5A
OPINIONS/tOe Ctarlotte $ot
Thursday, September 15, 2005
D.G.
Martin
My last column
on N.C. lottery
(for now, anyway)
Now that it is finally done, who are the winners and losers
in the lottery fight?
The biggest winner might be you, if you are a regular read
er of my column. My opposition to a state-run lottery has
been so strong that you have had to endure lots of columns
filled with my passion about the topic.
Your ordeal could be over.
Ihe biggest losers might be the biggest
supporters of the lottery.
The lobbyists and public relations consul-
^ j tants, who have, off and on, been on the pay-
rolls of gambling companies promoting the
state lottery, may have worked themselves
out of their jobs. Some of them, however, may
get a second wind, again representing these
companies as they compete to get a contract
to run the state’s new gamlding business or
working to expand the lotteiys operation.
Other losers might be the Democratic Party leadership.
The governor, lieutenant governor, the house speaker, and
the senate leadership took prominent roles in the passage of
the lottery this year. In public, they are celebrating and con
gratulating each other. In private, they worry that they have
lost a popular political issue that helped them win the last
two gubernatorial elections.
They remember what happened in South Carolina. In
1998 Democrat Jim Hodges won an upset victory over
incumbent (jovemor David Beasley, on a pro-lottery plat
form. But in 2002, the South Carolina \otterf was in place.
Wthout the Tottery” issue to help him, Hodges lost his
reelection campaign.
Similarly, some North Carolina Democrats wish they could
have kept the issue on the table for a few more elections.
For the same reason, some anti-lottery Republican politi
cians are glad they finally lost and got the lottery issue out
of the way
The deputy leader of the Republican minority in the state
senate, Tbm Apodaca from Hendersonville, told the
Charlotte Observer, ‘T’ve always been against it, but I spent
my whole weekend back in my district with everybody I saw
saying, Tlease vote for the lottery’ From that point. I’m glad
to get it off the table. I’m tired of hearing about it. We’ve got
a lot of other important issues we need to be dealing with.”
Apodaca mi^t have added, “And, having the lottery off the
table is going to make it possible for us to win at election
time.”
The biggest losers, over time, may well be the students in
public schools. ^\Tth the lottery supposedly taking care of
school construction needs, local voters may be less likely to
approve school bond issues. Actually, even the most opti
mistic projections of lottery proceeds would cover only a
small fi’action of estimated needs. Also, even though the leg
islature has “promised” not to reduce other funding for
schools, we have learned that you cannot take such “promis
es” to the bank.
Speaking of promises that might not be kept, don’t count
cai me keeping the one I made about not writing any more
about the lottery
Here is why The lottery issue might not be over quite yet.
Some lottoy opponents may be exploiing the possibility of
challenging it on constitutional grounds.
The North Carolina Constitution requires “revenue bills”
to be approved on two separate days. The lottery bill was
approved on a single day
The question then is whether or not the lottery legislation
was a “revenue bill.”
Here is what the constitution says:
“Sec. 23. Revenue bills. No law shall be enacted to raise
money on the credit of the State, or to pledge the faith of the
State directly or indirectly for the payment of any debt, or to
impose any tax upon the people of the State, or to allow the
counties, cities, or towns to do so, unless....”
Is the lottery a tax or does it pledge the state’s credit?
You.be the judge.
John Locke Foimdation President John Hood argues “that
the proceeds transferred fix)m the lottery coffers to the state
treasury, typically about a third, is a tax.”
If a court agrees with Hood, the lottery will be back on the
legislature’s table. The Democrats will keep a popular issue
for another election season.
And you will have to continue to endure my anti-lottery
columns.
D.G. MARTIN is the host of UNC-TV's “North Carolina
Bookwatch," which airs on Sundays at 5pm.
