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5A OPINIONS/ The Charlotte Post Thursday, October 2, 1997 Individual atonement can heal hearts By Minister Robert Muhammad SPECIAL TO THE POST throughout the world, people are suffering needless ly,. The poor and disenfranchised are at the mercy of the politically and economically powerful. Racism, qlassism and sexism are destroying social systems throughout. Acts of genocide, fratricide and suicide are committed each second of each day. Man is openly r^ellious to the desire and will of Allah (God). The entire world is out of order. All segments are in need of a divine healing. proper, complete and divine healing cannot be achieved until a qualified physician diagnoses the malady that is afflicting the host. In ages past, the great, beneficent and merciful Creator has sent mes sengers with great healing powers to cure the very people who were to be assisted by the man of God, rebelled and assisted in sentencing the potential sav iour to death. •iThe above type of behavior indicates that, historical ly people for the most part, have preferred to partake in a lifestyle that is rebellious rather than to submit to the law and will of Allah. Today’s society is no differ- 0nt. Whatever the Creator has decreed as being immoral, indecent and harmful, the powers that be have sanctioned and backed as being all right. Unfortunately, the people of today wilfully choose soci ety’s self-serving corruption of God’s laws as being all right as well. This willful desire to disobey Allah indicates that the peo ple are contaminated. The disease of individuals and soci ety that afflict the world today, through they are made manifest physically, their treatment must be spiritual. It is important that we remember the words of Jesus. “For as a man thinketh in his heart so is he.” This is a restatement of the adage, “You are what you eat.” If we partake of diets that are nutritionally deficient, our bodies and actions will give indications of this. If we ingest spiri tual poison into the heart, then we will manifest that poison through our actions on and interactions with society. The Apostle Paul wrote of a circumcision of the heart. Man’s heart must undergo preparation to allow the spirit of God to enter into it and flow freely. In the church we sang the song titled, “Open up your heart and let Jesus Come In.” Naturally the man called Jesus cannot enter into the small chambered organ in Muhammad the chest. However, the truth imparted by Jesus, and the principles that received from the Father, and sub sequently delivered in pure fashion to man, can enter. The Honorable Elijah Muhammad taught us that Jesus is synonymous with justice. When we open our hearts to Jesus we are allowing ourselves to be filled with the spirit of justice. To receive the spirit of justice, the vessel that is to contain justice must be properly prepared. Man’s body is a vessel that is created in the image and likeness of God. Yet, in its current wretched state it is unable to receive the full power of God. The vessel (body) must undergo changes that will allow it not only to contain the power of God but to properly serve as a condition that provides the power of God to others. On Oct. 16, 1997, the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan is inviting all of humanity to join in the observance of the second anniversary of the Million Man March. This is not to be a day of fun, frolic or pleasure. This is to be a day of introspection and reflection and atonement. The process of atonement is vital in preparing the body (vessel) so that it may receive the spirit of justice. MINISTER ROBERT MUHAMMAD is leader of the Nation of Islam in Charlotte. Lots of smoke, no fire at CBC weekend By George Wilson N^ONAL NEWSPAPER PUBUSHERS ASSOCIATION For the past 27 years crowds Have gathered in Washington, D.C., for the annual Congressional Black Caucus Legislative Conference. The event is considered by many to He the premiere social happen ing for African Americans. As in prior years, this time hundreds of African Americans “dressed to the nines” clamored for invi tations to the numerous recep tions and parties. The conference did provide those who came with a more cdnscious agenda an opportuni ty to participate in a number of issue forums or braintrusts on subjects as diverse as “The Politics of Natural Hair” to a Galas galore, but African American lawmakers miss point of why they’re in office in first place dialogue between civil rights crusaders and the hip-hop gen eration. As might be expected, the issue forums that had the biggest names drew the largest crowds. Having forums is a great idea and it provides an opportunity for discussion about issues of importance to those assembled. However, what good does a stirring dis cussion render if no concrete action follows? These sessions provide an outlet for short-term relief before returning to the status quo. Additionally, the forums take place simultane ously which means that one can only attend one or two sessions and neither one in its entirety. Perhaps, the organizers could consider a less ambitious for mat with fewer issues. Earlier legislative confer ences sought to provide the grassroots with the opportunity to feel close to the political process. Unfortunately, this event seems to be heading more in the direction of leaving those who aren’t connected on the outside looking in. For example, a gala was held at Union Station with the price of admission a meager $500. Entertainment was provided by the “The Godfather of Soul,” James Brown, blues legend Bobby Rush and others. We know that the conference is a fund-raiser, but the price of admission assured the average working person could not be in the audience. Sources indicate that some who were