OPINION
The Chronicle
f imir H. Pin Publisher/Co-Founder
llAIMt hit Business Manager
T. KlVIM Walk ii Managing Editor
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North Carolina
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File Photo
Bennett President Dr. Johnnetta B. Cole addresses the crowd
at the recent fund-raising gala ,
Bennett's
'Belle'
President Dr. Johnnetta B.
Cole has turned out to be Ben
nett College's "Belle" extra
ordinaire. She has almost sin
gle-handedly brought the
financially strapped histori
cally black all-female college
in Greensboro back to life.
Usinj/ all of her years of
experience in the education
and political arenas to bring
attention to Bennett, she has
cracked the financial bind of
the school.
During a "gala" black-tie
event recently, she announced
that the school had reached
$25 million of its total goal of
$50 million. With the help of
the likes of former President
Bill Clinton; former presiden
tial candidate and Sen. Bob
Dole; the great and awe
inspiring poet, playwright and
actress Dr. Maya Angelou;
and successful businessman
Robert Brown, the evening
was filled with dignity and a
spirit short of nothing we have
ever seen.
Bennett has taken in stu
dents from the Gulf area
impacted by Hurricane Katri
na. They were there - beauti
ful and proud. Bennett's choiP
sang - graciously and digni
fied. Dr. Angelou read a poem
- simple yet deep beyond
comparison. Dr. Cole chatted
with both Clinton and Dole;
both solidified their commit
ment to her and to Bennett.
Bob Brown is a little giant
with powerful connections.
We will always know Mr.
Brown as a person who has
always said of himself, "I'm
just trying to do God's work."
We believe him, and our com
munity is better off for it.
Bennett still needs $25
million more in order to
secure its future. We trust that
our community will open its
collective pocketbooks and
help Dr. Cole in her efforts on
behalf of a great institution. It
must be done, and all of us
must help her do it.
Judging by the crowd at
the gala, who by the way,
mostly paid $500 a ticket and
numbered probably 1,000,
that other $25 million will be
a piece of cake. It was also
supported by sponsors such as
Wachovia, Food Lion, Diver
sity Inc., Dell, HSBC, Citi
group, Merck, Wal-Mart, and
Fairway, to name a few.
We^pontinue to wish Ben
nett and Dr. Cole and all of
her supporters the best in
reviving the school.
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Letters to the Editor
Millions More
Movement
To the Editor:
On behalf of the Millions
More Movement and the Local
Organizing Committee (LOC), I
want to extend to you an invita
tion to attend the Millions More
Movement on Oct. 15 in Wash
ington, D.C. This event will com
memorate the 10th anniversary of
the Million Man March.
The challenges facing
African-Americans in particular
and others in general call for a
reassessment of the conditions we
find ourselves in. Even before
Hurricane Katrina touched land,
disproportionate numbers of
blacks and the poor were suffering
from broken homes, broken
minds, and broken spirits emanat
ing from a string of broken prom
ises and leadership that have
failed to address these issues in a
timely and effective manner.
There is no question that it is
vitally important for government,
local and federal, to rise to the
occasion in ways that address
issues of political oppression, eco
nomic exploitation and social
degradation that have become an
albatross retarding overall black
progress. There is also no ques
tion of there being much we can
do for ourselves while awaiting
government to address our peti
tions.
While the aftermath of Hurri
cane Katrina will be felt national
ly for decades to come and thus
add to the already existing politi
cal, economic, and social chal
lenges, it is the aim of the Win
ston-Salem LOC to put into place
programs that emphasize key
components such as unity, self
determination, collective work
and responsibility, cooperative
economics, purpose, creativity,
and faith as we strive to minimize
the stormy conditions that plague
black people and maximize our
resolve to make our communities
a more decent place to live.
We look forward to establish
ing collaborative relationships
with you, your organization or
church, and other organizations
with shared goals and objectives.
