Forum Business As Usual After The Election Thew s ft stfftnge notion floating around that the end of the election campaign means returning to business as usual. But, I believe it marks the start of a new era in whic h America will have to pull its col lective he, id out of the sand and begin to attack the stubborn problems that threaten our future. At the top of the list of those problems i5T~ racial divisiveness. < s Few co} ild take comfort from the way the * subject was* handled during the campaign , the candidates all but ran away from it. ? drastically reduced and our interests ignored. What kind of reassurances? For starters, the president-elect should nominate his Cabinet early one, and it should ? he made up of people with a track record of advocating policies that help people out of poverty. African-Americans and other minorities should be included in the Cabinet, and not just for positions traditionally associated with their concerns, such as Secretary of Health and Human Resources, or Secretary of Housing and Urban Development. * TO BE EQUAL * a* ? t By JOHN E. JACOB The African American commu nity has a wealth of talented people able and willing to serve in top posts that affect national defense, interna tional relations, the All of thc:m said the right thing about how we need to make our diversity a strength, but you could count the number of times they went beyond that on the fingers of one hand. In the thiird presidential debate, a question about minorities and women in decision - making post was answered in a similar fashion by all the candidates. They talked at length about the women they have apj;>ointed, but very little was said . about the need for greater representation of minorities and African-Americans in key gov ernment posts . Clearly, the candidates were more con cerned about the white suburban vote than they were the iinner city black vote. And if you look at it only from the angle of electoral politic, that til I makes sense. / You have, to get elected before you can govern, but unless you govern well you're unlikely to get re-elected. So the president-elect has to hit the ground running oncelie is inaugurated, and that means miiikii^g7 key decisions right now. Not just personal decisions, but also the pol icy choices hf* and we will live with for the next four years ! Many A{?ican-Americans are looking to the presidentelect-fan reassurances that the - next i pwf years will not be a repeat of the last dafzen years when our role in government was ? \ f-. 1 law, and business. A new Administration could send a strong signal that it really intends to honor America's diversity by appointing a Cabinet that truly riiflects^that diversity. :' A second reassurance can come from involvemeht with the African-American com munity ? meeting with black congress persons to get their ideas about policy, initiating an open door ipolicy of consulting with commu nity leaders-, and visiting inner city neighbor hoods to demonstrate concern with conditions there. Third, l:he president-elect should back the Urban League's call for a Marshall Plan for America, and explain to the action how target ting economic and human resource invest ments on those most in need will benefit the entire nation . Finally, he should use the tremendous media interest in his plans as a "bully pulpitH to stoplight America's racial problems and to mobilize citizens of all races to live together in harmony. And, that includes publically recognizing the continuing effects of racism and its poiso nous influence of our lives. Those steps would go a long way toward reas suring African-Americans that the future will be better than the past, and it wtH help to replace racial divisiveness with hope for a bet ter future. Stop the Violence in the U.S.A. The fatal shooting of seven year old Dantrell Davis as he walked to school through Chicago's Cabrinj-?rgen Ip stirred a renewed (iemflnd to;$tpp thespiral of death and violence, that has increasingly ; engulfed many of the centers of urban Amer ica. Some of the violence is gang related. Some of the violence comes as a result of drug epidemic. Yet, some of the violence finds innocent victims being caught in the crossfire of this nation's economic exploitation and 40 years. In fact, racial segregation in housing is worst in 1992 that it was in 1952 throughout $ey(ai?, Detroit, Kansas ,Qty **ncjj^n[\any odwsifop thfijv^nce in, public housing projects replicates the situation in Chicago. But the problem is not the exis tence of public housing; the