5A
OPINIONS^ Charlotte $08t
Thursday, July 20, 2006
Why blacks don’t
vote Republican
THE SAMUEL DEWITT PROCTOR INSTTTUTE FOR
CHILD ADVOCACY MINISTRY
By Marian Wri^t Edelman
In many religious congregations, summer is a tradition
al time for hosting a Vacation Bible School, and every year
children from tiie congregation and community look for
ward to these traditional weeks of sharing fellowship,
faith, and iun. Eveiy July for the last twelve years, the
Children’s Defense Fund’s Haley Farm in Clinton, Tfenn.
has hosted its own kind of summer school for faithful
adults who work with and for children: our Samuel
DeWitt Proctor Institute for Child Advocacy
Ministry The Proctor Institute is similar to
i the summei' sessions offered at many semi-
■ ' iff naries, but it provides something too few
seminaries do: theological, bibhcal, and
practical groxmding on child advocacy as a
ministiy of the Church- Here, religious lead
ers, seminarians, Christian educators, and
other faith-based advocates for children
come together for five days of spiritual
renewal, networking, movement building
workshops, and continuing education about
chQdi-en’s needs.
Haley Farm is the spiritual, intdlectual, and leadership
development home for the 21st century children’s move
ment. Those who gather for the Proctor Institute have the
chance to explore how their faith relates to justice and chil
dren; hear inspiring preachir^ about children’s concerns;
gain accm'ate, up-to-date information on-children’s needs;
and participate in workshops to acquire new skills, best
practices, and strategies to implement programs to help
childrax and strer^then families in their own congi*ega-
tions and commimities.
All of this takes place in an idjllic setting, on the
Tfennessee farm that once belonged to Roots author Alex
Haley The rustic cabins that Mr. Haley and his fiiends
and family used are still there, and they have been joined
by beautiful additions like the Langston Hughes library
and the Riggio-Lynch Chapel, both designed by Maya T.io
The Chapel’s simple, soaring shape evokes ffie ark of pro
tection, the fishermen’s boats that figured in Jesus’ min
istry and the small boat di'awn by seven-year-old Maria
Cote featured in the Children’s Defense Fund’s logo.
People come to the Proctor Institute prepared to worship,
fellowship, learn, and be equipped and inspired for action
when they return home. Our sessions this year will
include morning devotions led by the Revs. Dr. Otis Moss,
Jr. and Otis Moss HI; Bible studies by Dr. Fred Ci'addock;
plenary discussions on urgent children’s concerns; and
workshops on everything fi:om how congregations can pro
vide tax clinics for low-income families to how congrega
tions can work to reduce violence in their commtmities.
Many of this year’s workshops focus on two special
emphases: how people of faith can build a united voice to
ensure every uninsured child health care, and how we can
work together to stop the Cradle to Prison PipelineO crisis
that is destroying the hopes and fiitures of so many poor
and minority children.
Other workshops will help participants learn how their
congregations can work with CDF to sponsor Children’s
Defense F\md Freedom SchoolsO sites and provide posi
tive alternatives for children during summer and after
school hours, or how they can use our resources to plan
National Observance of Children’s SabbathsO activities in
their congregations and communities. Thmngbnut the
week, sev^al hundred young leaders finm CDFs youth
development networks will also be attending a.Young
Adult Leaders Tbainii^. They will participate in the
Proctor plenaries, and give participants a chance to hear
their perspective about the breakdown of parental and
elder responsibility for children and how they believe
adults and faith communities can better fulfill their
responsibilities to the next generation. Noted historian
Howard Zinn and Ruby Bridges, who at age six desegre
gated the New Orleans public schools, will be among the
speakers at the young leaders’ training.
A highlight of each year’s Proctor Institute is our Great
Preachers Series, where each night a different minister
offers a prophetic word about how we can faithfully serve
children. This year’s preachers include the Rev. Dr.
Joanna Adams, the Senior Pastor of Momingside
Presbyterian Church in Atlanta; the Rev Dr. William S.
Epps, Senior Pastor of Second Baptist Church in Los
Armies; the Rev. Dr. James Forbes, Jr., Senior Minister of
The Riverside Church in New York City and the Rev Dr.
