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' ' winaton-SaJem Utworuckr _ ? FORUM , Tribute to Our Daddies: Happy Father's Day ' strong meivkeep coming. . Robert Hayden J . 0 Father's Day. Daddy's Day. A day set aside to pay tribute to those men whom the' Creator has blessed with 1 " timized and vilified, stigmatized and stereotyped in vir tually every facet of this society. Indeed, which all the respect and honor due to our African-American women - those mamas, grandmas, aunties and sisters who raised and reared so many of us; GUEST COLUMNIST By CLIFTON E. GRAVES JR. ; ? : ? ; ? '*. the incomparable pleasure and awesome responsibility of fatherhood. And while this day is obviously of importance to fathers (and children) of all races and creeds. Father's Day in the African- American commu nity takeson a special significance. Jn both the historic and present-day context here, African-American males have been and still are constantly aiH cnntinnally vie and, who yet remain the lifeblood of our community, Father's Day offers us an opportunity to pay homage to those daddies, stepdaddies, uncles, grandpas P and brothers who dared to be men, when society bid them to be boys. Our people's historic andi present day experiences are replete with evi - dence of the character and courage of _ African and African-American fathers. From those countless African warriors who fought the colonizers on the coasts of Sierre Leone and Angola to Fredrick Douglas, Martin Delany, Marcus Garvey, Paul Robeson, Martin King and Malcolm X, male dcscen dants of Africa have stood tall and withstood all in their/our attempts to balance personal achievement, family accord and community .advancement. But. really Father's Day is not necessarily about honoring those "famous" heroes to whom \ye owe so much. Rather, it is about saying "thank-you". "1 Love You" to those daddies who slaved in southern fields and factories, and labored in northern mills and mines; those men who picked rice and cotton, cut tobacco and sugar cane, from"can't see 'in the morning to can't see at night'. Yes' those not-so-famous heroes who sacrificed dearly, who defied law and custom, practice and policy, in their attempts to make a better day. a better way for us - their children. On a personal note, this writer has truly been blessed with a supportive father - my namesake - still alive, at age 72. kicking-and-^struggling" (lo use his favorite line), as well as the yet vivid memories of both my maternal (Oscar) and paternal (Ed) grandfathers; and numerous uncles, men who tangled with hard times and tussled with hardship. -Men who stood tall when society demanded they not stand at all. Men who taught me about manhood; lessons that I must now teach my 4 ^ear^old son. Malik (and for, that matter, my 12-year-old daughter, Thema. as well). - * ? ) So, on this Father's Day, 1994, let us for one moment cast aside the negative images and media dis tortions of the "sorry", "jive-ass" black male. Indeed, let us even forget - just for a day - about the harsh realities of those males who made babies - yet do not have a clue as to what real fafherhood/manhood means. Those males who in their arrogance and/or ignorance abuse and misuse their spouses, mothers, sister, friends and children. . , . \ . Instead, let us remember "daddy", "papa", "father" - or those coaches, teachers, mentors and mothers who ? took their respective places - and say "Happy Father's Day1'. For daddies - especially, African-American dad dies need love and appreciation, too. "Strong men keep coming. . "Strong men getting stronger. . ." j ? ( Clifton E. Graves Jr. is a life-long member of the NAACP and a member of the local Executive Commit - tee.) J / : ? ' ? Now is the Time to Free America's Political Prisoners The United States government denies the existence of political prison ers - people who are in prison because of their ideas or beliefs. But the world recognizes that the United States does imprison people for their politi cal beliefs. . I ' * Amnesty International, the human-rights group, defines a political pris oner as "any prisoner whose case has a significant political element . ? The Prisoners of Conscience Project has already identified more than 100 such prisoners in the United States today and according to the National Con ference of Black Lawyers, 75 of them are African American or Puerto Rican. Most of the U.S. political prisoners share two things in common - they were subjects of the FBI's COINTELPRO operation, which targeted activists in racial/ethnic communities in the 1970s and 80s and thev have remained in prison longer than thpse convicted of similar crimes but who . 4re not politically active. Many of them have been imprisoned in very harsh conditions and in the nation's highest security prisons. - These are only three of their stories: | Geronimo Pratt served two tours of duty in Vietnam, ultimately earning two Purple Hearts and both the Bronze and Silver stars. After returning home, hp went to California, where he became active in the Black Panther Party, one of the groups targeted by J. Edgar Hoover's counterintelligence program. i. In 1968 a white Santa Monica couple was gunned down while playing tennis and the wife was killed. Pratt was arrested as the murderer. But Pratt, ^ now called ji Jaga, denies that he was even in Los Angeles or that he has ever killed anyone other than in Vietnam and charges that the FBI had tar geted him under their COINTELPRO program. The FBI's own evidence agrees. Pratt's lawyers claim that, in fact, he was framed for this.murder. with the government using evidence provided by an FBI paid iiifomiei whu had his own vendetta against Pratt and suppressing other key evidence which was crucial to Pratt's defense. Moreover, there is evidence that during the trial the FBI infiltrated Pratt's legal team so that his defense was compro mised at every level. In the 24 years since Pratt's imprisonment, he has seen men who have murdered two or three people released after serving .J 7 or 18 years. Yet. Pratt's 12 parole hearings and numerous attempts to get a new trail have all failed and he remains incarcerated. ^ ^ * ? + m ' 1 CIVIL RIGHTS JOURNAL % ' " By BERNICE POWELL JACKSON ? ' ? ? - c ?