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Angela
Lindsay
Katrina strips and
reveals real America
New Orleans as we know it is gone. So are parts of Mississippi
and Alabama. Those are facts. No need to recap the statistics or
pour out a woeful litany of all the death, destruction, and damage
that has occurred. Every news outlet in the world has already done
that. But an overriding issue that has crawled under our black
skin and risen over stories of good will is the allegation that
response to the tragedy has been based on bias. At
a time when our country should be banding
together like we did for 9-11, Hurricane Katrina
has exposed our country’s disconnect along the
lines of race, class, and politics.
I have received several times now the infamous
email which aims to depict “selective reporting” on
the part of the media. It shows two different pic-
tures-one of a black person with a bag of stolen
items fix)m a grocery store and one of a white per-
son with a bag of stolen food as well. The captions
respectively stated that the black man was Tooting” and the white
person had ‘found” the items, leading many to be outraged at the
difference in choice of words used to describe what appears to be
the same action by both individuals. Some claimed news media’s
coverage was distorted and showed blacks in the worst li^t pos
sible through constant images of looting and shooting. Some,
blacks expressed embarrassment at the behavior of their people.
The city of New Orleans is nearly 70 percent black. It is one of
the poorest of aU the larger cities in America. Many of its residents
live at or below the poverty level, and, as a result, could not jump
into their SUVs and evacuate. Therefore, they are the ones likely
to be broadcast on TV. In desperate times, ‘lawlessness” often
ensues. Now, granted-you can not eat a flat screen TV, and rescue
vehicles are not going to pick you up carrying a stash of stolen guns
slung over your shoulder. So, there is no excuse for those types of
items to be taken. But if you knew the only thing keeping you or
your child or your grandmother fiem death or sickness while you
wait on assistance was to take what you needed to survive-what
would you do?
Not just black people are scrounging to survive down there.
Regardless of race, many of the evacuees are poor and already live
daily with the stress of poverty and dire conditions. The real story
of what has occurred, to these people should have moved us all to
compassion. But what it did was put the prejudices of our society
under a microscope. People called into radio shows and sent mes
sages across the Internet about how America should be embar
rassed that these “thugs” had resorted to looting during this time,
^ere was even a story I read about a group who stated the hur
ricane was a sign by God that homosexuality is evil because a gay
festival was set to be held in New Orleans this week Some blamed
the victims themselves for not evacuating, but many of them are
poor and have nowhere else tq^go or any means to leave. It is
shameful that a country at war is using another tragedy on its own
soil to justify prejudices, impose elitist attitudes and foster party
politics while Americans suffer.
Beginning last Monday, a local radio station and its listeners
raised over $250,000 alone and completely stocked up fifteen 18-
wheelers with food, water and supplies and had the caravan on the
way to New Orleans by Thursday This was the work of ordinary
people with only the resources donated by other kind-hearted peo
ple aroimd this area. Now, I do not piiiport to know everything
about the inner workings of the government but if two morning
show DJs can put together an effective plan of action to help, then
Bush admitted that the results of the rescue efforts stood
improvement and stated that $10.5 billion will go toward the
clean-up effort. And as much as some fike to view him as the bear
er of all bad things, it is no secret that New Orleans was a mess
before he came into oflB.ee. The local and state government is the
first line of response, but the city has lacked adequate infi*astruc-
ture and has been riddled for years with crime, poverty and cor
rupt officiating fix>m its government to local politics to the police
force. The dereliction of duties by the local and state leadership,
however, should not have amounted to finger pointing between
bureaucracies while citizens suffer.
I still fail to see a valid reason for aU the disorder. We are the
United States. We just sent people to the moon. We couldn’t effec
tively get water and supplies to victims? That is the point. If after
the chaos subsides, the sifting process to determine who is at fault
for slow rescues, gas prices, oil refineries, ^obal warming, levee
breaks, and all the other ancillary issues of this disaster begins-
fine. But it is not the time right now.
The task of rebuilding will be long and difficult and unlike any
natural disaster recovery effort we have ever seen. But we are a
resilient people. We have been throu^ worse. There are people of
all races and backgrounds who are willing and able to help each
other and do whatever it takes to restore some semblance of nor
malcy and humanity to an otherwise depleted region.
