Page 12, AC Phoenix, April 1990
PHOENIX OPINIONS-EDITORIALS
Daring to be different and an agent for change
For the last month or
so, one of the cable
television stations has
been featuring the
movie, “Lean on Me,”
the story of the dynamic
East Paters.on, New
Jersey principal, Joe
Clark, who set in motion
the wheels of change at
Eastside High School.
Just before filming for
the movie was to start, I
had the extraordinary
good fortune to inter
view Clark at his base of
operations-a descrip
tive term considering
the war he was fighting
to turn the school
around.
As luck would have It,
Morgan Freeman was
visiting the school the
day of the March, 1988
6:30 a.m. interview to
get a feel for what he
would be up against in
recreating the person
and spirit of Joe Clark.
Meeting the two men
was startling because
they bear a fair resem
blance to a man who
was so much like Joe
Clark that I commented
on that physical and
philosophical similarity
to Clark during our in
terview. He replied that
in ever verbose barrage
of polysyllabic phrase
ology that is characteris
tic of his style, “Then
he's a remarkable felbw
with a propensity for
pertinacious pursuit of
goals that others cannot
begin to comprehend.”
Indeed, my father,
Willie E. Smith, was that,
and his death on March
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31, 1989 deprived our
black community of an
“entrepreneur extraor
dinaire.” Before he
died, he listened to the
tape of my interview with
Joe Clark and could not
have agreed more that,
for all Clark's stringent,
often heavy-handed
tactics, his strategy for
transforming a school
that was an inner-city
nightmare into a safe
environment where
learning could take
place, could not be de
nied.
Just as the political
environment in
Winston-Salem con
tributed to a number of
difficult situations that
my father faced, so too
did Joe Clark do battle
with the political forces
in East Paterson, N.J. Joe
Clark and Willie E. Smith
dared to be different,
dared to have the in
testinal fortitude re
quired to essentially
buck the system. The
two are examples of
men who believed in
discipline, pride, and
academic achievement.
Morgan Freeman
gives an outstanding
performance as Joe
Clark even though the
film does take certain
liberties with the actual,
factual events surround
ing Clark's time at
Eastside High School.
But, that's not surprising
since the man who is a
consummate believer in
controlling was virtually
leaning over Freeman's
anniversary of my fa
ther's death. Yet, some
thing that they both
epitomized and was not
ing, bull horn wielding
“Crazy Joe”-tried to put
in place at the high
school he had been
EDITORIAL
By Patricia Smith-Deering
Phoenix Managing Editor
shoulder during the
making of “Lean on
Me.”
Clark has moved on to
more lucrative lecture
engagements, and my
family marks the first
fully or adequately cap
tured in the movie de
serves repeating. That
is the philosophy of
discipline, pride, and
academic achievement
that Joe Clark-depicted
in the media as bat tot-
asked to save from state
takeover. The following
is the article I wrote from
that interview for The
Minority Business
Journal of New
Jersey.
See Daring, next page
Perception vs Reality makes for bad politics
Commentary by
Rodney Sumler
If there is one thing
my political involvement
has taught me over the
years, it's that black folks
continue to allow white
folks to decide on who
our leaders are and who
they want to deal with.
While I have never con
sidered myself as any
thing other than a black
man who is committed
to the community that
nurtured me, thanks to
the ongoing FBI/IRS in
vestigation into my polit
ical and civic involve
ments and the resulting
newspaper front-pate,
prime time television
coverage. I've been an-
nointed as a force in the
black community. The
apparent goal has been
to turn the perception fo
me as a black leader into
a reality in the minds of
those whom I have
merely sought to assist.
Whatever political in
fluence I may have been
perceived as having has
been effectively sabo
taged by the white me-
dia--specifically the
Winston-Salem
Journal and Channel
12 news. The paper de
liberately came out with
designating me as a
leader to anger black
leaders with me, to iso
late me, and to have
them treat me like I'm
me and separating me
from a lot of people.
People need to stop
saw what was happened
to me, some of them
changed their party affil
COMMENTARY
By Rodney Sumler
Phoenix Publisher
Lazarus or a leper.
Channel 12 news has
portrayed me as if I am
on the FBI's “Most
Wanted” list.
The sad fact is that by
creating the perception
that I am some omnipo
tent leader in the black
community, the media
has succeeded in get
ting the gullible to be
lieve it's a reality and to
react negatively to the
bad press. Such an ef
fective job of discredit
ing me has been done
that tew in Winston
would listen to anything
I would have to say or of
fer. It's as though the
media want to see me
dead politically. By
painting the worst case
scenario of who I am and
what I am, they have
succeeded inisolating
believing anything and
everything that they
read in the newspaper
or see on the TV news.
In Winston-Salem, it
seems that the more
educated some people
are, especially black
people, the more they
tend to believe anything
whites tell them about
other blacks.
But, we give the me
dia lots of assistance in
catering to our percep
tions and exploiting
them. Take the percep
tion many blacks have of
a black is is not a mem
ber of the traditional
party of black folks-the
Democratic party. As a
Republican, I'be been
castigated because of it
and when other blacks
that I had registered as
members of that party
iation beck to Democrat-
-couldn't take the heat.
We have this fear of
people who are
“different” from what we
choose to be. But, be
ing categorized as a
Republican or a
Democrat should not be
an impediment to an in
dividual's life, whether
politically, socially, or
personally. I think black
people make a serious
mistake in worrying
about labels bevause all
of us have any number
of labels and tags that
we put on ourselves.
We have a religious la
bel. We have a certain
denomination that we
believe in and we de
spise each other be
cause I think my denortv
ination is right and yours
is wrong, but we all say
we're all serving the
same God and working
towards the same end.
Politically, people call
themselves
Republicans, or
Independents, or
Democrats. Yet, it's
nothing but a label and
none of the parties con
trols what people do or
should do. People
should really vote for
the person, vote for the
issues,a nd vote for the
person's record and not
for the party. I have
learned one important
lesson from my various
forays into the political
arena. I made the false
assumption of thinking
that just because you
get out here and work
hard and people know
your name and you've
done what you perceive
as being a lot of good
for people, that they'll
vote for you or support
you.” But, as I found out
in my bid for a seat on
the City Council and as a
candidate for the state
House of
Representatives, poli
tics, just like life, doesn't
work like that.
Although people may
distort perceptions of
what is, it doesn't really
change the reality, only
See Reality, next page