,000 phone
calls and 40,000 e-mails -
from some of the group’s 35
million members.
believe he was the father of
Sally Hemings’ children and
I think that it was sexual
hypocrisy of the highest
order because he at times in
his life talked about the dan
gers of race-mixing. And yet,
it’s fairly clear that he was
continuously involved with
this woman.”
Thurmond’s dalliances
were also weU known in his
home state.
“Everybody knew,” recalls
Clybum. “I knew it...very
explicitly. It’s just about as
widespread as anybody I
know of. More people know
that than know who’s run
ning for president.”
When asked why he had
not discussed Thurmond’s
behavior, Clybum replied,
“Why should I? This is like
asking me why I didn’t
announce the rooster crow
ing.”
Another South Carolina
native, conservative talk
show host and columnist
Armstrong Williams of
Marion is a long-time
defender of Thurmond, for
whom he once worked.
“Senator Thurmond in Ms.
Essie Mae Williams’ life has
always provided for her,” he
said on a recent “Hardball
with Chris Matthews” televi
sion show. “When she lost
her husband in 1964, he
stepped in not only for her,
but her children, making
sure that they received an
education beyond high
school. And whatever she
asked for, he was there.”
Not completely.
Says Hare, the psycholo
gist: “He could say that he
paid, but he stiU primarily
was deadbeat psychological
ly because this is a person
who couldn’t say publicly
who my father is.”
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