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OPINION The Chronicle CffNffr H. Pin Eiaimi Pitt tllCKt Asiust T. Kivm Walkik Kay Srutrz Publisher/Co-Founder Business Manager Office Manager Managing Editor Production Supervisor CAC Photo by Courtney Gaillard City Manager Bill Stuart answers questions from reporters last week after he announced the appointment of Pat Norris. Hail to the chief Ernie Pitt This & That 1- Our congratulations to the | newly appointed police chief, Pat Norris. We have known Nohis from the very beginning of her career, which started in the department around 1 977. She has always carried herself with poise, grace, dignity and professional . ism. She should make a great ? chief of police - ? depending, of course, . on what your expecta ? tions are. We expect her to ? make sure that we are protected, as much as ?" can be, from the crim ? inal elements in our : society - black, white, i Hispanic and other I races or ethnic groups. ; I surely hope that she ? does not overreact in a ? way that would jeopardize this ? community, and I do not suspect she will. 1 believe she has enough *? hutzpah to deal with any contro . versial situation that arises, and ; surely that will happen at some point in time. Moreover, I believe that she - will cause a certain amount of 1 sensitivity to permeate the ' department that certainly will make the department somewhat . different from what it has been in the past. Of course, that is, if we give her time and let her do her' job the way that she has been " trained to do it with her own \ interpretations. For me, personal ; ly, I believe that I will sleep a lit tle better at night - I sometimes sleep during the day too - know ing that Pat Norris is at the helm. Now, that is not to say that Chief Linda Davis did not do an admi ral job. I believe that Ms. Davis may have actually paved the way for Ms. Norris, who certainly wilf pave the way for an African American male to one day get a chance to lead the department. Something must be said, too. about the manner in which City Manager Bill Stuart handled the situation. He could have made any number of decisions that could have either pleased or dis pleased many. Perhaps some are quite displeased at the decision he ultimately made. But I do believe his decision was not influenced by anyone or any thing other than he felt Norris was the person in the right place, at the right time. My hat's off to Stuart. It took a lot of courage for him to make that decision given the so-called pressure placed on him. But anyone who knows Stu art, knows that he would never kowtow. That's great when you consider the fact that he has a binding contract with the city and virtually cannot be fired. He did the right thing in spite of... Now. what we need to do is get our governing body to uhderstand that we have a major ity of the board and we need some vision coming from City Hall. We need to push as hard for the east as they push for the west. The west is bursting at the seams. Wonder why we cannot convince somebody to try the east? We have incentive money. Why can't we make some monetary and tax concessions to get some of those businesses to locate in our com munity? Whatever happened to the concept of creating Empower ment Zones or Enterprise Zones?. Come on. City Council, y'all can do it. God wants to bless us, but we have to step forward and let Him know that we want the blessing. Time is running out. God bless you. Amen! Ernie Pit I is the publisher of ? The Chronicle and the chairman of the Housing Authority of Win ston-Salem Hoard of Commis sioners. E-mail him at erpitt@ wschmnicle.com. Norris Submit letters and columns to: Chronicle MaiM P.O. Box M, Winston-Salem , NC 27102 Please print clearly. Typed letters and columns are pre ferred. If you are writing a guest column, please include a photo of yourself. We resen-e the right to edit any item submitted for clarity or brevity. You also can e-mail us your letters or columns at: ? ' neHS@yvschrrmicle.com UPON Pwn-teR Review,,,, TWe/'Re iMPiams. Judicial campaign reform Val Atkinson Jones Street The N.C. Judicial Cam paign Reform Act that passed the N.C. House on September 26, 2002, allows for public funding of races for the N.C. Supreme Court and the N.C. Court of Appeals (both statewide races). . There are tons of condi tions and provisions surround ing this reform, but what's important to the average North Carolinian is the $3 check-off on your State tax return. Checking this block will not increase your taxes; it's merely a confirmation that you agree with the Judicial Campaign Reform Act and are willing to have public funds support statewide candidates running for the Supreme Court and the Court of Appeals. Candidates agreeing to participate in this program File Photo Former N.C. Court of Appeals Judge Loretta Biggs , left, talks to a supporter during a campaign event in 2001 . will be limited in the amount of funds they can raise; and they must raise a minimum amount as well. Candidates running for Court of Appeals seats must raise a minimum of $33,000 and cannot raise over $66,000. Supreme Court can didates must raise $34,500 and cannot" raise over $69,000. If the candidates meet these requirements they become eli gible for a $137,500 distribu tion for, Court of Appeals can didates and $201,300 for Supreme Court candidates. Rescue funds will also be available for candidates whose opponents are not plan participants and exceed the fund-raising and/or spending limits set by the plan. Having said all that, the bottom line is that African American judicial candidates like Court of Appeals Judges Wanda Bryant and Loretta Biggs and Supreme Court Associate Justice G.K. Butter field would, have all been elected had we had a Judicial Campaign Reform Act in place, operational and func tional before the general elec tion of 2002, when all three of the aforementioned judges and associate justices were defeated by white candidates. This is a simple request. If you haven't filed your North Carolina State taxes yet, please check the $3 check-off. it will not increase your