These relationships will allow us
to continue to work systematically
with disenfranchised groups of
people to help change lives by
continuing to develop "social cap
ital" in our communities.
Anyone wanting to attend the
Millions More Movement may
purchase tickets ($50) from Spe
cial Occasions Bookstore,
CMON.CHftlS...
EV'RBODY KNOWS
TH' EARTH IS FLAT,
Shabazz Restaurant, or by calling
(336)721-1616.
Min. Mikal Muhammad
Pop Warner hoopla
To the Editor:
I've been keeping up with this
whole Pop Warner Falcon issue
and have been amazed at all of the
"hoopla." As a teacher I stand in
amazement that parents would put
forth so much effort in setting
things straight about a children's
football game.
I've visited several football
fields on Saturdays and I am a
believer that children need
extracurricular activities. Howev
er, I've been in the school system
for over 10 years and I've never
seen black parent participation at a
PTA meeting like I see out on
those fields. Often teachers are
told thai,. parents can't come to
PTA or othet school events
because of footB&ll, cheerleading,
basketball (etc.) practice.
If (his much focus was put on
education, character and good cit
izenship, then maybe you would
n't have to write columns that
need two-sided stories! I com
mend you on your fairness, but
there is a bigger picture!
Stay Blessed,
Carla R. Jackson,
Fourth-Grade Teacher
Equiano's story
likely legit
To the Editor:
Professor Vincent Carretta's
new book that casts doubt on the
authenticity of Olaudah Equiano's
remarkable autobiography (The
Chronicle 9/22) is certainly a
scholarly and sincere effort to
shed light on the remarkable 1 8th
century black sailor and author.
Nevertheless there are many rea
sons to question Carretta's own
conclusions.
Firstly, ships' muster roles of
the times were notoriously unreli
able documents drawn up by a
ship's clerk, and usually not by the
sailors themselves. Not only
couldn't most sailors read or
write, at the time most ships
required the semi-legal services of
"crimps" in the ports of call to
fully man them.
Crimps were men who plied
unsuspecting men with drink at
dockside taverns and when the
men were drunk to the point of
near unconsciousness had them
carried on board a ship that was
about to sail. When the man
woke up, he was far out at sea.
Most men did not want to go to
sea and this was the only way for
a ship to gain its full complement
of "hands."
The muster role document
was then filled in by a clerk who
often guessed at names and places
of birth. Though Equiano could
read and volunteered to go to sea,
that does not mean he had neces
sarily even seen the muster.
It is also possible that Equiano
created a fiction of having been
bom in South Carolina rather than
Africa to further legitimize him
self as an English subject so that
he would not be cast back into
slavery as had happened to him
before.
The Royal Navy had many
blacks as members of ship crews.
Sailing was virtually the only
profession at the time where a
competent black man would be as
respected as a white man of equal
skill, and paid the same. Black sea
captains were not unknown dur
ing these years, and again, this
was practically the only profes
sion where a black man could
exercise executive authority over
men of any race.
There is no doubt that
Equiano valued being an English
subject as this accorded him
greater safety than any other
nationality.
William H. Longyard
Longyard is Career Center
English teacher and author of the
maritime history "A Speck on the
Sea." He is currently working on
a book about Equiano.
It doesn 't matter whether Bush loves us
Phill
Wilson
Guest
Columnist
Post-Katrina. everyone's
obsessed with whether George
Bush cares about black people.
Kanye West thinks he doesn't;
Laura Bush insists he does. After
all. the first lady said: "1 live with
him. I know what he believes."
Maybe Laura is right. Maybe
W. loves him some black folk.
But who cares? It's the wrong
question. The president is not our
father. The role of the government
is not to be our friend. It doesn't
matter if they care about us. What
matters is their competence. Are
they capable, for example, of
mounting an immediate and
effective response to a natural dis-^
aster that hits black folk especial *
ly hard? In the case of Katrina. the
answer is a resounding no.