/ - ? ? ? ' Because of new evidence and suppressed evidence the I ns Angeles district attorney agreed to revteW Pratt's case. But after six months of review, no decision seems to be forthcoming and Pratt's supporters are beginning to wonder if they have reached yet another dead-end. 1 Leonard Peltier is an Anishinabe-Lakota native American who was one \ of the leaders of the American Indian Movement, which was also targeted _by the FBF s COINTELPRO operation. Like Pratt. Peltier claims that he was framed on false murder charges, which are the result of an encounter between FBI agents and Indians on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota in 1975 in which two agents and a native American were kilied. Peltier waft oonvicted of killing the.twp agents on circumstantial evi dence and is now serving his 1 8th year to two consecutive life sentences. Like Pratt, Peltier has been singled out by the FBI, according to its own doc uments. Believing that he had no chance of a fair hearing, Peltier left the country and went to Canada seeking political asylum. Wnue mere, the u.5. government presented an affidavit signed by a native American woman who claimed she had seen the murders. She later admitted that she had never seen Peltier before in her life. Since his conviction Peltier has appealed. his case four times and while the Eight Circuit Court of Appeals found that previous trials have been rid dled with misconduct and improprieties, it refused to grant a new trail. However, Peltier's appeal for Executive Clemency now sits on the desk of the Deputy Attorney General of the U.S. Department of Justice and a Leonard Peltier Freedom weekend is planned in Washington, D.C. for June "23-2b, - , , . ? ~ " ? * . ? - .. ; Alejandrina Torres is the of; a clergyman and mother of two daughters and was arrested in 196 ; Like a number of other Puerto Hican political prisoners, she has been accused by the government ofconspiring to use force against the lawful authority of the U.S. government of conspiring to use force against the lawful authority of the U.S. government over Puerto Rico. She cpent two years of her imprisonment in the Women's High Secu rity Unit at Lexington. Kv., an underground unit where lights are kept on 24 hours a day and which has been condemned by Amnesty International and j)ther human rights groups. She is not scheduled for release until 2004. Abuse of political power is wrong anywhere, but it is especially wrong in the United States of America. Those who label dissent a crime and then subvert the law themselves are the real offenders. Our country was founded by those who were dissenters. To be a voice for the voiceless, write: On behalf of new trial for Geronimo ji Jaga (Pratt): Mr. Gil Garcetti, Los Angeles County District Attorney, 210 W. Tem ple, Room 18-1000, Los Angeles, Calif. 90012 On behalf of executive cjemency for Leonard Peltier: President .Clinton, White House. Washington, D.C. 20500 and to The Hon. Jan^e S. Gorecik, Deputy Attorney General, L^.S. Department of Justice, Washington, D;C. 20530. ........ .J ' A / ?' ? . ? - On behalf of the Puerto ftican political prisoners, also write to President Clinton. ~ . .. r (Bernice Powell- Jackson is Executive Director for the United Church of Christ Commission for Racial Justice) . His Actions in Office It's -hard to open a newspaper or turn on the TV news without getting a heavy dose of stories impugning the President's character or past behavior. The media has latched on to Whitewater as if it were a raid on the Trea sury instead of a bad investment made many years ago. It's fastened on hints of favoritism in Arkansas as if it didn't exist everywhere else. And it's seized on claims of sexual harassment that appear to be motivated by finan cial gain and political warfare. : ? Nowhere in the barrage of accusations, hints, and innuendoes is there the suggestion that the President has done anything ethically or morally wrong during his presidency. 7 But that's the only thing that counts. Americans are watching what amounts to a massive campaign to dis credit and destroy the President they elected on a platform of change. * Instead of change, they're getting rumors and titillating stories. The serious business of governing and of public policy is being turned into a far cical circus. My attitude is that enough is enough. * It's time the American people mounted a backlash against this efforts to revoke the outcome of the 1992 election. It would be tragic if we allowed the serious business of governance to be distorted into a TV soap opera that distracts the Administration, the Con gress. and the public from th?.problems that face the nation. There has to be a distinction between wrong-doing in office, such as the Watergate scandal that forced Richard Nixon out of office and the Iran-Con tra scandal that clouded Reagan's second term, and vague accusations of dubious past conduct by Mr. Clinton. The president should be judged by his actions in office. If past presi dents were held to the kind of standards pressed by today's media, none vtyould have been able to govern. Virtually every president in our his tory could be sub jected to the kind of ~aT lacks "now being made against Presi dent Clinton, and many of them were guilty of transgres sions far more serious than those he is accused of. If the president is frustrated by these t attacks, who , can ^blame him? He has set ambi tious goals for his Administration and has performed admirably in moving those goals forward. President Bill Clinton He's made his Administration a model of diversity, put the economy back on track, presented a plan to overhaul the health-care system, and much else. But instead of being judged on its merits, his Presidency is being under mined by irrelevant harpings on past events. There's little doubt that much of the controversy is djriven by right wing zealots practicing the nastiest form of partisan politics. Another ele ment is the pack journalism that makes molehills into mountains in an effort TO BE EQUAL By JOHN E. JACOB to raise ratings. So Americans who voted for change and against gridlock are in danger of losing change and getting more gridlock. It's time to let Clinton govern; to judge the President on his record, and to allow him to make that record. A special prosecutor of unquestioned probity is investigating the Whitewater affair. Let him get on with that job while the President gets on with his. Sure, it's a lot easier and. for some people, more fun, to seek entertain ment in purported scandal than it is to study the details of health care or welfare reform. But that's no way to educate the public. It's no way to run a country. And it's now way to get the change American needs. (John E. Jacob is former president of the National Urban League.) BfiiH Winston-Salem Chronicle The Choice For Africah-Ameriicah News USPS 067910 617 N Liberty Street Winston-Salem. N.C. 27102 The Winston Salem Chronicle is pub lished every Thursday by the Winston-Salem Chronicle Publishing Co Inc. ? 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Winston-Salem Chronicle (Winston-Salem, N.C.)
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June 16, 1994, edition 1
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