taxes. These public funds will not impact your return or the taxes you owe. This is something we all can do and it's absolutely painless. Vul Atkinson is a Triangle based political adviser and pundit. Black Colombians - a local perspective Brenda E. Humphrey Guest Columnist From Bogota, the Mennonite Church e-mailed an llth-hour alert that made me once again feel the mechanism of terror in Colombia. It read that Ricardo Esquivia was living under increasing threats of arrest by Colombian authorities, because recently demobilized armed groups were becoming paid informants against him. A mere week ago I'd been extolling his bravery in the face of several death threats in recent years. When afterward a listener from a local black group asked me how he could help, even 1 was clueless. An Afro-Colombian, Esquivia has been the director of JustaPaz (the Christian Center for Justice. Peace and Non-Violent Action) for 12 years. He made the center live up to its name and put its efforts to work for restoration, life and peace in a country at war for 40 years. JustaPaz. a program of the Mennonite Church in Colombia, had blossomed into a trusted role in the peace process with Colom bia's outgoing President Andres Pastrana. Since the 2002 swearing in of President Alvaro Urihe. the role for JustaPaz has changed. Esquivia's welcome remarks to my fact-finding delegation a year ago reflected a certain edgi ness even then. I was among 27 North Americans in his country for two weeks, studying the*" impact of "Plan Colombia." heav ily subsidized by the United States, as an excuse to fight the "war on drugs." Little did I realize that a year later I would be asked to plead for his life. He acquainted us with his war-torn country through stories of aerial spraying over fields, ani mals. water sources and people alike. We heard the grim statistics Photo courtesy of Brcnda Humphrey Brenda Humphrey, third for left , poses with several Afro Colombians during a recent trip to South America. that Colombia leads the world in unionists killed and that after Rus sians the most journalists are killed. There has been a great breakdown in the social fabric. In spite of obsta cles, hope lies in social sectors pushing for peace. Bufthe reality is that hope seems as remote for these people as the beautiful coun tryside they once called home. We were there to hear the stories of those being displaced and to understand the disputed role U.S. foreign policy plays in displacing people. To this end, Esquivia's remarks were an eye opener for what we later heard and saw in Soacha. on the eastern outskirts of Bogota. Soacha. is a city in its own right, th/iuoi few would think of the sprawl of shacks and shanties over hillsides where 348.000 live as such. Many are "displaced" Afro-Colombians. Colombia has the largest population of Spanish speaking African descendants in all of Latin America. In his welcome. Esquivia said then that the country's new presi dent. Uribe. was not committed to the peace works of the outgoing administration. "What that means." he explained to us in the setting of the Bogota Mennonite Church, "is the continued intimi dating and selective killings that keep forcing many blacks to abandon lands." From Bogota. Colombia's modem capital, which is ringed by steadily spreading slums, the trip to Soacha takes about an hour. But it is a much further step back in time into a misery belt of squat ter communities around the metropoli tan area. We met with the displaced Afro-Colombians, experiencing firsthand the social upheaval and displacement we heard about during the briefing by JustaPaz. We heard from people haunted by visions of black peo ple being cut up with chain saws to force the flight of others. There were many displaced Afro Colombians. Making up 26 per cent of the population, they suffer disproportionately in the crossfire of the Colombian war and over the past decade account for nearly half the 2.7 million displaced. "There's just so much killing." someone in Soacha told us, "It's hard to get used to." Afro-Colombians and the indigenous suffer displacement in greater proportions than others. Esquivia Their land is in the Panama border region called Choco. an area of the Pacific coastal plains beyond the Andes, where former slaves settled and there is a connection between poor farmers where 80 percent to 90 percent are black. Now they have these people for whom the land used to be the soul, come to this poor hillside neighborhood outside Bogota. And they keep coming. Last year residents of Bojaya. an impover ished, mainly black village in Choco, fled after more than 100 villagers had died in battles between the FARC and Para-mil itaries. Their lands on the Panama border, on shores of important river basins, on coastlines of the Atlantic and Pacific, suddenly have a greater geo-political value. Multinationals scramble to con trol the Caribbean and Central America in the new Latin Ameri can explorations in oil and for pharmaceuticals. "We don't know with certain ty who wants control of our land, but it's clear we are an obstacle to their interests in our land," said one displaced mother whose hus band had been killed because he worked for the government. I reacl that Colombia has plans to com plete an unfinished segment of the Pan-American Highway through Choco. In the face of this chilling news, help us save Ricardo Esqui va's life, liberty and work. To the listener who asked how he could help, please freely share this information with your churches, organizations and communities. Visit the JustaPaz web site. http://www.juslapaz.org, and join the letter-writing campaign to the Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Democracy, Human Rights and Labor in Washington DC. BreiuLi E. Humphrey is a city resident and a member of the Peace Brigades International hoard and formerly coordinator of Witness for Peace teams and delegations to Central America.
Winston-Salem Chronicle (Winston-Salem, N.C.)
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Feb. 12, 2004, edition 1
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