4A
EDITORIAL AND OPINION/Cftatlotte
Tuesday, November 21, 2006
C|)arlotte
The Voice of fhe Black Community
J53I Camden Road Charlotte, N.C. 28203
Gerald O. Johnson C£o/publisher
Robert L Johnson co-publisher/general manager
Herbert L White editor in chief
OPINIONS
Lessons the
children are
teaching adults
On November 14, the Children’s Defense Fund held a Beat
the Odds Awards Dinner in Washington, D.C. With special
guest Renee Zellweger and co-chairs Ali Wentworth and her
husband George Stephanopoulos.
CDF laxmched the Beat the Odds program in
1990 to celebrate young people who do well
despite poverty violence, homelessness, family
breakup, or substance abuse that make even the
smallest achievements difficult. Students are
. ‘■•'ip honored at special awards ceremonies and
.^J receive a significant scholarship award and
other prizes. Beat the Odds events are held in
communities across the country and the five
high school students just honored in Washington
are extraordinary young people with inspiring
stories.
At age 13, Chloe was uprooted fiom her home in Florida and
moved to her axmt’s house in South Carolina with her younger
sister after them mother received a Naval deployment to the
D.C. area. Eventually Chloe and her sister joined their moth
er, but as she continually struggled to make ends meet, these
became just the first in a series of evictions and regular moves
for the family Soon theybegan keeping everything they owned
in boxes because they never knew when the next move was
coming After the family became homeless, the coimty placed
them in a hotel ix>om an hour-long bus ride away fi'om Chloe’s
school. But despite her challenging and constantly shifting cir
cumstances, Chloe has maintained a positive outlook and a
rare sense of confidence. She is a member of the National
Honor Society and chooses to consider poverty her motivation
instead of her ©tcttse.
Michael lives by a motto: ‘You can follow the destiny you
were bom into or you can carve your own path.” T/coking at his
family environment, Michael’s destiny didn’t seem very bri^t.
His mother suffers fix)m schizophrenia, and his father con
ducted illegal activities to support his drug and alcohol use,
including selling the family’s food stamps. At one point he
exploited Michael’s computer talents by forcing him to choose
between forging checks for him or going without food. But after
his parents were caught cashing duplicated checks, IVfichael
was sent to live with supportive legal guardians who have
helped him use his once-escploited talents to start a technology
club at his high school and become the webmaster for the Key
Club. Michael dreams of becoming a politician so he can
improve the lives of other people stuck in situations similar to
the ones he’s faced.
Natasha grew up in Jamaica without knowing her mother,
who lived in the United States. Her father was often absent,
too, leaving Natasha and her younger brotho’ for days or
months at a time to take care of themselves. And when he
retumed, he was sexually abusive. Natasha then lived at a
facility for girls and with an unkind neighbor and her sexual
ly-threatening husband before her mother finally brou^t her
and her bretiier to the United States. But her mother was in
an abusive relationship here that affected the entire family
Child Protective Services eventually intervened after an
episode of family violence, and Natasha went to live with her
grandmother.
Now, with a 3.8 GPA, she wants to use her education to
empower youi^ girls to escape conditions similar to the ones
she endured. Natasha says without ha- painful memories, she
wouldn’t have learned the valuable lessons that have tau^t
her how to become foigivii^, strong, and loving and given her
the com-age to go after her dreams.
Tlian looks forward to being the first in his family to gradu
ate fipm an American hi^ school. They immigi*ated fi-om
Vietnam in 1994 in hopes of a bettei* life, but despite his
father’s background as a Vietnamese Army officei-, he has been
sordy xmdei--employed in the United States and currently
works in a T-shirt factory Than’s mother suffers fix)m chi-onic
aiihiitis tliat prevents her fium working. Tb make matters
worse, Tlian’s fathei- was recently hospitalized and diagnosed
with a livei* disease that has threatened the family’s only
source of income. Because he speaks English fluently Tuan
sei-ves as tlie interpreter for his family which means he often
has to miss school to go with his parents to the Social Security
Administration or the hospital.
But instead of being oveiwhehued by his circumstances,
Tlian uses them as inspii-ation to achieve academically He
maintains a 3.7 GPA and desaibes his future education plans
with gieat maturity and sei-iousness that is rare for a high
school senior, because he equates his success with the health
and flitm-e of his family
When Chai-lette was five, she lost hei- father to AIDS. At age
12, a family fiiend raped her Ovei* the next few years, addi
tional ti-aumatic events destabilized hei* life even further: first,
her family was evicted fi-om their home. Then, one of her
fiiends was shot at school. Next, students at her school were
displaced when the building had to imdei-go a long mercm-y
decontamination process. Finally her family moved in with
her grandmotlier, who suffers fi-om Alzheimei-’s. But even
wliile cai-i-ying the bui-den of hei* pei-sonal life, Chai-lette has
i-efocused on hei- academics at a new chaitoi- school and become
a leader in the classroom.
