OPINION/ FORUM Chronicle KknksT H. PfTT PuWoherC'o-Rjumk'r El \IM PlTl Bumiicw Manager Mich U l. A. Pi I T Marketing T. Km IN \N VI KI R Mmmm fcihior ? Vortr Carolina s#i)oi8t r>i?v?epa:?w ?re? Assoc judo Puoitenwe Assoc (jir or CIRCULATION COUNCIL N C : , ?V ??*'* 3*0 fe. ' . Bt-V :? Photo by Key in Walker Protest signs posted in the windows of Reynolds American downtown headquarters express employees' opposition to the proposed tax hike. Hasn't Tobacco Had Enough? Tobacco is once more the punching bag for elected officials. Last week. Congress pushed through a mess of a legislation that will give the U.S. Food and Drug Administration regulatory control over the industry. Yes. the same FDA that has done such a commendable job keeping us safe from tainted spinach, peanut butter and baby formula. Now. state lawmakers. led by Gov. Bev Perdue, want to raise taxes on cigarettes by $1 to help lift the state out of its economic doldrums. We say. "ENOUGH. ALREADY!" There is no doubt that for decades. Big Tobacco made mis takes and concealed information about the dangers of smoking, but the industrv has bent over backward and done somersaults to right those wrongs and has. for the most part, willingly followed every directive set by the government. But some seemingly will not be happy until every tobacco company in the Country shuts down or moves to Europe, where folks have a clearer, more grown-up attitude toward smoking. Did it not occur to Congress and President Objama, who rushed to sign the new FDA bill, that now. with the economy still in the gut ter. is not the best time to sucker punch an industry that employ ees thousands of Americans? Why would the governor pick now. with the state's unemployment rate higher than it has been in decades, to make a move that could force even more job losses? This all seems like common sense to us. but perhaps common sense is something that folks lose once they are elected to public office. And speaking of common sense, is it a bit odd that other industries that hawk products that can be potentially dangerous to our health are allowed to freely frolic w ithout lawmakers at their backs with knives drawn? Alcohol can be just as dangerous as tobacco, especially when combined with a motor vehicle. And. although heart disease, by far. is the nation's number one killer, our elected officials continue to allow us to eat up all the trans-fat that we want. If all of these laws and taxes arc really about pro tecting folks- health, than perhaps that dollar tax should be slapped Oivthc Monster Burger. Council Member Malloy This city is fortunate that nearly all of our local elected offi cials are the down-home, personable type. This is especially true of the members of our City Council, but it will be without its most grassroots member Nelson Malloy lie A I ycui. Council Member Nelson M alloy's decision to not seek re-election saddens Us in man) ways. But the fact that Malloy will now have time to foc'us completely In him. the residents had .their common, everyday man He is reachable. understanding, and can relate to many ot the problems that resi dents have because he too has been there at one time or another. One always got the sense that the people were the only special interests that Malloy served on the Council - his activist roots probably deserve credit for that . We wish Council Member Malloy the best of luck and the best of health in the future. We know that as long as he is able, he will be active in the community and in the issues that affect the least among us. Is the Economy Rebounding? Julianne Malveaux (iuest Columnist It has been a scant nine months since former Treasury Secretary Henry Poison took three handwritten pages to Congress, demanding a $7(X) hillion bailout for the financial sector. A scant five months since President Obama has taken office and put a S7R7 billion stimulus package out there. While some money has been disbursed, mayors are still ask ing for direct appropriations to beleaguered cities, and at least 36 states are talking of educa tion cuts for the next academic year. . ?/; ??' Yet there are also those u ho say the recession is bottoming out. and the Chamber of Commerce is organizing to oppose government interven tion in the economy with an "Enough is Enough" campaign. Because stock indicators look decent (so far), up more than a third since mid-March, there are those who think it is time to celebrate, or at least pause, on recovery efforts. This is not -the rime to hold YjJaity* ."Even as stocks gain momentum, not a day- goes by without an announcement of another bankruptcy. Furthermore, while Wall Street is finding its lot improved, there are still hard times on Main Street, especial ly among those homeowners who are struggling with under water mortgages ( mortgage worth more than the house). That's not even mentioning the labor market, where unem ployment rates will get to ten percent (if not more) before they begin to head downward, and where Unemployment rates in the African-American com munity exceed depression-level rates of 25 percent , The job cre ation aspects of recovery have yet to be realized. yet this is the most es'sential part of recovery. It does us no good, to look at stocks that are doing well if we cannot look at people that are doing well i This recovery has to trickle down ! It may also be time to talk frankly about targeting some aspects of recovery on commu nities most iti need. The African- American community, in particular, has been extreme ly hard hit. but (Mease don't say "African American'' in a crowded room - you'll be accused of racism, or worse. Numbers don't lie and neither does drive by public policy analysas. Drive through an inner city neighborhood and then tell me that you see the same thing that you see in gen trified areas or in suburbs! What about targeting young people? The unemployment rates among youth are stagger ing, with new college graduates entering the worst job market that we have seen in at Feast 20 years. While everyone else is the world is fined up for a sub sidy; we have yet to offer our students as good a deal as we are. offering new. 