I did catch one heartening story about a black man who was
pifiled fix)m raging waters and most certain death by a white man.
They were nei^ibors. They rarely spoke before. The black man
said they woffid be good fidends fix)m now on after profusely thank
ing the white man for saving his life. As they hu^ed each other,
the white man simply said, You’re welcome, brother.’
Exactly
E-mail columnist ANGELA IJNDSAY at lindsaylaw00&yahoojcom.
Storm exposes the
‘invisible poor’
By Theodore M. Shaw
SPECIAL TO THE POST
Even before Katrina ripped a path of destiuction
through the Gulf Coast the NAACP Legal Defense
Fund and other civil and human rights advocates
were advocating for more enlightened policies affect
ing class and race.
Then came Katrina. The nation watched as New
Orleans was evacuated - or so we thought. Those
who could left by the tens and hundi'eds of thousands.
Those who could not - the “invisible” poor, stayed.
As the hunicane hit, most people thought that a rel
atively small number of people who could not or
would not leave were safely ensconced in the
Superdome to ride out the storm. The ugly reality,
-that those who were too poor to own cars and who
had no place and no means to go numbei’ed in the
hundreds of thousands, onlybecame apparent as New
Orleans descended into a hellish nightmare that
most Americans like to think could happen anywhere
but here. Yet it did.
As the faces of the “invisible” poor were revealed,
they were overwhelmingly black. Once again, race
exploded openly into the national conscience. The
issue of race is always a major sub-text in American
life, but we like to deny it or treat it as if it were one
of those nineteenth century diseases that had been
largely eradicated by 20th century medicine,
Periodically there mi^t be an isolated case or two
amoi^ the uninoculated, but for the most part, the
disease had been wiped out.
The truth is that race has always been and contin
ues to be this nation’s great afiOiction, and we know it.
We choose to live in denial about the truth of race pre-
ciselybecause our nation’s history of racism still holds
so much power and explosiveness that we think we
are better off if we make race the “thuxl rail” in
American life. Even, even if we acknowledge the con
tinued realities of race and racism — we are tired -
bone weary tired - of it. So we live in this carefully
constructed denial of race and racism in which we
prefer to soothe ourselves with the pablum of fiction
al color-blindness, Katrina exposed the issue of race
once again, as it did the issue of class.
While the news cycle is short and this momentary
candor is already fading, the underlying realities of
race and class remain. The Legal Defense Fund is
bringing its expertise and resources to post-Katrina
relief First response needs of Katrina victims obvi
ously are basic and immediate concerns involving
saving lives, and providing food, shelter and medical
care. Second wave issues wiU include a thicket of
legal questions, civil and ciiminal, of staggering pro
portion. LDF has reached out to lawyers across the
nation in civil rights organizations, bai’ associations
and law firms in order to begin coordination of pro
bono legal services. And we are moving to represent
New Orleans residents facing various criminal
. charges, including looting baby clothes for their one
year old child. Black elected officials fiem Louisiana
are seeking LDFs assistance in legal matters that
they see on the horizon affecting the African-
American community LDF had clients in various
cases pending when Katrina hit; we are finding our
clients and ascertaining next steps on their behalf
And we are examining a range of legislative and reg
ulatory issues that Congr*3SS and federal agencies
must address.
Katrina has brou^t out the best and the worst in
people in New Orleans, the Gulf Coast region, and
around the nation. Just as it is true on an individual
level adversity tests character, it is true for our
nation. We believe that this is a time to articulate and
pursue a better vision of oumation. This is not a time
for Congress to further cut programs that provide
health care for poor people, or to enact further tax
cuts for the wealthy It is time for a “paradigm shift”,
in which we as a nation commit ourselves to the adop
tion of priorities and policies which leave no person in
this nation behind, mired in poverty and shackled by
racism. Whathappened in New Orleans after Katrina
was a warning that we ignore at our deepest peril,
THEODORE M. SHAW is director-counsel and president of
the NAACP Ijegal Defense and Educational Fund in New
York.