Eileen W Lindnei', Deputy General Secretary for Research
and Planning at the National Council of Churches USA,
who is concluding her three-month service at Haley as the
Riggio-Lynch Chapel’s inaugural Dean
The people of faith who join us each year at the Proctor
Institute may come tired, depleted, or even discouraged by
the challenges of so many competing needs in their con
gregations, their communities, and our country and world.
But they leave renewed and restored, with the words of
great preachers and singing ringir^ in their ears; with new
hope and inspiration, new passion and commitment brim-
Phony leaders
exploit phony issues
I didn’t notice the insult at first. During the week that President
Bush and his congressional colleagues declared my family to be
the nation’s most pressing problem, I was too busy trying to end
the AIDS epidemic to pay much attention.
Their timing was classic. It was the first week of June, a week
in which we marked the 25th anniversary of the first AIDS diag-
nosis. So I had joined an rmprecedented coalition of national Black
leaders — fixim politicians to celebrities - in calling the community
to action against AIDS. That was my priority Saving hves.
As the late Coretta Scott Kii^ once said, “Anyone who sincerely
cares about the future of Black America had better be speaking out
about AIDS.” Washington, alas, had other priori-
1 ties.
The White House and its congressional emis
saries paid no attmtion to the June 5 call to action.
What preoccupied them? Healthcare for all, you
ask? Rebuilding New Orleans? TVying to figure out
how to reduce the price of gas or brii^ our soldiers
1 home fiom Iraq? It was none of those things.
Instead, they wanted to link into the Constitution
a ban on gay marriage - a triple redtmdancy given
that a 1996 federal law already does just that and
only one state in the nation issues same-sex mar
riage licenses. The Senate nevertheless leapt into action and, vot-
ir^ largely along party-lines, the august body chose to leave the
Constitution as it is, for now.
Now, Pm trying to figure this out. Ammcan soldiers are.dyir^
every day in Iraq. Inte:est rates are going up; property values are
going down. Students in CaUfomia and other states can’t pass
their exit exams. “No Child Left Behind” has become “no child
left.” Nearly a year after Hurricane Katrina, most of the residents
of New Orleans still can’t go home. Half a million Americans are
dead from AIDS. And the most pressing issue for the ‘leader of the
fi:ee world” is drying gay and lesbian families equal protection
under the law? How can that be?
As the Bush administration and Senate Republicans pandered
to their political base last month, the Ryan White CARE Act lin
gered untouched on the congressional workbench. The'CARE Act
funds treatment and care for low-income people with HTWAIDS
around the coimtry Congress was required to reauthorize the Act
last year, but hasn’t gotten arormd to it yet. Tbo busy with other
priorities, it seems.
Of course, even if Congress reauthorizes the CARE Act, the
White House has for years urged lawmakers not to give the pro
gram any real new funds. Tbday with an estimated 40,000 new
infections every year and more Americans Hvirg with HIV/AIDS
than ever, the CARE Act remains at largelythe same funding level
it had in 2001 -five years and 200,000 new infections ago.
For the AIDS epidemic’s first ei^t years, America’s leaders sim
ilarly chose other priorities over' AIDS; President Reagan didn’t
botiier to even discuss the subject publicly imtil 1987.
Our pohticos’ willingness to dismiss the carnage back then,
because it appearedto largely plague gay men, gave HIV the space
it needed to take root. Those roots now stretch into every part of
our society particularly Black society Nearly 70 percent of the new
HEV/AIDS cases amorg women are Black and nearly half of Black
gay and bisexual men in some of our urban cities might already be
infected.
Maybe it’s just a questicai of priorities. Perhaps the 54 percent of
annual new infections that are Black register no greater import to
today’s leaders than the infections amoi^ gay and bisexual m^n
did to those of the Reagan era.
Those infections are, however, a priority to me. As are all of the
estimated 1 million Americans living with HIV—a quarter to a
third of whom don’t know they are infected— and roughly half of
whom are Black.
