4A
EDITORIAL AND OPINION/1t|t Ckarluttc $ot
Thursday, February 23, 2006
®l)e Cljarlottc ^oiSt
The Voire of the Hlai k Community
fSJJ Camden hi Kid Charlotte, NC, 2h203
(ierald O. Johnson c i/m'BLISHER
Robert L Johnson caPl'Bl.lSHKR/GENERAL manager
Herbert L W hite lUirroR in chief
OPINION
Taskforce
idea on
CMS board
efecdons
District representatives would
he decided hy county voters
It is no surprise that this cx)iiiiiiuiiity is fed up with the current
school I)oard. The conuiiunity was more than happy to express
those sejitiments to CMS Task Force consultants during the
data-gatheiing phase of the project. Tlie Task Force used this
discontentment to develop a governance model
to address tlie coiimiunity concerns The model,
“district represented, county elected” would be
comprised of seven members. Six members
would represent districts. County commission
ers would appoint the seventh. The district rep
resentatives would run in a primary and the two
liigliest vote getters from each district’s primary
woull be placed on a ballot for the entire county
to vote on.
Tlie presumption is this model would ease the
parochialism more likely to be exhibited in our
—— aurent nine member board, six elected from dis
tricts and three elected at large* Each district member under the
model would have to have an overall system appeal to get elect
ed Hence, it would be more difficult to remain in office with a
district-foaised agenda as opposed to a system-wide agenda.
Sounds good, but I am not convinced that throwing out the
entire system to correct an existing perceived problem is either
prudent or wise
The process is not really broken. It yielded a representative
govermnent. Each district chose individuals they felt would best
refsesent them. Having the entire county vote on who the dis
trict representative will be nms the lisk of electing a represen
tative who may not be the districts first choice.
But the only way an all district plan is conceivable is if the
entire electorate votes for the district repiesentatives. Otherwise
no one is accoimtable to or s{)eaking on behalf of the overall sys
tem Parochialism in tliis enviromnent would be a real night-
imw
This presents an intei^ting dilenuna. The governance plan
has been designed to help facilitate a lot of the management rec-
oiiunendations as well as address a lot of the conmiunity con
cerns about the existing syst«n. This part of the recommenda
tion can not be easily t weaked without imdoing other portions of
tile recoimuendation. Hence, the district represented, county
elected board is central to the reconunendation.
Another essential aspect of the governing model is limiting the
school boards actions to setting policy only This should not be
* necessary to say because it is a given. However, the board has
strayed away fium a policy only agenda, many times for good
reason. 1 lowever, the pendulimi has swung to far away fixim set
ting policy and into operations It needs to be realigned to where
it is supposed to be. setting policy
I will reiterate my dosing statements fium last week. Get the
document and read it from cover to cover. Write down your ques
tions and concerns and be prepared to discuss your points of con
cern There is a lot at stake here. You need to become a stake
holder.
(il JiMD (). JOHNSON IS {mhltsher of The Post.
As I See It
Gkrald ().
Johnson
Olympian Shani Davis: Soul on ice
George E.
Curry
Olympic speedskater Shani
Davis turned in an impres
sive victory Saturday in the
1,000 meters, demonstrating
that Blacks
can win indi
vidual compe
tition in the
snow-white
Winter
Olympics.
Rather than
celebrating
the victory of a
23-year-old
man who grew up on the
South Side of Chicago, how
ever, Davis’ victory has been
douded by those who ques
tioned his decision to concen
trate on his individual race
instead of partidpating in an
earlier team event that could
have helped another U S.
Olympian, Chad Hedrick,
win a record-tying five gold
medals. W^ithout Davis, the
team was eliminated in quar
terfinal competition.
For the record, Davis is not
the first black to win a gold
medal at the ^^^ter
Olympics. In the 2002 Games
in Salt Lake City, Vonetta
Flowers won as part of a two-
woman bobsled team and
Jerome Iginla, a Black
Canadian, was a member of
the gold-winning Canadian
hockey team. Davis is the
first Black to win an individ
ual gold medal.
In the 1,000-meter event
that Davis won, Hedrick
came in sixth. He refused to
shake the winner’s hand and
told reporters, “Shani skated
fast. That’s about all Fll say”
At another point, he said:
‘Tm happy for Joey [Cheek,
the silver medallist].”
