Indianapolis Recorder, Indianapolis, Marion County, 29 April 1995 — Page 2

PAGE A2

THE INDIANAPOLIS RECORDER

SATURDAY, APRIL 29,199g

IMIOMUS Militia movement inherently racist Commentary by Charles Blair In listening to the rhetoric and broadcast stories about the militia movement in America, one can see marked similarities between the rhetoric of these groups, which claim to be nonracist in their approaches, and the right-wing anti-Semitic, Nazi-like groups, which blame every ill in America on African Americans and Jews. It is therefore very difficult to view these groups as friendly to the interests of African Americans. These groups say that America has become a welfare state consumed by African Americans on the dole. This despite the fact that the majority of people on welfare in America are white and many of them are children. The majority of violent crimes in America are committed by whites even though the rhetoric of these organizations claim that crime is caused by mostly African Americans. If life were as simple as these racists claim, then there would be no whites on welfare and whites would never commit crimes. For our part, our communities have experienced nearly every form of government-sanctioned abuse that is imaginable. Our people have died for the right to go to the toilet in public accommodations. African-American men are routinely stopped by police for no good reason and questioned in cities all over America. Yet the most militant rhetoric in response to this mistreatment only has called for self-defense. Never has anyone called for the killing of federal agents or for the bombing of innocent people. The use of this insane, anti-government line is simply a disguise to vent hatred on anyone who is not white. It is evil and hateful talk, which will result in more tragedy and more insanity in American life. The bombing of the federal building in Oklahoma City has been condemned by most Americans. It is very clear, however, that antigovemment sentiments run high and that anti-government rhetoric has become a talk show cliche. In spite of the fact that the Oklahoma bombing is believed to have been spawned by this increasingly hateful and paranoid rhetoric aimed at the government, there are some who now claim that the bombing was the work of the U.S. government. This is paranoia to the extreme. The government has made mistakes and it has mishandled many politically-charged situations, including, in ouropinion, the situation in Waco, Texas two years ago. In Philadelphia, a few years ago, municipal government authorities dropped a bomb on a group of people who refused to vacate a building. This was an overreaction, at best, and a tragedy without a doubt. Was it part of some vast government conspiracy? We don’t think so. There have been government conspiracies, without question. Watergate comes to mind. In the ‘60s, the government infiltrated numerous groups it then considered dangerous. A group of men and women belonging to the Black Panther Party were eventually killed in Chicago by police in a government-inspired raid, during which the victim’s rights as American citizens were trampled. The government acted to destroy the lives of many Americans during the McCarthy era’sinfamous House Un-American Activities Committee hearings. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X were spied upon and, at times, the government sought to sabotage their activities. History has shown that the government has been wrong in the attempt to stifle legitimate protests made by Americans involved in these controversial activities. The question remains as to how our government should react to real or perceived threats. However, no one can argue that good judgement should ever be ignored. A peaceful, yet unlawful, sit-in or the act of voicing opposition to the government are quite different from an armed attack on federal property and federal workers. If Americans either give up or lose the right to protest against our own government, then America will cease to be America. It has been, and will always be, difficult to balance the rights of groups and individuals against what is viewed as the common good. In addition, the notion of what is the common good changes. Slavery was the law of the land at one point and it was seen as being in the common good. It is time for decent and honest people to stand dp and condemn the violence that has begun to consume America. A bunch of frustrated men running around in the woods with guns won’t save America. They could well be the death of America, for their vision includes white people only. We refuse to let it be thought that our community can be used as a scapegoat for the frustrations of a few white men and women who have not cured their own communities of the homegrown problems seen in thousands of all-white towns that dot America. These towns seem to harbor such hatred for people about whom they know nothing. All the rhetoric in the world will not make what happened in Oklahoma acceptable. The government didn’t kill anybody in Oklahoma. It was the work of a few angry and ignorant people.

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Children need our commitment to save their lives

Our children’s desperate need for community and hope can be best heard in the voice of one 8-year-old: “In my neighborhood, there is a lot of shooting and three got shot. On the next day, when I was going to school, I saw a little stream of blood on the ground. One day after school, me and my mother had to dodge bullets. I was not scared. “There is a church and a school that I go to in my neighborhood. There are robbers that live in my building. They broke into our house twice. There are row houses in my neighborhood and a man got shot and he was dead. “On another day, I saw a boy named Zak get shot. By King High School, Susan Harris got shot and she died. It was in the newspaper. When me my mother was going to church, we could see the fire from the guns being shot in 4414 building. I was not scared. In my neighborhood, there are too many fights. I have never been in a fight before. There are many trees in my neighborhood.