Dying people were left
stranded - and worse. With guns
blazing, the police in Gretna. La.,
actually forced hungry, thirsty,
and desperate people back into
the flooding city. Most of these
people were black.
So what matters is not
whether W. loves us or hates us.
What matters is that he didn't
deliver. As former President Clin
ton said in an ABC interview,
"This is a matter of public policy,
and whether it's race-based or not(
if you give your tax cuts to the
rich and hope everything works
out all right, and poverty goes up,
and it disproportionately affects
black and brown people, that's a
consequence of the action made ."
But Hurricane Katrina is
merely this administration's most
spectacular failure. Under George
Bush's watch, the number of poor
File Photo
Rapper Kanye West says Bush doesn't like blacks.
people in this country has surged
by 4 .5 million. There are now 37
million Americans - 13 million of
them children - who are living in
poverty.
A lot of people said Bill Clin
ton liked black folks, and maybe
he did. But again, wrong question.
Under the previous administra
tion, poverty ratfS fell from 15.1
percent of the population at the
start of Clinton's presidency to
1 1 .3 percent at the end of it - still
way too many, but moving in the
right direction.
The Bush administration has
announced an estimated $500 bil
lion in post-Katrina reconstruc
tion plans. How does the presi
dent propose to pay for it? Can
celing some of the tax cuts for the
rich? Nope. Rethinking the $5 bil
lion a month we're spending in
Iraq? Wrong again. Instead, he
wants Congress to cut spending,
which means further shredding
the already threadbare safety net.
Bush has acknowledged the
housing crisis the storm created.
But one of his administration's
long-standing legislative priori
ties has been to scale back rental
assistance to poor families nation
wide. In keeping with that goal.
Bush's relief plan hasn't even
nodded in the direction of distrib
uting rental aid.
Meanwhile, apartment vacan
cy rates in undamaged areas of
New Orleans were at 20 to 40 per
cent before the storm even hit.
Analysts say we could house as
many as a third of those made
homeless without constructing a
single new unit, but to do so we'd
have to make those landlords take
Section 8 vouchers - and proper
ly fund them.
The reconstruction plan also
keeps continuity with the admin
istration's scorched earth attack
on the health care safety net.
The budget currently before
Congress would strip $10 billion
from Medicaid over the next five
years anyway. Medicaid is one of
the few resources African- Ameri
cans living with HIV have been
able to turn to for treatment;
weakening the system will make
the already awesome racial differ
ential in survival rates among
people with AIDS grow even
larger.
It was policies like these that
totally ignored the needs of the
poorest among us that exacerbat
ed the devastation of Katrina. And
that brings us to the other natural
disaster that the Bush administra
tion has willfully ignored.
The stats are now familiar to
everyone except the White
House: There are more people liv
ing with HIV/AIDS today than
ever before, and nearly half of
them are black. Black people rep
resent more than 50 percent of all
new cases in the United States,
more than 56 percent of the new
youth cases, and 72 percent of
new female cases.
What has Bush done about
this carnage? He's cut funding for
federal HIV prevention programs,
recommended changes to the
Ryan White CARE Act - the pri
mary federal funding vehicle for
AIDS services - that would dras
tically restrict what services are
available to the poor black folks,
and cut comprehensive sex edu
cation that has proven effective at
slowing the epidemic, in favor of
unproven abstinence-only curric
ula - which forbids any discus
sion of how to use a condom or
avoid STDs.
We can spend all day specu
lating about whether these meas
ures are being implemented out of
some racist intent. That'd be a
mistake. If you go to a car
mechanic who disconnects your
brakes and you are killed in an
accident, are you any less dead if
he did it because he didn't "care"
about you or if he was just plain
incompetent?
Natural disaster or public
health disaster, mechanic or pres
ident, we need someone who can
deliver. Competence matters!
Phill Wilson is founder and
executive director of the Black
AIDS Institute in Los Angeles.
Wilson has been living with HIV
for 2 J years. He can be reached at
Phillw@BlackAIDS org .