The bad-mouthing didn’t
stop with the players.
One of the U S. coaches,
Eric Heiden, said of Davis,
“He is not a team player.”
Many could have said the
same about Heiden, the win
ner of five gold medals in
1980 at Lake Placid. Because
he was not chosen as the final
torchbearer at the 2002 open
ing ceremonies in Salt Lake
City, Heiden refused to take
part in the event.
It was a Dutchman, Erben
Wennemars, who won a
bronze in the 2002 Olympics,
that came to Davis’ defense.
“Shani Davis is a^ fantastic
champion.” Wennemars said.
“For him, the pressure was
high as it could get. Whatever
the U.S. (thinks’) about Shani
Davis doesn’t matter. He’s the
Olympic champion now, so he
was right.”
Davis now lives in Canada,
where presumably he won’t
have to deal with as many
backward attitudes and petty
jealousies.
Ironically, Shani Davis’ suc
cess has given more visibility
to a controversy sunuunding
Bryant Gimibel.
Gumbel, created a stir on
his “Real Sports with Bryant
Gumbel” program on HBO.
Dismissing the ^^ter
Olympics with uncharacteris
tic candor, Gumbel said: “So
try not to laugh when some
one says these are the world’s
greatest athletes, despite a
paucity of blacks that make
the Winter Games look like a
GOP convention.”
That opened the floodgates.
Newsbusters.org, a conser
vative Web site committed to
“exposing and combating lib
eral media bias,” posted the
headline: “Shani Davis’s Ck)ld
Medal Makes Biyant
Gumbel Look Even More
Foolish.” It continued, “Nice
timing, Bryant. Do you need
some help removing that foot
fium you mouth?”
The posts on the message
board were even more criti
cal.
“I wonder if the NBA bas
ketball court looks like the
DNC convention to
Gumball?” asked one reader,
self-identified as
“Realamericansvc.”
Another one wrote, “Hey
Bryant Gumbel: We STILL
haven’t gotten an ‘update’
fium you on how that new sld
resort in Mozambique is
doing or how the Angolan
hockey team is progiessing.
Cat got your tongue, you big
oted prick?
“OH, and just so that you
‘get it’: American black ath
letes are traditionally not
drawn to winter Olympic
games because (1) yes, they
are expensive to participate
in and many black families
(even middle class ones) just
don’t have the cash you do to
send their kids off to Aspen
for mc^uls training, and (2)
most young black athletes
(even the ones whose families
CAN affoixl it) are more
di*awn to basketball, football,
and baseball than cross coun
try skiing, figure skating and
curling. So not only have we
established that you are a
BICiOTED PRICK, we have
also established that you are
an IGNORANT one at that.”
Another wrote, “...But let
Rush Limbaugh (when he
was on ESPN) make an
innocuous comment criticiz
ing the sports media’s inflat
ed expectations of some black
quarterbacks — which in the
end, ends up hurting, not
helping them — and you’d
have thou^t Rush was call
ing for a slave maiket sale to
be held in downtown
Philadelphia.”
The Web site,
outsports.com, observed:
“We’re not alone in complain
ing about bias at Ibrino.
Anybody who doubts that
racism is rampant in winter
sports should follow the hate
ful thread in a landslide of
Shani Davis postings to mes
sage boards during the last
few days. The anti’s are boil
ing over not just because they
think he’s selfish, but because-
he’s black.”
What a sad commentary on
society.
GEORGE E. CURRY L% ediioY
in-chief of the NNPA News Service
and BlackPressUSA.com. He
appears on National Ihthlic Radio
as pari of "News and Notes with
Ed Gordon." Web site:
viMw.georgecurryoorn.
Mideast oil the gauge of terrorism war
©
&
Sherman
Miller
Althou^ the media labels
the Post 911 Era as a War on
TbiTorism, we might give
some thou^t to that being a
misnomer for the real agenda
of the anti-West sectarian
warlords.
