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EDITORIAL AND OPINION/CI)aclotte $o£t
Thursday, December 21,2006
Stern
Clje Cfjarlotte Josit
The Voice of the Black Community
}53J Camden Rood Charlotte, N.C. 28203
Gerald O. Johnson ceo/publisher
Robert L. Johnson co-pubusher/general manager
Herbert L White editor in chief
EDITORIALS
A double
standaid in
percepfion
ofadileios
Saturday’s on-court melee between the New York Knicks and
Denver Nuggets was imcalled for and certainly ugly, and NBA
Commissioner David Stem was right to mete out punishment
to all involved. Each franchise was fined $500,000 and seven
players from both teams were suspended, including Denver’s
Carmelo Anthony, the league’s leading scorer. Mr. Anthony
warranted a 15-game suspension, which is appropriate given
that he punched a New York player. But the
damage didn’t end in New York. Professional
basketball as a whole took another beating, part
of a trend that threatens to overshadow athletic
accomplishment.
We’ve heard and read the complaints: The
NBA is full of pimped-out thugs with rolling
posses, negligible social skills and a poor grasp of
basketball fundamentals. That the league is
overwhelmingly black probably doesn’t help
matters, with a mostly-white ticket-bu3nng and endorsement
consuming public. Those allegations are patently unfair, espe
cially when compared to other sports. The
National Hockey League is built in large mea
sure on a culture and history of violence. Any
long-time follower of the NHL knows all about
“goons” and “enforcers” who are responsible for
roughing up the opposing team’s best scorer or
protecting his team’s best skater. Yet we’re hard-
' pressed to hear anyone complain about on-ice
violence; indeed the NHL is having a difficult
time attracting new fans, in part because the
5 working to reduce fighting. By the way, the over
whelming majority of professional hockey players are white.
I Could it be that media, especially television,
have sold America’s sports public on an over the
top product that focuses more on lifestyles of the
rich and infamous than the games themselves?
Fighting has been a part of American sports
since Europeans contoUed this former collection
of colonies, but for some reason, it’s become fash
ionable to elevate athletes to public enemy No. 1
when they dxike it out. Are tliey supposed to
throw down at every provacation? No. Should we
as a society condone it? No. But our collective disdain is unbal
anced.
Fighting in hockey is good but bad in basketball. Pro football
has a steroids problem that the league ignores, yet baseball’s
Barry Bonds is a pariah. A high school jimior can join the pro
fessional tennis tour yet team sports have age-specific bans. If
we’re looking for purity in sports, this isn’t the place - or time
- to find it.
Military and convicts
would benefit from
beefing up U.S. forces
As the Pentagon and President Bush try to figure out how to
address personnel shortages in the military, recruiting new vol
unteers looks like the only viable option.
Bringing back conscription, or a draft, is politically thorny
because middle-class and rich families - like the political elite
- aren’t going to embrace the thought of their kids going off to
fight. That’s something, most of them likely surmise, is the role
of poor folks. Conscription’s champion in the U.S. House of
Representatives, Rep. Charles Rangel (D-N.Y), knows this, but
still, he holds out hope that patriotism will carry the day.
However, there’s another option that is as old
as the military itself; Giving convicted criminals
the option of joining the fighting ranks.
America’s prison population continues to grow
as tougher sentencing puts more people behind
bars for longer stretches. But instead of keeping
people locked up at taxpayer expense, we submit
that the nation would benefit more from provid
ing the kind of discipline and job training that
can turn wayward convicts into productive citi
zens. Whether they serve on the front line or support positions,
a single tour of duty or a career, doesn’t really matter. Time
spent in the militaiy can only help both the individual and the
country by shoring up an area of need for the armed forces as
well as giving Americans a chance to turn their lives around
through service. An honorable discharge should be good
enough for any veteran to have access to full citizenship in this
nation, as well as the thanks of its citizens. As a bonus, America
would have a way to built character in a demographic group
that previously was discarded to the margins, left to fend for
itself or prey on the unssuspectiving.
We believe few people grow up aiming for lives of crime, but
fall by the wayside, whether it’s a lack of access to education,or
just plain stupidity. At any rate, providing folks with another
opportunity to improve their station in life is something we all
could benefit from.