unable or unwilling to pay $500 availed themselves of computer tech nology to duplicate the original ticket. The prices to attend the paid events were prohibitive. How are African Americans going to foster unity when we set up economic hurdles that keep groups separated? The theme of the 27th annu al legislative conference was “Leadership Dimensions for the New Millennium.” It is my sin cere hope that those who con sider themselves to be leaders broaden the picture instead of focusing on a small group that in some cases has run out of fresh ideas. The Congressional Black Caucus Legislative Conference is in need of some fine tuning that goes beyond just raising more money. With the future looking bleak for so many, we don’t have the luxury of using our financial resources to look like everything is fine, when we know this is not the case. GEORGE WILSON is Capitol Hill correspondent for the American Urban Radio Network. The unmentioned triumph of the Little Rock Nine By Janetta Kearney THE ARKANSAS STATE PRESS ’ Last week we commemorat ed the survival, maturity and prosperity of nine little Black children who on Sept. 25 1957, braved the doors of Central High School in Little Rock, Ark. and desegregated the institu tion. In marking the occasion, we were really celebrating our strength, durability and resolve and the protection from God, who makes the impossible, pos sible. : On Sept. 19, a week-long schedule of official events began focusing on Central High School, the city of Little Rock, the Little Rock Nine and remembrance of a crisis 40 years ago. -There was dissension and disagreement among residents as to what the scheduled event meant. Why was it taking place? What were we celebrat ing? Why put a new face on the city? How much was this party cpsting and who was paying for the glitter? True to life itself, all of the nine and others involved from 40 years ago, had a com mon objective, but dissenting positions. And so it is. The “other program,” as some dubbed the event at Philander Smith College on Sept. 27, was the real celebra tion with the Little Rock Nine, their families and representa tives of the NAACP in atten dance. The event, spearheaded for the African American Coalition by Leta Anthony, was also dubbed “the People’s Celebration.” It was a place where those from the grassroots community could come together to remember and celebrate the strides achieved since 1957, and the accomplishment of the Nine despite a difficult beginning. “Note that all left Arkansas and returned as successful business adults,” said Anthony as we dis cussed this “celebration.” Anthony stressed the need for commemoration by all facets of the community. She said that a major focus had been placed on the building. Central High School, which is an inanimate object, and tended to distract from the genuine connection between the Nine, their fami lies, the NAACP, churches and other supporters of desegrega tion. Annie Abrams, who partici pated in planning an event for Central High Museum, Inc., said before the celebrations began that “the community must applaud....the black lead ership of Little Rock for ensur ing that they are included in this event. It is clear that the celebration of the birthday of Central High School is no more inclusive in its 70th year, than at the beginning. It is also clear that the grassroots community is not an inclusive part of the scheduled celebrations. “We have had to take this separate and unequal event and produce an inclusive, quality PHOTO/ASSOCIATED PRESS The Little Rock Nine endured taunts and violence in 1957. program for those omitted and left out of the general events,” she said. The Little Rock Nine should be applauded for sharing them selves and their families with the community. They are our heroes and sheroes, our exam ples and our role models. They show us what we can accom plish despite a tumultuous beginning, with encouragement from friends, faith in God, hard work and the will to endure to the end. JANETTA KEARNEY is publisher of the Arkansas State Press. Money and politics: A good problem to have? Campaign finance reform— the issue has jumped in front of us. one more time. • .Congress is holding hearings on the fund raising abuses of the lasit election, and it is debating proposed reform legislation. So there it is again. The slimy mar riage of money and politics. . We back away from it instinc tively. Not because it doesn’t con cern us. It does. Almost all of us worry that we have lost control of the political process at the national level. Why? To whom? We think we have lost it to those who have or can raise big politi cal bucks. We know something pretty weU. Without big money to finance expensive campaigns for national office, prospective candi dates seldom become real candi dates. Big money, being the criti cal factor in a successful federal campaign, seems to have a first claim on control. We understand all that. But we don’t know what to do. We don’t know how to change things to make them better. And, given the overall success of the American experiment with rep resentative government, we have developed a high tolerance for some of its imperfections - hke our system of financing cam paigns. Perhaps we are also com forted by our notion that political money doesn’t usually “buy” votes on issues before congress. Most of our elected poUtical lead ers wouldn’t think of “seUing out” in that fashion. They know that they would probably go to jail if there were ever a direct link between a contribution and a promise to vote a particular way. Money usually buys only access — but very friendly access. A big campaign contributor may not be guaranteed a particular vote, but he knows that he can get in the door to make his case. That access, that time with pub lic decision