Indianapolis Recorder, Indianapolis, Marion County, 10 January 1998 — Page 2
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THE INDIANAPOLIS RECORDER
SATURDAY, JANUARY 10,1908
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Nationally-known Metaphysician predicts challenges The close of the 20th century will bring both challenges and opportunities to the planet and its inhabitants, predicts the Rev. Hazel Cassell, a metaphysician based in Dale City, Va. In her annual release of predictions for the new year and beyond. Rev. Cassell, who has offered predictions since 1968, sees for the near future: People Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein will cause international panic by setting off toxic weapons before he is permanently disarmed. Golf champion Tiger Woods will travel the lecture circuit, earning millions of dollars. He will become a best-selling author and spiritual gum, but he must mature and leam how to control his emotions. Basketball superstar Shaquille O’Neal will retire and increase his wealth with investments in the Caribbean. He will begin a manufacturing company employing many disadvantaged people. Dennis Rodman will be sidetracked by injury and depression. An unwise decision may land him in jail. Rodman will publish new books that bring him wealth, but much criticism. He may also be accused of an alleged sex crime. George Foreman’s ministry will grow and generate funding for his projects. Foreman is developing into a wise businessman who will attract great wealth. Two of his sons will become famous. Mike Tyson will suffer a nervous breakdown and heart condition, and leave the Muslim faith. He also may move to another country. Oprah Winfrey will take on new projects in Africa and Asia that will be wise investments. Health problems in 1998 and 1999 will cause her to cancel many personal appearances. Winfrey’s movie productions will take on new positive energy. A dark cloud continues to hover over the lives of Whitney Houston and Bobby Brown. Rev. Cassell sees both entertainers in handcuffs. Houston will battle depression, and may attempt suicide. Circumstances for her improve after August 1999. Brown will face a car crash and other dangers, including repeated clashes with the law.
Jackie Robinson, A bountiful legacy
The moment of meeting Jackie Robinson, baseball Hall of Famer, American icon, remains etched in my memory as if it occurred yesterday, not way back in the eariy 1950s. I don’t need to look at the black and white picture I have of an awestruck nine-year-old beside whom the Brooklyn Dodger star stands with an arm around his shoulders and a smile for the camera. Nonetheless, that picture continues to occupy a place of honor in my home. It does so because Jackie Robinson was not just a wondrous athlete. He was a wondrous individual. He’s not some star we should put on a pedestal as the 50th anniversary year of his breaking baseball’s color barrier draws to a lose. He is a man whom we should rethink of as standing next to us, with an arm about our shoulders, offering us encouragement. That’s part of the message I’ve gotten from Arnold’s Rampersad’s masterful book, Jackie Robinson: A Biography. Published last fall, this book together with those published in 1996 by Robinson’s wife, Rachel Robinson, (Jackie Robinson: An Intimate Portrait and his Jackie Robinson,) show that there was far more to Jackie Robinson than just the physical ability, teammates, for opponents and fans marvel. They tell us why it is that Jackie Robinson’s name resounds in 20th century American history. He took after hi mama. By that I mean, beyond the baseball statistics and feats of derring-do, Jackie Robinson’s character is really the reason he is so celebrated today. It was his character-bolstered by the decency and desire to win games, of Branch Rickey, the Dodgers’ general manager who signed him and some of his teammates, which enabled him to endure the vicious taunts and threats of opposing players and fans and press on. That fortitude came from his mother, Mallie McGriff Robinson. She made it possible for Jackie Robinson to have a future in which achievement could be a possibility. Mallie Robinson who lived from 1982 to 1968, was an Afri-can-American Everywoman. Bom
near Cairo, Georgia, her education stopped at the sixth grade. She married for love and it turned out to be a bad match. Her husband was an illiterate sharecropper, the kind of farming which, as Rampersad pungently observes, “smelled like slavery.” He was bent so low by the burden of oppression that after 10 years of marriage and five children with Mallie, he snapped. He deserted his family. They never saw him again. Mallie, taking the advice of a half-brother who had moved to Pasadena, California years before, left Georgia in the spring of 1920 with her children, Edgar Mack, Frank, Willa Mae and Jack, then little more than a year old, for that Los Angeles suburb. Pasadena was not the Promised Land, racism was intensifying there, too. But there was more opportunity and that degree of difference between California and southern Georgia was all Mallie Robinson needed to buy, on a domestic’s salary, a spacious home and fashion a decent living for herself and her children. “Jack’s mother was an extraordinary woman, spiritually deep, resourceful and indomitable,”