Anthony
league i
Bonds
Rangel
Obama’s media honeymoon is over
After peering from the
cover of Time magazine,
making the round of TV
Sunday talk shows and being
lu-ged by newspaper colum
nists and editorial writers to
make a run for president in
2008, Barack Obama’s honey
moon with the media is over.
Generally, overly favorable
news coverage ends the
moment a can
didate declares
for office.
However, for
Obama, who is
still consider
ing whether to
run, the tide
has already
turned.
According to
mediamatters.org, a media
monitoring
site.
Republican
operatives and
conservative
talk show hosts
launched a not-
s 0 - s u b 11 e
Obama attack on
Obama’s mid
dle name - Hussein.
“In late November,
Republican strategist Ed
Rogers beg£in pointedly refer
ring to ‘Barack Hussein
Obama,’ using the senator
and potential Democratic
presidential candidate’s mid
dle name,” MediaMatters
reported. “Soon, the utterly
meaningless - but eminently
mockable - fact that Obama’s
middle name is ‘Hussein’was
everywhere. NBC’s Mike
\fiqueira announced ‘a man
named Barack Obama,
whose middle name, inciden
tally, is Hussein, running for
president.’ On the December
5 edition of Fox News’
“Special Report with Brit
Hume,” Carl Cameron told
viewers, ‘Though he’s written
two books about himself
already, most people know
very little about Barack
Hussein Obama Junior’s
loncommonly privileged hfe.’
In case you’re wondering: No,
‘John Sidney McCain’ does
not appear in any Fox News
stories available on Nexis.”
Chris Matthews inter
viewed Ed Rogers on his
show and teased him about
mocking Obama’s middle
name on the program while
the regular host was away.
MATTHEWS: Ed, you
made some news here the
other night. Let’s take a look
at the tape of what you said.
ROGERS: Oh, come on.
MATTHEWS: No, no - of
what you said in my absence.
When the cat’s away, the
mouse will play.
ROGERS: Where were you?
Where were you?
MATTHEWS: Let’s take a
look at what you said.
ROGERS [video clip] Hold
me down as somebody that
underestimates Barack
Hussein Obama, please.
MATTHEWS: Well, you
know in an American hfe, the
only time we start using
three names for a person is
when they’re an assassin -
you know, John Henry -
ROGERS: There’s some
truth to that.
MATTHEWS: Lee Harvey
Oswald. Why did you invoke
the middle name of Barack
Obama out of nowhere? What
are you up to, sir?
ROGERS: Mostly teasing
him as a lightweight and
somebody that’s just not
ready.. .But I hope he runs. I
want him to run. There’s
more —
Yes, there is more.
Matthews, a former
Repubhcan staffer, pretended
that Rogers “made some
news” in his absence when it
was Matthews who had been
the culprit.
According to the monitoring
group, “On the November 7
edition of Hardball - three
full weeks before Rogers’com
ment - Matthews said: You
know, it’s interesting that
Barack Obama’s middle
name is Hussein. That will be
interesting down the road,
won’t it?”
CNN’s Jeff Greenfield was
no better than his conserva
tive counterparts.
Referring to Obama, the
journalist said; “.. .He may be
walking aroimd with a sarto
rial time bomb. Ask yourself:
Is there any other major pub
lic figure who dresses the way
he does? Why, yes. It is
Iranian President Mahmoud
Ahmadinejad, who, unlike
most of his predecessors,
seem to have skipped
through enough copies of GQ
to find the jacket-and-no-tie
look agreeable. And maybe
that’s not the comparison a
possible presidential con
tender really wants to evoke.”
Since when did not wearing
a tie with a suit equate to
being a terrorist sympathiz
er?
But Greenfield did not stop
there. -‘Now, it is one thing to
have a last name that sounds
like Osama and a middle
name, Hussein, that is proba
bly less than helpful. But an
outfit that reminds people of
a charter member of the Avis
of Evil? Why, this could leave
his presidential hopes hang
ing by a thread. Or is that
threads?”
Obama was named after
his father, who was bom in
Kenya, not Kennebunkport.
Tb focus on his name, his big
ears or whether he wears a
tie shows just how small-
minded and vicious some
opinionated talking heads
can be.
