Indianapolis Recorder, Indianapolis, Marion County, 24 September 1994 — Page 2

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THE INDIANAPOLIS RECORDER

SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 24,1W4

Haiti and Cuba are important to U.S. interests It’s obvious most Americans believe we should not have sent troops to Haiti. Also, it seems that most Americans don’t believe we should negotiate with Cuban leader Fidel Castro. In recent years, we’ve waged a full war in the Middle east to protect our oil interests. We’ve supported an unofficial, clandestine war in Nicaragua which spawned the Iran-Contra scandal. And we have also invaded Panama. The U.S. has become a trading partner with China, the most powerful Communist regime in the world. So now it seems hard to understand why addressing the significant problems posed in our back yard by the Haitians and the Cubans are not in the interests of our great country. Unlike the countries mention above, these two countries are within reach. If we can trade with China which maintains its gruesome human rights patterns in high style, then we can trade with Castro’s Cuba. For example, the Chinese make baseball caps and we buy and wear them by the millions. The problem with Castro and Cuba has been it has become some kind of macho issue for U. S. presidents to beat up on that has no viable means to threaten the U.S. other than to send refugees that use up tax dollars while we hold them in camps. The missile crisis occurred in the sixties. Its time to move on. Communism simply does not work. It Has fallen by its own weight. We successfully trade with Communists as we have in China and over time the Chinese will become increasingly concerned with free enterprise as they seek to remake their economy. The Cubans cannot afford to be any different. But we have to trade with them. It just makes good political and economic sense. As far as Haiti goes, the history of U.S.’s involvement has been racist in its intent and scandalous in its outcome. We supported the Duvaliers even though they were raping and looting the Haitian economy. We provided these corrupt regimes with aid and funds which never trickled anywhere except into the pockets of a ruling elite. A progressive and wise policy which should have been pursued as soon as Haiti became an independent country, most probably would have led to the development of a strong and viable economy. Haiti, then, could have become a significant ally in the fight for democracy. Instead Haiti was ignored and punished by president after president as U. S. policy seemed to relish the fact these former slaves and victorious freedom fighters were over taken by corrupt leaders. Obviously America has not yet fully developed the wisdom or the sense of justice which would afford it the opportunity to deal fairly with its own ex-slaves. And so there is little wonder the opportunity to deal with the Haitians as free and equal partners was lost very early in America’s history. America has been involved in the wrong ways with both Haiti and Cuba for some time. If wisdom and justice are used as guides to our policy in these countries instead of old grudges and racism in the near future, these hard pressed little countries can move toward a new order based upon democracy and economic viability and trading partner status instead of becoming welfare recipients as the ghettos in the U.S.

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Civil Rights Movement is alive and relevdM

The civil rights movement, so instrumental in securing constitutional rights and expanding opportunities for African-Americans in the past, is as relevant today as it ever was. To me, that seems an obvious conclusion based on the continued racial gap in our society and on the needs of African-Americans and indeed, all Americans. But on the wake of the NAACP’s well publicized difficulties, some people are beginning to question the movement’s relevance. I see a continuing need for organization’s that expose and combat racism. It’s unfortunate but an undeniable fact that racism is still with us, even if it has taken on subtler forms. Studies show when Black and white job applicants with equal qualifications apply for a

job, white people get the job more often than the Black candidate. We still face discrimination in housing, lending and other aspects of life including the destructive media stereotyping that brands all young Black males as potential lawbreakers. By identifying and combating racism, civil rights groups help to keep the Constitution alive and hold discriminatory institutions liable. But there’s another aspect to the agenda of most civil rights organizations that makes their role even more relevant in the changed

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INNER CITY

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environment of the 1990» — overcoming the poverty thatgrips the urban and rural poor. Inner city poverty isn’t simply a problem for the poor, the existence of large numbers of alienated desperately poor people inevitably means everybody’s quality of life suffers. It is also a threat to the economy, for America’s future depends op its ability to compete in a global economy transformed by technology. To compete successfully, we’ll need to ensure all of our people have high skill levels since those left behind will be a drag on the rest of us. So civil rights organizations need to work on those economic problems, helping those pushed to the margins of our society to enter the mainstream economy. Too many people forget the remarkable economic progress made by so many AfricanAmericans in past generations that stems from the heroic work done by the civil rights organizations in defeating Jim Crow laws and providing opportunities. Those striking successes helped to create today’s large, stable Black middle class. The challenge of the 1990s is to help poor •people become economically self-sufficient, especially those who may not have the strong family and community support, quality education and skills needed to succeed in today’s demanding economy. That task is made more difficult because the manufacturing jobs which used to provide opportunities for people with relatively few skills and little schooling have largely vanished. So has the armed forces, who turn young men into solid, productive citizens. We often forget the army served to help generations of high school dropouts learn social skills and work habits. That narrowing of opportunities affects people of all races and every organization in the nation should be concerned about it. They need to be fighting poverty, alleviating the pain of the poor, providing services and advocacy and influencing public policy to help lift people out of poverty. Even as we fought for racial justice, economic and social justice have always been important for civil rights organizations and they are now at the core of our new role in the 1990s.

