Muncie Times, Muncie, Delaware County, 16 December 1999 — Page 3

The Muncie Times, December 16, 1999, page 3

LETTER TO THE EDITOR Muncie Housing Authority rifts harm city, mayor

After following, with deep concern, this community problem, I no longer can sit quietly without becoming involved. This issue has crossed legal, moral, and righteous grounds. A review can be factual, without being truthful. Information can make written viewpoints sound plausible, by presenting facts that support their viewpoint and omitting facts that refute it. The report will be factual, but misleading. Social concerns and community

needs are phrases that diminish the importance of the individual and serve as excuses to place more power in the hands of government officials. Humans have the ability to overcome their problems and move forward. A belief that there is a better tomorrow is essential for the mental well being of the masses. Decisions may be regarded as moral, ethical, and right in every way, but remember that Roman law is the opposite of common law. It assumes there is no law higher than the

government’s law, wTtich is also the basis of fascism which symbolizes what happens when one does not obey the government. The ego of a few individuals should not be upheld simply because of the authority factor. I hope our mayor can truthfully, come to a decision that represents honor from within. Decisions are sometimes bad ones and sometimes Good ones. Political history always remembers the negative deeds that affect many people.

A change is needed now for the good of the people. The Board must be able to reconsider previous decisions that were made without the understanding of issues that must be settled for the good of the masses and not the rights of a few. Unless the people have faith in their mayor, the next 4 years will defeat and tarnish his image forever. Judith C. Hill

BERRY FROM PAGE 1

Berry also quoted statistics on cases involving women, race and violence and their outcomes. Of her own background, Berry said: “I was in an orphanage, my mother put us there because she couldn’t take care of us and my father left us, I was very small. I have a brother, who is about 18 months older than I, and my earliest memory absolutely, is hearing him civ’ endlessly. I didn’t know what he was crying about. “Later on, I understood, he was hungry and the orphanage was one of those awful Charles Dickens-type places where they didn’t feed kids. “We were there for a while before my mother came and got us, she worked and supported us, we were poor...” Berry said that her mother was the youngest of 13 children. None of the elder ones went past the third grade.

“My mother finished the eighth grade and she would have gone to high school, but where they lived, there wasn’t a high school for a Negro, so she couldn’t go to high school,” said Berry 7 . She said that her mother was raised by her aunts and uncles, her mother’s older siblings, and that her grandmother died shortly after her mother was bom. Berry said that all the children in her family in her generation went to college, except for one of her cousins whom didn’t want to go. She was fortunate that she learned to read when she was very young, as a result, she was able to graduate high school and obtain her bachelor’s and master’s degrees in philosophy from Howard University in Washington, D.C. She later earned a doctorate in history from the University of Michigan and her jurist doctorate from the University of Michigan Law School.

She’s a member of the District of Columbia Bar Association and has received 20 honorary doctorate degrees and numerous awards for public service and scholarly activities, including the NAACP's Roy Wilkins Award and Image Award. She’s also received the Rosa Parks Award of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference and the Ebony Magazine Black Achievement Award. She’s appeared as a guest on several television news and talk shows, including “Nightline,” “Cross-Fire,” “BET’s Lead Story,” “Face The Nation”, “The Today Show”, “Oprah Winfrey”, “CNN” and “C-SPAN.” In 1980, Berry was appointed by President Jimmy Carter to be a commissioner on the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights. President Ronald Reagan fired her for criticizing his Civil Rights policies, she sued him and won reinstatement.

“We sued the president and the president made the mistake of going on national television, and in his press conference, when asked why he fired me, he said, She semes at my pleasure and she’s not giving me any pleasure.’ “I was on every TV show. We sued him in federal District Court and the court decided that he couldn’t fire us because he said he was firing us because we criticized him,” Berry said. In 1993, President Bill Clinton named her chair of the U. S. Civil Rights Commission. Berry has also held several positions with universities and the federal government. She has been chancellor of the University of Colorado, she’s worked for the U. S. Department of Health, Education and Welfare, under President Carter, and she’s been a history professor at Howard University and, as a history and law professor at the University of Pennsylvania.

SMITH FROM PAGE 1

copies of board minutes. “The law requires that the MHA board minutes remain on site but they are not being kept there. “Mary Spitz-Greene shouldn’t be able to continue to do the job she was illegally doing, a fact that was brought to the boards attention months ago,” Lang said. “Do we want to be a community? Who is your neighbor? Does he look just like you? Same car? Same bank account?” Lang said. “We’ve got to realize that we don’t have a real sense of

community. Because of that we have all kinds of people speaking for us,” Lang told the audience that to continue in its efforts towards justice, the community must not only be consistent but committed. “We’re here to discuss your ideas for this community. Leadership is not at the table but sitting in the chairs,” Lang said as she- held out a microphone to receive comments from the group. “There’s a bigger picture, one that goes beyond Benita Smith,” said Kent Blair. “Do not set the issue of the MHA board on a back burner. We still

need to address the issue of the board. I would still like to see Miss Benita Smith reinstated as executive director for the MHA.” Sandra Bridges, a teacher at Washington-Carver Elementary School, said, “I’m not very knowledgeable about politics but I have sense enough to know what we’ve been told is bull. “I feel as though the mayor has slapped us in the face. “We need to wake up it’s Benita today but there will be something else tomorrow. Micah Maxwell, assistant director at the community center, agreed.

“I’m willing to step out of my comfort zone for what is right,” said Maxwell. “An educational component must be in place,” said Lang. “We will meet and continue to do our homework.” Supporters of Smith have decided to be known as the Community Action Review and Evaluation Council 2000 and Beyond (CARE Council 2000 and Beyond). “We owe it to our children to become more knowledgeable, more involved,” said Bridges. “Knowledge is power.”

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