GEORGE E. CURRY is editor-
in-chief of the National
Newspaper Publishers
Assoication News Service and
BlackPressUSA.com. To contact
Curry or to book him for a speak
ing engagement, go to his Web
site, www.georgecurrycom.
Run, Obama, mn: Barack for president
The specter grows that
finds U.S. Senator Barack
Obama being turned into a
national phenomenon, draw
ing huge crowds of people
wanting to touch the hem of
his garment and catch the
verbal morsels that fall from
his lips wherever he goes. So
massive has been this
response that
it has sparked
a political cul
ture of specula
tion about his
chances of run
ning for presi
dent in 2008,
especially as he
travels to
places like the
testing groimd
of New Hampshire.
What people find attractive
about Barack is first, his
background, a white mother
and Kenyan father, his early
residences in Hawaii,
Indonesia, Kansas - all giv
ing off the scent of a multi
racialism in his growing up.
Then, there is his degree from
Harvard Law School and his
role as the first black editor of
the Harvard Law Review,
traditionally suggesting high
intelligence, that he used in
establishing a political career
in state level politics, making
a sound record of accomplish
ment. Fineilly, there are the
intangibles of charisma, the
earnestness in his voice, the
self-deprecating, even folksy
style and easily likable smile.
These are telegenic qualities
that fit well in a media where
personal appeal is the stuff of
political allure. It may even
trump concerns about his
limited political experience.
So, Barack, has attracted
the curious, selling out halls
in a rock-star fashion, ehcitr
ing the “run-Barack-run”
chant heard when Rev. Jesse
Jackson was also making up
his mind about getting into
the race for president in 1984.
But this chant is not coming
from blacks. Therein is the
difference. Race and politics
are in this equation, covered
up right now by the hype, but
positioned to bolt to the sur
face at the right moment.
That is why the savvy Obama
began his speech in New
Hampshire recently sajdng
that he was “suspicious of the
hype.”
Obama is as aware of any
one of the fingering fictitious
ness of public opinion polls
when it comes to assessing
white support for black candi
dates. ^^en Tbm Bradley,
the black mayor of Los
Angeles, barely lost a race for
governor in 1982, a pattern
was observed: he received
high poll numbers, but a low
final vote from whites. The
same thing happened to
David Dinkins when he ran
for mayor of New York City,
and Doug Wilder when he
ran for governor of Virginia,
creating a belief among ana
lysts that the true level of
support by White voters for
Black candidates is much less
than believed.
What political scientists
know is that context is impor
tant in judging white support
for blacks. This was seen in
the recent election where
Deval Patrick was elected
governor of Massachusetts,
an overwhelmingly white
state. But in the background,
as in every state, was an
explosive vote against the
current administration,
amounting to more than 60
percent in some national
polls, for its handling of the
war in Iraq. Context may
also configure the politics of
2008.
In my most recent book.
Freedom Is Not Enough, I
create a “Jackson Model” for
Black candidates running for
president and compare it to
the campaigns of Carol
Moseley Braun and Rev. A1
Sharpton in the 2004 elec
tions. But there is a distinct
difference when black candi
dates run fiom a progressive
base of black, women, low-
income, civil-rights chal
lenged, etc. voters or whether
he or she positions the cam
paign toward a moderate,
electorate. As a potential can
didate already favored by the
white mainstream and run
ning second in polls to Hilary
Clinton at this writing, the
prospect is great that Obama
would run toward the main
body of the electorate that is
to the right of blacks.
This raises the question of
where his base wiU be. He
may weU attract black voters
as a base, who will give him
some issue slack because of
the view that he may just be
the first genuine black candi
date to win the presidency.
But there is great resentment
among some blacks over the
rightward drift of the
Democratic Party, and if he
adds to that, he could be in
trouble with black voters.
I think that Barack Obama
should run for president,
especially since he doesn’t
loose politically. Even if he
looses the nomination fight, it
heightens his leadership pro
file in national politics and
virtually ensures his Senate
re-election in 2010. Right
now, Obama’s true political
value is unknown because of
the curiosity factor.
RON WALTERS is the
Distinguished Leadership
Scholar, Director of Government
and Politics at the University of
Maryland College Park.