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OPINION Chronicled Ernest H. Pitt Publisher/Co-Founder ELAINE Pitt Business Manager Michael A. Pitt Marketing T. Kevin Walker Managing Ediior <^WCPA> pn^ Monti Carotin* rmiilk'g? 4 Press Assocurkxi A true gift of Christmas Marian Wright Edelman Guest Columnist Christmas is a festive time when many families come together, homes are decorated with trees hung with ornaments and lights and sumptuous din ners are prepared. Christmas also can be, for a variety of rea sons, a time of stress. One source of stress is the oppres sion of the shopping list. The longer the list, the greater the anxiety? what shall I get for this niece or that cousin or friend? How do I avoid giving a gift that's too similar to what I gave last year? And of course there are the demands of chil dren who want the latest video game or electronic gadget. Bending to the pressure, many of us join the legions of shop pers hunched over and weighted down by bags full of holiday things. Amidst it all, we lose sight of the meaning of Christmas. We forget to tell our children why we give gifts in the first place? the story Christians believe about the first Christmas' gift to the world of the Prince of Peace. When he walked on the Earth, he spoke to us of the gifts that really mat ter: "For I was hungered, and ye gave me meat; I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink; I was a stranger, and ye took me in; naked, and ye clothed me; I was sick, and ye visited me; I was in prison, and ye came unto me." This message of giving speaks to what's good in and required of all of us. Christmas is a time to enrich the lives of our children by sharing with them the joy and gift of giving. This can be done in many ways. While shopping with your children, have them select a toy to give to a poor child. Some time during ttife Christmas season, take your children to a homeless shelter or soup kitchen and volunteer to help prepare or serve food. Bake together a few dozen cookies and take them to your local children's hospital or nurs ing home to brighten the day of someone less fortunate. There are many in need not only in our own communities but in our global community. I'm reminded of the wonderful children's story of Beatrice's Goat by Page McBrier about a young Ugandan girl whose dream of going to school seems out of reach because her family is poor. But things change for Beatrice when her family is selected to receive a goat from Heifer International, a program that provides livestock to those in need around the world. After months dutifully tending the goat and selling its milk at the market, Beatrice finally has enough money to pay for books and a school uniform. Then one day, dressed in her new school uniform, after taking the goat's milk to market, Beatrice makes her way to her first day of school. You can participate in the Heifer International program (heifer.org) by giving a strug gling family in another land the gift of a goat, alpaca, camel, cow, donkey, horse, llama, pig, sheep, a water buffalo, yak, honey bees, a school of fish or a flock of chickens, ducks or geese. The lives of the receiv ing family will be improved economically by the wool, eggs, milk or honey provided by the animals. In exchange, the receiving family promises to pass the first offspring on to another famil - it's called "Passing on the Gift." This liv ing chain of giving is a dynam ic and sustainable approach to grassroots economic develop ment. The gift of a dairy goat (at $120) can supply a family sev eral quarts of nutritious milk a day - a ton of milk a year. Extra milk can be sold or used to make cheese, butter or yogurt. Goats can thrive in extreme cli mates and on poor, dry land by eating grass and leaves. Because goats often have two or three kids a year. Heifer part ners can help lift themselves out of poverty by starting small dairies that earn money for food, health care and education. Geese (at $20) are easy to care for. They don't require much shelter and can adapt to most climates. They can lay up to 75 eggs a year providing a ready source of protein and income. My grandchildren picked the animals they wanted me to give in their honor with great excitement! This year I'm also buying my grandchildren three banks each for Christmas: one for saving, one for spending, and one for sharing. I hope this will teach them the value of thrift and how to share their good fortune with others. I also hope this will help them under stand the true meaning of Christmas. Marian Wright Edelman is President of the Children 's befense Fund, childrensde fense.org, and its Action Council. Submit Utters and columns to: Chronicle Mailbag, P.O. Box 1636, Winston-Salem, NC 27102 Please print clearly. Typed letters and columns are preferred. If you are writing a guest column, please include a photo of yourself. We reserve the right to edit any item submitted for clarity or brevity. You also can e-mail us your letters or columns at: news @ wschronicle .com . Examine white male pathology A. Peter Bailey Guest Columnist Once again young White males, who are junior members of the most powerful, pampered and protected special interest group in this country, have embarked on a spree of mass killings. They join a long list of White male mass killers and sex ual predator killers, who have emerged in the U.S. during the past 50 years. Yet, when politi cians, academicians, pundits and other propagandists write about or discuss the actions of their fel low White males, the focus is on the individual killers. There is very little commentary about the pathology of White males as a group. However, those same commentators, when discussing or writing about homicide rates among low-income Black males, don't hesitate to refer to the pathology of Black males, as a group. Who is more pathological - the person who kills someone who "disrespected" him or took his woman or moved in on his drug turf or someone who sexual ly brutalizes and murders numer ous women just for a thrill or shoots up a school, a shopping mall or a church because his feel ings were hurt? Apparently, there is an urgent need for a serious investigation of White male pathology. For the past several months, while monitoring Sunday morn ing public affairs program on NBC, CBS, ABC and FOX News Sunday, it becomes obvious that there is a concerted effort to avoid too much discussion around the race angle in Barack Obama's campaign to be the Democratic candidate for the presidency in 2008. It's as though his candidacy is just another example of this country's com mitment to freedom and liberty for all. The whole scene reminds me of how the same group of propagandas avoided *nd contin ues to avoid the very real possi bility that A1 Gore lost his run for the presidency in 2000 because he had Senator Joe Lieberman (Jewish) as a running mate. The Republicans are trying hard to disguise the fact that they are salivating at the prospect of run ning against Obama. They