It mi^t be better to call
this new era, the Economic
Crusades-Westem Judo-
Christian capitalism, fi:^
press and individual freedom
of choice versus some hard
core Islamic sectarian zealots
carrying out a modem day
gldoal Jihad
When we
focus our
attention
solely on the
loss of life
and injuries
of Coalition
Soldiers in
Iraq and
Afghanistan,
we surmise
that the sectarian wariords
may be happy because we are
overlooking their gauge of
military success. A1 Qaeda’s
goal for 911 appears to have
been to cause a ^obal eco
nomic depression that sug
gests that there IS another set
of causalities that the media
o\’eriooks. A1 Qaeda long rec
ognized what President
(jeorge Bush labeled in the
2006 State of Union message:
America is addicted to oil,
which is offen imported from
unstable parts of the world
Yesterday’s infamous
OPEC oil embaigoes mor-
I^ed into today’s explcataticHi
of the psychology of oil short
ages under girded by nation
al tragedies in oil consuming
nations or destabilizing
geopolitical events to create
artificially high Western
World energy prices. A1
Qaeda appears to owe a big
thank you to the Western fioe
press for carrying stories of
the dire impact of oil short
ages that turned into a finan
cial boon for oil speculators.
The ^obol terrorists got to
chuckle when US gasoline
prices topped three dollars a
gallon following Hurricane
Katrina. Al Qaeda got anoth
er chuckle as Iran exploits its
nuclear prowess assuming
that the West does not have
the guts for another Iraq
invasion.
What is very disquieting is
oil companies are making his
toric sales and profits. On the
other hand, some car compa
nies are flirting with bank
ruptcies even thou^ trans
portation is a mankind neces
sity
If you ponder the nuclear
threats fium Iran, it is not dif
ficult to ^ their belligerent
actions as being Al Qaeda
coconspirators against the
Western ideology Iranian
instability oug^t to lead to
rising cdl prices frum a poten
tial supply interruption.
Howe\'er. Al Qaeda may have
pushed the Western worid to
a tipping pc^t on allowing oil
to remain a linchpin in shap
ing global economies Al
Qaeda a^^ars to be fostering
global economic instability
leading to thousands of yes
terday’s good jobs either dis
appearing or being exported
to low wage countries.
What Al Qaeda appears to
be ignoring is that when a
product gets overpriced in a
market, it will draw in substi
tute products to displace it.
OPECs yesteryear oil embar
goes had taught Al Qaeda
that the West will kowtow in
the presence of oil shortages;
hence, it is difficult not to see
oil disruptions as a key
weapon in the present global
economic war. One might also
argue that Al Qaeda assumed
that President Bush is an oil
man, so he would have a lais
sez-faire approach to big oil
during his presidential
tenure.
Yet the action that may
have pushed the West past
the tipping point on longer
term use of Middle Eastern
oil is cartoon caricatures of
the FVophet Muhammad
appearing in a Danish news
paper that is considered blas
phemous in the Islamic
Worid The adverse reacticsi
to the cartoons appears to be
attempting to encumber the
Western Worid freedom of the
press while unifying the
Islamic Worid to where we
now have a ^obal sectarian
divide between Muslims and
the remainder of the firee
w(rid. The disquieting long
term fallout of this sectarian
struggle is the West will
unleash its
awesome
research madiine to disband
business dealing with the
Middle East in the foresee
able future.
If the chairman of the board
of Ford Motor Company has
his way, gasoline will be
dethroned as a monopolistic
automobile fuel in the U.S.
car market. Ford is helping to
create filling stations that
will offer 85 percent Ethanol.
The a(x»ptance of the hybrid
cars is also starting to create
fissures in the Western
World’s bonds with Middle
Eastern oil because very hi^
mileage cars and SUVs will
lessen the oil demand with
each new model introduced.
When you take a holistic
look at the current war on
terrorism, you find that the
momentum may have shifted
back towards the West for the
vilification of oil has become a
part of the popular culture. It
will be another thirty years
before Americans forget three
dollar a gallon gasoline and
its adverse effects on their
standard of living. What
altars to be shaping up fcr
tomorrow is that today’s oil
rich Middle Eastern nations
my find fhffliiselves with
huge oil supplies and no ^ob-
al demand for their product.
'Iherefore, the West’s ability
to write off Middle Eastern oil
is truly tomorrow’s gauge on
who wcai the war cai terror
ism.
SHERMAN .MILLER is a pro
fessor at Delaware Stale
UmversiSy in Wilrtungton, Del.