makers, is a commod ity for sale. (It is like a 50-yard Kne ticket to the Super Bowl. It costs a lot, doesn’t guarantee that your team will win, but it gets you right in the middle of the action. Those without the ticket can see it, but only on television.) Finding a way to finance a healthy, competitive political environment is one of our most important challenges. But it is discouraging. No answer is in sight. But here are a couple thoughts that keep me away from despair. • Money isn’t everything in politics. Notwithstanding the political conventional wisdom, big money doesn’t always win political contests. Ideas, political philosophies, and candidates stiU make a big difference. Republicans like to think that Bill Clinton and Jim Hunt won their elections because they raised and spent more money than their opponents. Democrats like to think that Senator Jesse Helms could have been defeated if he had not had such a campaign war chest. But the truth is that those elections would have turned out the same even if their opponents candi dates had spent the same amount of money. If the people want to make a change badly enough, they can always do it - regardless of money. In the American democracy, money, by itself, wins only if the American electorate retires from the election battle and lets money have the field to itself • There is no “silver bullet.” No magic answer will cure the problem of money and pohtics forever. Money, like water flowing down hill, will always move towards influential politicians no matter what barriers are placed in the way. So campaign finance reform will be before us as long as we have a representative gov ernment that makes important decisions affecting the pocket- books of people with lots of money. Campaign finance reform is like religious reformation. It has to be ongoing and responsive to the changing ways that people find to get around whatever rules are put in place. Looking at it this way, the challenge of campaign finance is a positive one - the result of a healthy, hvely democracy. StiU, it is a tough, troublesome problem that requires action now. Next week I will share a cou ple of my ideas for improving the process. D.G. MARTIN is vice presi dent of public affairs for the University of North Carolina sys tem. He can be reached via e-mail at dgmartin@ga.unc.edu. Letters to The Post! Equal status is the j solution to bias ; i I There seems to be a belief! afoot if persons of different .eth-1 nicities attend each others! church a dialogue may occur i resulting in a realization of ! what they have in common and '■ thus engender better ethnic; relations. Many have come to accept as true the belief prejudice thrives in isolation and that getting people together will overcome prejudice. But is this really true? Some social scientists doubt the basis of the problem. Social psychologist Gordon W. Allport was perhaps the fore most researcher of this premise in the 1940s and 1950s. Allport posited if contact is the answer to the problems of prejudice and discrimination then why didn’t racial prejudice and dis crimination in the American South disappear long ago? One. could very well argue that northern racists never had an opportunity to know African- Americans, but in the South African Americans and European Americans have long been in close contact. Many southern European Americans, for example, grew up having much closer relations with an-' African American servant than with their own parents.! Certainly in small southern towns the two racial groups had been in close, regular, daily "• contact for generations. Yet prejudice and discrimination were as rampant in these towns as anywhere else in the United States was. Why? Allport proposed his answer decades ago in a book titled.. “The Nature of Prejudice.” Contact won’t neces.sarilv i make relations between the two groups better, he postulat-' ed; often it will make relations worse, depending on the condi-. tions under which that con tract occurs. , According to Allport’s theory, of contract, prejudice and dis crimination will decrease if two; groups with equal status (ital ics added) have contact and. will increase or remain high if. it occurs, under condi-, tions of status. inequality, in which one group is domi nant and the other subordi-- nate. He goes on to suggest, that this is. why it took so, long for race, relations to improve in the South. European American merchants had contact only with African American cus tomers, not with African- American merchants. European American children had contact primarily with r African American servants, not j with African American teach-, ers or African American fellow students. Such contracts, served to reinforce European Americans’ view of themselves; as superior. The inequality of the situation forced African Americans to submit and caused European Americans to j perceive them as viewed as, uppity and/or militant). If it is common practice for, dating services to ask prospec tive clients to fill out lengthy. questionnaires so a more suit-, able match may occur. Perhaps , there is a message in all of this , for churches, mosques, syna- , gogues, and others who are ^ interested in pairing ethnic . groups. , Ahmad Daniels ] Charlotte Daniels Editorials and letters are encouraged. Mail them to Letters To The Post, P.O. Box 30144, Charlotte, N.C. 28230. Your comments can also be faxed to (704) 342- 2160. Please send a photo graph with your letter or edi torial along with a self- addressed, stamped enve lope so your photo can be returned. Editors reserve the right to edit text as appropriate for space, clarity and grammar.
The Charlotte Post (Charlotte, N.C.)
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Oct. 2, 1997, edition 1
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