Tlu-oughoiit it all hei- mother has been hei- soui-ce of sti-ength,
and she taught Chai-lette that if you can’t be sti-ong for yom--
self, you can’t be sti-ong for anyone else. But this past summei-
Chai-lette learned hei- mother has hmg cancer—so now
Chai-lette wants to be sti-ong fca- her.
I am so pi-oiid of these yoimg people. They and the thousands
of yoimg people like them—many all ai-ound us and sti-uggling
quietly each day to stay on ti-ack and do the right thing—
deeply desei-ve oiu- i-ecognition, praise, and suppoi-t.
Beii)ietls\'iUe. S.C.. native MARIAN WRIGHT EDELMAN is president
and founder of the Children j Defense Fund
Trent Lott has the reeord of a racist
After expressing support
four years ago for Senator
Strom Thurmond’s pro-segre
gation 1948 presidential cam
paign, then-Senate Majority
Leader TVent Lott went on
Black Entertainment
Tbievision to repudiate him
self, calling his comments
insensitive, repugnant and
in^tcusable.
Lott was apologizing for
having said at
Thurmond’s
100th birthday
party ‘T want
to say this
about my state.
When Strom
Thurmond ran
for president,
we voted for
him. We’re
proud of it. And
if the rest of the country had
followed our lead, we would
n’t have had aU Ihese prob
lems over all these years.”
When interviewed on BET
by Ed Gordon, Lott, in an
unsuccessful attempt to save
his Senate leadership posi
tion, said he was wrong to
have voted against establish
ing a Dr. Martin Luther King
Jr. federal holiday and said
that he now favors affirma
tive action “across the board.”
He said, “As majority lead^, I
can help move an agenda
that would hopefully be help
ful to Afiican Americans and
minorities of all kinda Eind all
Americans.”
The groveling didn’t stop
there. ‘I’m trying to find a
way to deal with the under
standable hurt that I’ve
caused,” he told Gordon. ‘T
obviously made a mistake,
and I’m going to do every
thing I can do to admit that
and deal with it and correct
it. And that’s what I hope the
people will give me a chance
to do.”
And what has Lott done to
“correct it?’
Nothing. On the NAACP
Legislative Report Card for
the 109th Congress (Jan. 4,
2005-Dec. 22, 2005), Lott
received an “F,” voting in
favor of issues supported by
the NAACP only 5 percent of
the time.
Instead of contrasting Lott’s
words with his record,' the
media has been covering
Lott’s one-vote victory margin
to become Senate Minority
Whip as a story of redemp
tion and vindicatioii.
An Associated Press head
line proclaimed, “Sweet
Redemption; Republicans
return Lott to Senate
Leadership.” The New York
Times called it an “unlikely
study in professional redemp
tion.” Tb its credit, the Los
Angeles Times noted that
Lott has “a credibility prob
lem on issues of race.”
In describir^ Lott’s noxious
comments, some outiets wa:«
especially timid. For exam
ple, the Associated Press gin
gerly described them this
way “At Senator Strom
Thurmond’s 100th birthday
bash, Lott had saluted the
South Carolina senator with
comments later interpreted
as support for Southern seg
regationist policies.”
Althou^ Lott denied being
a racist on BET, his record
aiguably supports such a con
dition. Both Fair.org and
MediaMatters.com,' media
monitoring groups, have
Trent’s civil rights record
posted on tiieir sites, pointii^
out:
In 1981, Lott filed a “fidaid
of the court” brief opposing
the IRS’s decision to termi
nate Bob Jones University’s
tax exempt status because it
prohibited interradal Hating;
In 1982, Lott voted against
the extension of the Voting
Rights Act;
In 1983, he voted against
creating a national holiday to
honor Dr. Martin Luther
King Jr;
He voted against the Civil
Rights Act of 1990, a measure
that reversed five Supreme
Court rulings that would
have made it more difficult
for people of color to win job
discrimination lawsuits;
In 1992, he spoke to the
Council of Conservative
Citizens, a successor to the
White Citizens’ Council of the
1960s, saying “the people in
this room stand for the right
prindples and the ri^t phi
losophy Let’s take it in the
right direction, and our chil
dren will be the benefida-
ries;”
In 1994, he voted to termi
nate federal funding for the
King Holiday Commission;
In 1995, he criticized Rep.
Bennie Thompson,
Mississippi’s lone African-
American member of
Congress, for seeking FBI
documents on the death of
dvil rights leader Vernon
Dahmer and
• In 2001, he was the oxily
U.S. Senator to vote against
President Geoige W. Bush’s
nomination of Roger Gregory
an Afiican-American, to Ihe
Fourth U.S Court of Appeals.