problem is the absence of adequate public housing, the absence of employment, that absence of com munity economic empowerment for people of color communities, and the absence of show . priority concerns CIVIL RIGHTS JOURNAL By BENJAMIN F. CHAVIS JR. for {he plight of urban America by the federal government dur ing the last 12 years. In particular the federal retread from social neglect. T"he fact that there are many contributing facto rs to the violent social con dition of the Untited States is in itself no excuse for local, regional and national leaders to avoid addressing this critical issue. The new national focus on violence in public housing projects like Cabrini-Green is necessary and lonj; overdue. But we believe it would be a mistake to see the tragic death of little Dantrell Davis as an isolated incident that is only pertinent to the infamous public housing projects in the > city of Chicago. Chicago's Maiyor, Richard M. Daly, views the situation as needing primarily a law enforcement solution. Mayor Daly quickly ordered a massive police search and seizure operation in the 7^000 - person housing com plex. The residetiT population in Cabrini Green is nearly JOO percent African Ameri can. f The man arretted as the confessed shiper in the senseless shooting of Davis shotfid be swiftly tried and sentenced for his awful crim inal act. We believe, however, that to view the urban crisis solely a s an issue of law and order is grossly insuffici rnt and irresponsible. Until the social and economic conditions that drive persons to crime ai 1 d violence are changed the tragic murders of c >ur children in the streets of America will conti me to increase. How is it in si racially diverse large city like Chicago that: a 7,000 - person public housing project h is only African- American residents? Residential segregation by race and social economic condition has been chal lenged to any tangi ble degree during the last helping to finance public housing has both expanded the ranks of the homeless and dete riorated the physical and human conditions of the existing units of public housing. ;The devastating rise in violence is symp tomatic of the deeper problem of racism and this nations' reluctance to demand equal access to employment, education, health care and overall economic empowerment. As the international community has cor rectly focused worldwide attention to the vio lence and injustice of places such as Bosnia and Herzegovina or in South Africa, the vio lence of the socioeconomic and racial condi tion of the United States also needs more international scrutiny. Yefs, we are saying that the United Nations Commission on Human Rights needs to urgently review the systemic violence of Human Rights in the United States. Again the current 1992 Presidential Cam paign has all but ignored the spiral of violence and social disintegration sweeping the coun try. One way to begin to stop the violence is to stop ignoring its existence and stop denying the causative factors. Traditionally, the sole strategy of "law and order" only justifies and blames the victim for their victimization. Poverty is violence. Racism is violence. ?* Unemployment is violence. ' And these types of violence are forced together in the crucibles of urban America this will produce nothfng more than a greater intensity of homicide and hopelessness. For the sake of the thousand c5f children like Dantrell Davis who are killed senselessly, ft is imperative that we work harder to stop the violence. I'M NOT POINO THIS FOR MSELF. THE PRESIDENCY |f\ ISA THANKLESS, PIRTY 1 * JOB, PUT I'M KJtUJNG TO MAJ ?? I tU / IJIIUWJ . ji^n lb /ni {^HEY.KN&UtfMOtlP >n*M HAPPEN. KNEW IV Be ? HUMILIATE? ? VINDICATED AT THE ROUS ... I ?4 UIQ to onlftno ; 'Mi J ] rm u,ae^ such ascr&uy ibj ?? v y^t4? w mrri ojucjy OTYW/TH THAT FREEZE CPOCUP OUT THERE COMIN'AT ME,,. HELPOURGROUNP... BARBARA OUT THERE HU5&NG THOSE AJPS BABIES, ME TAR/N'ON THAT ARKANSAS GUY/ MfeANUJH/LE... t HEY, BILL CLINTON / UHEREYOU 60/N6N0WT h.jI imjnn ?:\M? i:> r ';rt fcj I'M GOING TO QTHEkHfTE HOUSE'. QDISNEY-^ LANP! SOOUHAVS THE ELECTION TELL US* CHANGE. GOTTA HAVE CHANGE. CHANGE IS GOOP. BUT PRL/PENT CHANGE, NUTTY OUT THERE,.. PONT KNOW HOW THAT TAX-AND-SPENP GUY GOT AS MANY VOTES AS HE PIP... JUST HOPE HE# AS6RAOOUSIN ^DEFEAT ^VICTORY ' As I'VE BEEN IN ; ? O VICTORY. Qf&&T 119 ' ylwI'U -J ' V. HEY, GOVERNOR! UJELL.I WH^tS JOB ONE? ai&L rD CLEANING UPTHE MESG /N WASHINGTON riSOTH ORHEAUNG WOUNDS? ^UJAVS /prV?T ? 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