And now, having decided on my own priorities and taken note of
how out of step they are with those of my political leaders. I’m
finally insulted by the spectacle Washirgton created in the first
week of Jrme. The question for me and for those who share my
desire to end this plague is: What will we do about the jarring mis
alignment of values?
If we learned nothing finm Hurricane Katrina, we should have
learned this: They are not going to send the boats or the buses for
us in time. AIDS in America today is a Black disease. There is no
getting aroxmd it. It’s also painfully obvious that we can't wait for
our political leaders to save us fiom that fact.
So perhaps we should remind Washington of Thomas Payne’s
famous plea: Lead, follow or get out of the way Right now, too
many of our elected officials of all political stripes are just plain in
the way It’s up to us to move them.
PHILL WILSON is CEO and founder of the Black AIDS Institute in Los
Ajigeles. He has participated in numerous international conferences on AIDS
and was selected by the Ford Foundation in 2001 as one of “Twenty Leaders
for a Changing World." Wilson has been living with HIV for more than
25years and with AIDS for 15 years. He can be reached at
Phillw@BlackAlDSorg.
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Black-Latino
rift? It doesn’t
exist here
Contrary to recent articles in The Charlotte Post
and statements made by some of om commtmity
leaders, the Charlotte-Mecklenburg NAACP does not
agree that a black-Latino rift exists in our communi
ty
We recognize that torsion may exist as the result of
sub-minimal wages being paid to illegal immigrants
and thereby displacing legal workers of all races that
would otherwise be employed. This does not consti
tute a lift; it is a concern that most peo
ple understand must be addressed by a
sensible, humane and workable immi
gration policy
The NAACP has surveyed many in
our community and has not been able
to develop a consensus the two commu
nities are at odds on this issue, African
Americans and Latinos have shared
the same neighborhoods for many
years; separated freon their wealthy
and predominantly white neighbors by money class,
jobs and brick walls. They have worked side by side
and competed in some cases for the same low paid /
low skilled jobs to provide the necessities for a rea
sonable life for their famihes.
Tb blatantly express that a black-Latino rift exists
in Charlotte reminds us of the hierarchical structure
of slave ownership and supremacy, divide and con
quer to maintain control.
When win some people come to appi*eciate that a
community is made up of many different races, cul--
tures, income levels, skills and abilities? When wifi
we understand that every person has something to
offer to make our community a better place for every
one? When will we imderstand and appreciate that
diversity adds value to a workplace, a board room, a
community meeting, a political process and a com
munity?
We must not subscribe to the act of sharing a
thought with a neighbor that a rift exists between
blacks and Latinos in our dty We must subscribe to
the effort to come together to better imderstand what
life is like in the other persons shoes, regardless of
their race or nationafity
The NAACP’s stated position on immigration has
called for Congress to enact a comprehensive immi
gration reform policy
NAACP President and CEO Bruce S, Gordon said:
“Our nation’s immigration policy must be consistent
with humanitarian values and with the need to treat
aU individuals with respect and dignity We must
move away fixim the politics of ostradzii^ immi
grants and instead look at the demographic shifts'
and needs of our nation in a larger contort.”
Immigration affects all races and all segments of
our community It should not be an issue that is syn
onymous with Latino, Alor^ with Latinos; we can
include the immigration of native Africans, Haitians,
Europeans, Middle Easterners and Asians to a lor^
list of groups that have immigrated to our coimtry for
a better way of hfe. In that vein it is essential that aU
groups and aU people are afforded the same opportu
nities and services provided by the tax dollars of each
and every citizen in our community Do not aUow
preferential treatment to create a rift that does nof
currently exist.
The city of Charlotte must embrace the differences
that exist between aU people and not support a dia
logue that espouses a rift between African Americans
and Latinos. This is a great opportunity for all
Charlotteans to show that we are a united communi
ty regardless of race or nationafity
KENNETH WHITE is president of the Charlotte-
Mecklenburg chapter of the NAACP.
When will some people come
to appreciate that a
community is made up of
many different races,
cultures, income levels, skills
and abilities? When will we
understand that every person
has something to offer to
make our community a better
place for everyone?
McGmdBr/Dlst, by Universal Press Syndicate.