“I believe in God and I know, one day, we will be in a gooder place than we are now.” All across the nation, children like Gail are struggling to survive in a living hell. Children like Gail can only cling to their faith and their families and pray that, one day, they will be in a “gooder place.” In a decent, democratic nation, children shouldn’t have to pray and wait in fear. I believe that we are called to be active participants in working to manifest that “gooder place” right here and right now for our children. Some politicians would have us believe that the abdication of responsibility for our children and other disadvantaged groups will allow us to balance the budget, eliminate crime,

repair the family and renew hope in America. But what kind of America is it that has lost a sense of compassion and care for children? How can we be proud of an economic system that is not productive enough to ensure the basic needs of more than IS million of our young and usher them through doors of opportunity? What kind of America would leave S million to 6 million more children destitute and create orphanages for children only because their parents are poor or teens? Children’s needs did not change one bit with the political winds Nov. 8 and their futures should not be sacrificed on the altars of any party’s political agenda. Hungry children and preschoolers, who need targeted help to begin school ready to learn, need nutrition programs and quality early childhood programs. Millions of children need help now. And we must insist that our political programs urgently provide them: * A healthy Start. In 1995, we must fight for the enactment of a “children first” universal health plan to cover every child and pregnant woman. We also must fight any attempts to weaken or slash the Vaccines for Children program, Medicaid coverage and other crucial federal health protections for children. * A Head Start. We seek $1 billion in new funding for the successful Head Start program; reauthorization of the Child Care and Development Block Grant; adequate funding for child care programs for children of welfare mothers who seek work or training and child care for low-income working families. We will oppose all efforts to move Head Start into block grant. Head Start is not broken. They ought to leave it alone. * A fair start. Jobs, jobs, jobs, better wages, education and training as well as community economic reinvestment are essential for parents to raise their children in dignity. Any reform of the welfare system must increase parental selfsufficiency, responsibility and support for their children and not increase the destitution and suffering of children. A safe start. Guns must be regulated as a dangerous consumer product. We will oppose all efforts to repeal the Brady Bill, the assault weapons ban or key previsions of the crime bill like community schools and the Ounce of Prevention fund. We also will establish Safe Start coalitions in target communities, work to deglamorize and demoralize violence by speaking out against and avoiding toy guns, violent video games and excessively violent television shows and movies, emphasize nonviolent conflict resolution and peer medication strategies and engage in massive public education through a Cease Fire media campaign. A moral start. We must insist on a government that is caring and not callous and that treats the weak as fairly as the strong and children as fairly as voting adults. We also must insist that our political leaders reflect America’s ideals of fairness and opportunity for all in what they do.

Budget cuts would inflict damage on our youth

This nation must not walk away from the 39 million Americans living in poverty, a disproportionate number of whom are African American. Cutting targeted Federal programs that serve those in poverty is unacceptable public policy and will bring swift and immediate harm to millions of poor people, especially children. It is shocking, therefore, that the U.S. House of Representatives recently passed and sent to the Senate a bill that would wreak havoc on the most vulnerable in our society. The House bill would cut about $17 billion from the amount already approved in the 1995 budget and two-thirds of those cuts are targeted at programs serving low-income families. If the bill is enacted, it would wipe out 1.2 million summer jobs for youth in 1995 and in 1996. About 130,000 young people would lose training grants, and the Labor Department’s Youth Fair Chance program, serving about 34,000 at-risk young people, would be ended. The proposed cuts would be felt in every low-income school district in the country, as programs aimed at helping disadvantaged youngsters would be heavily slashed. Cuts in job training would mean more than 11,000 fewer adults would be prepared for today’s labor market; 52,000 fewer displaced workers would be helped, and 3,300 fewer elderly workers would have

employment opportunities. Poor families would lose housing assistance, home heating aid and nutrition programs. A fourth of the appropriations for homeless assistance would be postponed until 1996. Valuable programs such as the Job Corps, crime prevention, school safety, AIDS prevention and many others

would be cut heavily. Nearly $1 out of every $6 the last Congress appropriated for programs serving low-income families would be taken away. The result would be disastrous. It would have a negative impact on our local communities, which would have to deal with the fallout from increased hardship and deeper poverty. And it would deal a heavy blow to efforts to develop our children and young people and help our families to become economically self-sufficient. It is unconscionable that such programs be allowed to go down the drain while others escape, barely touched by the congressional

axe. The billions in federal subsidies to various industries — the wisdom and effectiveness of which have been challenged by many — would remain intact as the poor lose job opportunities. Such shortsightedness can only harm our nation’s economic future and deepen its social divisions. Congress should not arbitrarily and unfairly wreck important programs that help poor families inorder to fund tax cuts for the affluent or to protect costly programs that benefit corporations. This legislation is bad fiscal policy and even worse social policy. The U.S. Senate should scuttle it before untoward damage is done to America’s neediest citizens.