Children plead for health coverage now

“Here is a story about when I was a re severely eradicated...! hope you seven years old,” wrote Aaron understand this from a sixth grader’s Proctor recently to President Bill point 0 f view.” Qinton in a letter about health care Proctor’s letter was included in a reform. “I lived in a small house in a book of letters and pictures about rundown community. My parents health care that a group of children hardly earned enough money to buy a nd their families presented to First food for the family. Lady Hillary Rodham Qinton at the “One night I was miming around white House in May. Like Proctor’s, and I ran head-first, practically a u ,h e children’s letters described abmptly, into my radiator. I severely ,h e health crisis and worries they, split open my head. 1 was rushed to t h e ir families and friends have the hospital and my head was sewn experienced. You can't read these up. I thought everything was better, letters without understanding how 1 was wrong. terribly vulnerable our children feel, “Heavily shocked I was when 1 how deeply children have absorbed heard what my parents had to pay for their parents worries about the my hospital bill. We couldn’t buy inability to pay for the health care anything for weeks and we were their children and other family rocketing to the poor house. members need. “I wish there was a bi-partisan Congress is considering putting agreement on the Health Care children first in health care by Plan...when you fight over petty providing universal coverage so that things like this, families life savings every child will be insured. This is a

beginning, but every American must be guaranteed insurance coverage that can’t be taken away. And preeminent among those child’s life are the most important for future development and health. What’s more, early preventive care for children is relatively cheap to provide and saves money by averting the need for emergency and acute care later on. Our community must demand our lawmakers make sure all children

have access to affordable health care that can’t be denied or taken away, that covers preventive care and is comprehensive. When you finish reading this column, call your senators and representatives. Tell them children cannot wait years for the checkups, the immunizations and the asthma medicine and the antibiotics for ear infectionsand all the other treatments they need to grow up healthy and strong. Immediate, guaranteed health care for all Americans, with comprehensive benefits for children and pregnant women has to be the bottom line in health care reform. To reach your representative in Congress, call the Capital Hill switchboard at (202) 224-3121 or look in your phone book for their local office numbers.

Young people need more things to do really

Last May 18, at the Project Excellence Scholarship Dinner here, in Washington, D.C., 18-year-old Kea Prather stunned an audience of this city’s movers and shakers when she told them why so much violence, drug abuse and teenage pregnancy plague the urban areas of America. “Young people need more things to do and places to go,” she said. “Do you realize that within the limits of Washington, D.C., there is not one bowling alley, not one rol ler-skat ing rink, not one underage club? Movies are $7 a seat!... Young people need more things to do on Friday night besides smoking weed, drinking, fighting and having sex.” This bright young woman, bound for the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill on a scholarship made possible by a grant from The Freedom Fomm, was telling us that more prisons and jails alone offered no panacea for rampant crime in any inner city because ghetto teens are already “incarcerated” in communities that offer few jobs or other opportunities within, and little in the way of transportation or other vehicles for getting out. Prather was offering America a vital element of any workable anticrime bill — an element that President Bill Qinton articulates when he says it is not enough to ask young Americans to “say no to

The

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By CARL ROWAN

drugs” or “say no to sex.” Qinton has argued that we have to give youngsters like Kea Prather “something to say yes to.” Wise members of Congress responded by including in the pending crime bill facilities for midnight basketball leagues and for many other crime prevention programs that Prather was praying for. But Neanderthals in the House have rejected the crime bill, mostly on grounds that the provisions to meet Prather’s pleas are all “pork,” that nasty word that suggests congressmen are virtually stealing federal money for worthless projects in their district. The anti-crime bill now before Congress is a monstrosity. It loads on more reasons for capital punishment, which would make this ever-violent society more brutal and disrespectful of human life. It has a “three strikes and

you’re out” provision that would guarantee long and costly imprisonment for millions of unlucky souls who have been marginal violators of laws of

marginal value.

The sad truth is that both houses of Congress, and powerful members of both parties, are prisoners of the myth that if we just “lock ‘em up” or “fry ‘em” we can incarcerate and execute our way out of our grisly

social sickness.

I wish that I could lock Congress up for a few hours and force

members to listen to Prather and other Project Excellence teenage scholars who have lived with crime and risen above it. I think these teenagers could stop the political posturing over who is really “tough on crime.” I think they would shame into silence all but the most conscienceless who cry “pork” when efforts are made to provide poor, entrapped American youngsters with something to do “besides smoking weed, drinking, fighting and having sex.”