In acknowledging to Ed
Gordon that he had been
wrong to vote -against the fed
eral holiday honoring Dr.
King, Lott said: “Im not sure
we in America, certainly not
white America and the people
in the South, fully understood
who this man was, the
impact he was having on the
fabric of Ihis country”
Linda Chavez, a leading
conservative, didn’t buy that
one.
“Sorry Senator, that state-
• ment reflects willful igno
rance. No one who lived
through the dvil rights era
can fail to appreciate the
sodal transformation that
occurred throu^ the efforts
of Rev. King and other dvil
rights leaders.
“Sen. Lott’s problem is not
that he didn’t understand
what Rev King was fighting
for, but that, at that time, he
was on the other side.”
If Lott was sincere when he
said he favors affirmative
action “across the board,”
there could be no better time
than now to prove it. If he’s
not sincere, we should see
Ttent Lott for what he is; a
politidan willing to say any
thing to regain power.
GEORGE E. CURRY is editor-
in-chief' of the National
Newspaper Publishers
Association News Service and
BlackPressUSA.com. Web site:
www.georgecurry.com.
Turning Prince Georges into Compton?
There is certainly a correla
tion between race and eco
nomics when it comes to com
munities within the United
A modei'ate workmg-dass
white commu
nity will
change into an
upper middle
• class black
community It
will be presti
gious for a
while and then
it will be tar-
geted by bad
policy and over the years ero
sion staits to sit in and then
crime invades its core. The
aime gets so bad that prop^-
ty values start declining and
the quality of life becomes
pitiAil. In a few decades you
have what is known as a
“golden ghetto.” The final act
is diTig infestation. Why does
this happen?
As my relatives emigrated
fium Louisiana to Los
Angdes in the ‘40s and ‘50s, I
saw communities make the
above transition. Thei'e was
“Lovely Compton.” 'Twoofmy
cousins integrated Fremont
High. Anotha' cousin helped
integi'ate Washii^ton High.
My Aunt Mary and her clan
integrated In^ewood. Aunt
Lula and her clan bought a
house at Hoover and Florence
across the street from a syna
gogue. Decades later the
Rodney King Riot would
erupt three blocks down the
street.
When I was dischaiged
from the Army in 1974,
Procter & Gamble assigned
me to Detroit. Beautiful
ndgliborhoods like Rosedale
Park and Palmer Woods were
heading south with a bullet -
a whole lot of bullets. It hit
bottom with the eruptions of
the inevitable diug wars.
'The most prestigious black
county in the United States
today is the D.C. suburb of
Prince Georges County,
Maryland. It has the highest
black family income in the
nation, which makes it a tar
get for bad policy to be fol
lowed by crime and drug
infestation.
Recently I read a few stud
ies that showed the General
Services Administration
(landlord for federal offices)
had a systematic way of
redlining Prince Georges
County from any regional
development. Its affect afte-
decades was starting to take
its toll. The majority of work
ers had to travel out of the
county Thirty-five percent of
all Beltway travelers are
commuters from Prince
Georges County A county
that is overly residential and
lacking in business vitality -
retail, industiial and office
space.
So let’s take a quick look.
My two sons go to the
University of Maryland,
which is in Prince Georges
County. UMD consistently
has one of the highest crime
rates among U.S. colleges.
Last semester, a fellow ath
lete of theirs answered his
dorm door. A hit man pushed
his way in and put a gun to
his head and said ‘You didn’t
deliver the stash and now you
have'to go.” It took him 10
long minutes to convince the
assassin that it was his room
mate or someone else he was
after. He moved out of the
dorm but was never the
same. He is leaving at the
end of this semester.
Two blocks down the street
from my boys, a home was
recently invaded by robbers.
One of the victims called 911
as he hide in a closet. 'The
cops arrived and demanded
the robbers to come out.
They chose to come out with
guns a blazing. Cops won -
one thug dead, one thug
wounded and one escaped.
There are so many burglaries
in their neighborhood tiiey
and their i-oommates pitched
in and bought a dog to watch
the house while they attend
dass.
Daily and I mean daily car-
jackir^, rapes, kidnappings,
home invasions, murders,
etc. abound the news coming
out of Prince CJeorges County
D.C. has nothing on it. In
fact, the D.C. Chief of Police
had his personal car stolen.
They found it abandoned in
Prince Georges County
A few days ago we hit rock
bottom. A board member of
the National Black ChambCT
of Commerce had his home
invaded at night. They tied
up his three children, struck
his wife and demanded with
a gun to his head “Cash, jew
elry and drugs.”
This is horrifying. It is hap
pening with reckless aban
don and is starting to get very
personal. I am going to sound
the alarm. Let’s protect our
communities.
HARRY C. ALFORD is presi
dent/CEO of the National Black
Chamber of Commerce. Website:
w\\w.nationalbcc£>rg.