'ear- pur chasers. Students pay interest rates -no lower than 5- percent, and often as high as 12 percent. New ear purchasers get away with aero. It would be great to see an economic stiniu - _ lus for young people. This recession has caused enough ahgst for people to eagerly anticipate its end. but it is way too .sOon to talk about bottoming out. anil -it seems especially insensitive to those w ho continue to suffer for a few to talk about how mueh better they are doing. The members of the bottom-out team ought to be talking about targeting those who are suffering dispropor tionately - big cities. African Americans. and young people. The maeroeconomic indicators are undercut by the microeco nomic angst that too many Americans are experiencing. If the current economy is bottoming out. what about eco nomic restructuring'' The fact is that economic fundamentals were weak, and that weakness led us to recession. Until we are able to restructure aspects of our economy, we will continue to Have, some economic weak nessV ," ' '' ?' President Obama and his team have talked about new financial regulations. This is something to look forward to. These arc also the things that Chambers of Commerce are protesting. The missing conver sation is ;t- conversation about economic distribution. One sector can lick its chops and talk about bottoming out and good times, while others ail* still wondering how they can make their mortgage. It will be a shame if we miss an opportunity to look closely at economic fundamen tals because optimists think gtxxl times are coming soon. Juliarine MMveaitx is presi dent of Bennett College for Women and a renow ned econo mist. She Can be reached at preshennett@henneit.edu. Are Racist 'Lone Wolves' Really Alone? Ron Walters Guest Columnist On Wednesday evening June 10, I was supposed to have attended the preview of a play by Janet Cohen, an African-American writer and wife of Jewish former Secretary of the Army, Steve Cohen at the Holocaust Museum. But that day it was attacked by James von Brunn, long time avowed White racist. At the entrance to the Museum von Brunn shot and killed Stephen Johns, a beloved African American security guard who had worked there for six years. This was a supreme irony because Janet's play, "Anne arid Emmett" was about intro ducing more Americans to the lives of Anne Frank and Emmett Till, two Jewish and African-American icons of the "fjuman rights movement whose lives have been used to repudiate racist violence. Needless to say, the preview was cancelled and I awoke the next day to find the American media cutting the foundation of American racism out of the story by emphasizing that von Brunn was a "lone wolf." But was he really? We make two points. So-called "lone wolves" are part of a larger official community which gives them substantial legitimacy and two. when that legitimacy falters they are most likely to show their vio lent fangs. With the upsurge of the conservative movement, racist violence and hate speech became staples used to mobi lize people, not necessarily into racist groups, but also into campaigns and voters for elected officials. When Ronald Reagan ran for President in I MHO. not only did he open his campaign in Philadelphia, Miss., where civil rights martyrs Sch werner Goodman and Chaney were killed by the Klan. but Klan Pholo by l)li\ icr Dnulicry AKic.i PreWMCT The U.S. Holocaust Museum shut down for a day last week after a deadly shooting. members took off their sheets and staged "Vote for Ronald Reagan" rallies at events on the campaign trail. And even though Reagan mildly repudiated their sup port, the new road to the legit imacy of the radical right had been forged. In the 1990s, as one publi cation put it, "a feeling of rage is building across the country," an expression of which became the militias thai were forming in many stales, osten sibly to protect citizens from all sorts of government con spiracies. Many of "these had ties (b racist. neo-Nazi and Ayran supremacy movements and most militia members were also card carrying members of the National Rifle Association, which gave them political pro tection. So serious was this movement regarded that in return for grassroots assis tance, some members of Congress included them in campaign operations and gave them access to government resources. In March of 1 995. the para noid rumor of a federal plan to raid them prompted inquiries to Attorney General Janet Reno's office from mostly Republican members of Congress, such as: Robert Dornan (CA). Mac Collins (GA). James Hansen (UT), Larry Craig. (ID), Lauch Faircloth (NC), and Steve Stockman (TX). Next month on April 19, when "lone wolf' Timothy McVeigh bombed an Oklahoma City federal build ing. because lie had tfes to the Michigan Militia, members of Congress with ties to such groups, such as Rep. Helen Chenoweth (ID) who had associations with the Commander of the United Militia Assn. and others were pressured to explain the nature of these ties. Bill Clinton tried to de legitimi/e the hate-filled atmosphere with speeches i^iressing directly the need ? - vtronecr hate crimes legis r Official statistics indi cate that most such crime* are oriented toward race and most of these involve African Americans. But although the Clinton Administration wanted to expand it to include crimes aeainst -gavs and prov ision related to the burning ol churches, in his last days in office, he publicly regretted the UW that Republicans had prevented the passage of any hate crimes legislation. Indeed. Republicans made such moves extremely ditli cult. When m 1999. Democrat. Rep. Robert Wexler (CA) attempted to pass a resolution condemning the Council of Conservative Citizens, a new version of the supremacist group. White C iti/ens C ouncil. Republicans blocked it. Politicians who had associa tions with the Council includ ed Senators Trent Lott. Jesse Helms. Bob Barr. Mississippi Gov. Kirk Fordice and others. This led Wexler to ar>k why the Congress could pass a res olution denouncing Black hate speech by Khalid Muhammad, then of the Nation of Islam by 97-0. but did nothing in this case. That same year. Congress also refused to denounce the speech of Republican Sen. Ernest Hollings. who called Black people "darkies" and Hispanics "wetbacks and said that African heads of state came to International confer ences to "get a square meal instead of eating each other." With the latest change of administrations, it may appear that legitimacy for racism has weakened, and so the "lone wolves" may come out once more . Dr. Ron Wallers is the Distinguished Leadership Scholar. Director <>J the African American Leadership Center and Professor oj Government and Politics at the University of Maryland College Park. Among his books is "White Nationalism. Black Interests."