are confident that at crunch time, no matter what they say to pollsters their fellow Whites are not going to elect a Black male as presi dent, even one who has been quoted as saying that "In the his tory of African American politics in this country there has always been some tension between speaking in universal terms and speaking in race-specific terms about the plight of the African American community. By virtue of my background, you know, I am more likely to speak in uni versal terms." Harold Ford tried that same approach when he ran for governor of Tennessee in 2006. He still won't admit what hit him. There is probably no more despicable public figure than a chicken hawk, a person who con sistently and loudly advocates military action by the United States, while arrogantly avoiding being among those citizens who actually put their lives on the line. Perhaps the quintessential chick en hawk is William Kristol. who perches smugly on his chair, sup porting the military venture in Iraq and advocating military action against Iran. I called Kristol's office and asked if he was now or has even been in the military. The answer was no. If Kristol truly believes that this country's national .security is at stake in the Middle East, it is dis gusting that he and his fellow chicken hawks aren't on the frontline defending that threat ened national security. It is pathetic to see low-income and working class Blacks. Whites and Latinos sending their chil dren off to be maimed and killed in a war of choice launched by a bunch of trash-talking chicken hawks. As long as they are will ing to do so Kristol and his flock of chicken hawk pals will support and launch military adventures. A. Peter Bailey is a longtime journalist and social activist. Film honors black oral tradition George Curry Guest Columnist About a decade ago, conser vative commentator Armstrong Williams and I were debating the issue of affirmative action on a University of North Carolina campus. "May I ask you a question?" Williams uttered. "You just did," I curtly replied. "Well, may I ask you another one?" Williams con tinued. "You just did that, too," I retorted. When Williams became visibly agitated, I knew I had dis rupted his train of thought and would easily win the debate. No, I didn't learn that tech nique from the talking heads on TV. 1 learned that in my debate classes at Knoxville College in the late 1960s. There are many settings in which debating skills can be helpful, whether it is in thinking clearly, developing refined arguments or effectively making a point. When "The Great Debaters," staring and directed by Denzel Washington and produced by Oprah Winfrey, opens in theaters on Chrisman Day, I am hoping it will have a revolutionary impact on young people and give them a better appreciation for effective communication. Sometimes I wonder what Mr. Austin, my debate teacher at Knoxville College, or Mrs. Malinda Prude, one of my English teachers at Druid High School in TViscaloosa, Ala., would say about how our young people express themselves today. I'm no prude yet I am astonished by the vulgarity and plain incoherence I hear, whether listening to teens talk to one another or hearing them chat - usually loudly ? on the cell phone. Let's face it, much of it is unintelligible. And what we can decipher does not paint a pretty picture. I had just finished speaking at a university when a young man approached me after my presenta tion. After every other fragmented MGM Photo Some of the young cost members of the film. sentence, he added: "Know what I am sayin'T' Finally. 1 told him no, 1 didn't know what he was saying. Further, if I knew what he was saying, there would be no need for him to say it again . Many adults are also sloppy in their use of language. I've heard adults refer to "reverting back" too many times to count. How else can one revert? You can't revert forward. Or, they will ask you to "repeat that again." Repeat, by definition, is again. Even more prevalent are people saying they need to go to an ATM machine. ATM stands for Automated Teller Machine. So, when one says he or she is going to the "ATM machine," they are, in effect, say ing they are going to the "auto mated teller machine machine." Perhaps we'd hear less of this nonsense if more people had stud ied the art of debate, which is what inspired the movie. "The Great Debaters" is based on a 1935 national championship debate between Wiley, a histori cally Black college in Texas, and the University of Southern California, the defending national champion. In typical Hollywood fashion, Wiley's opponent is changed to Harvard instead of U.S.C. The debate coach. Melvin B Tolson, was bom in Moberly, Mo. and graduated from Lincoln University, a historically Black cojlpge in Pennsylvania. Wiley hired him in 1 924 to teach English and speech. He also coached the junior varsity football team, head ed the theater club and formed the Wiley Forensic Society, the debat ing team. Over a 15-year-period, Wiley College lost only one of 75 debates. Denzel Washington told reporters that both hip-hop and a form of poetry known as the spo ken word have their roots in Black oral tradition. "Our oral history is rich and deep, and debating is a big part of it," Washington said. Tolson left Wiley in 1947 to teach at another HBCU, Langston University in Oklahoma. He later served two terms as mayor of Langston and Liberia declared him its poet laureate. He died in 1966. Wiley, which has an enroll ment of less than 900, is located in Marshall. Texas, a town of 24j000 people approximately 140 miles east of Dallas. It has produced such distinguished alumni as James Farmer, the former head of the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE), and Herman Sweat, who won a landmark Supreme Court decision against the University of Texas' Whites-only admission policy. In recent years, the college has struggled with limited finances and resources. "The Great Debaters" is expected to shine a spotlight on the college. Jierhaps enabling it to increase fundraising and enrollment. The debate team, which was disman tled upon Tolson's departure, has been revived and students are eager to join upon leaming^lbout what the school calk^rl5avid vs. Goliath victory---6ver a major White umyerSlty with consider ably mere means. Wiley President Haywood Strickland hopes the movie will strike a blow for all HBCUs, whose worth is often devalued. Representing only 3 percent of the nation's colleges andNuniversities, HBCUs account for * quarter of all Black college graduates. "The Davids of the World are the Wiley Colleges of the world," President Strickland said. "We do have a slingshot called the mind." George E. Curry, former edi tor-in-chief of Emerge magazine and the NNPA News Service, is a keynote speaker, moderator, and media coach. He can be reached through his Web site, www.georgecurryxrom .
Winston-Salem Chronicle (Winston-Salem, N.C.)
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