writes Rachel Robinson, who knew her well. “The way Mallie assessed things was singly ‘Is this the environment I want for my kids and myself? Can we flourish here?” Rampersad writes that, though he always loved his mother, the youthful Jackie Robinson “felt guilty that she worked so hard and in such menial jobs to support him ahd so many others..(and) found some of her ways hard to accept, her almost compulsive generosity to relatives, friends and strangers, her incessant talking about God and perhaps other things After her death, looking back with a lifetime of experience and open eyes, Robinson would say. Many times I felt that my mother was being foolish, letting people take advantage of her. I was wrong. She did kindness (es) for
people because she wanted to help diem. It was her way, her thinking, her way of life..she had not been a tool for others. She had given with her eyes as open as her heart In death she was till teaching me how to live.” This was the character of die woman whose son devoted his life after baseball to the political and economic advancement of African Americans, a man of whom Rampersad writes, “Despite his quick temper in the face of injustice, especially racial discrimination, he lived on the whole a life of discipline, restraint and selfdenial, he thought of himself and his future in terms of moral and social obligations rather than privilege and entitlement.” It was Mallie Robinson’s strength of character, decency, compassion, determination to try to do well and bravery Jackie Robinson inherited and displayed to such wondrous effect throughout his adult life. That was her gift to him and her other children and through the example of Jackie Robinson, it was her gift to all of us. It is a bountiful legacy.
Vanessa Williams will remarry and have more children. She will exhibit new energy and renewed interest in children’s projects. To protect her health, she should be careful with her knees and hip. Jimmy Swaggart, Jim Baker and Tammy Baker will make headlines. There will be dark clouds relating to failing health and other difficulties in Tammy Baker’s life.
• 1998-99 will see the resurrection and expansion of a Jerry Falwell project. Events • A massive electrical power outage will affect one-third of die earth and last three days. • The U.S. is heading for an oil shortage and must develop a new source of energy. • Acts of terrorism will occur in California, Connecticut and Delaware. Many people will be killed or injured. Rev. Cassell hosted the largest-reoccurring metaphysical radioprogram in the U.S. “Your Psychic Tomorrow, “ which aired from 1981-1995 for WPFW-FM in Washington, D.C. She was ordained by the Universal Church of Psychic Science, Inc., in 1969 and the Church of Living Christ in 1970. Call (703)551-0226 for more information
The state of our Black community
The Mayor’s State of the City speech was this week, the Governor’s State of the State is next week and the President’s State of the Union is later this month. Indianapolis needs to hear a “State of our Black Community” Speech! Brothers and Sisters. The state
Though the city’s Black media’s revenue pales in comparison, they too should donate a comparable amount of anti-drug ads and messages. We must permeate our community with messages that drug use is destructive!
of our Black Community isn’t good. In spite of record population, rising homeownership and incomes, our Black community is under siege! Our streets nm red with the blood of a record number of Black victims, more than 104, a new record! Drugs are out of control. The importation of drugs into our community must end! The use of drugs, by all people must end! Local police alone can’t stop die drug trade. The Clinton White House and Justice Department - people we put in office - have done nothing to curb drugs, gun running and violence in our streets. They’ve cut money and manpower in the fight to eradicate drugs and guns from our streets. Black people can T wait for Washington and the City-County Building to act Our Black community must rise and come together. Thirty yean ago, an Africm-American couple, Mattie and Elmo Coney, knitted this city together with a system of active block clubs. Back in the day, neighbors talked to neighbors. Our Black community functioned as an African village, caring for one another, not tolerating foolishness from our kids or lawbreakers on our blocks!
Black unemployment in Indianapolis is at record lows, but there are stiU too many African-Americans unemployed and underemployed. We must get serious about matching the skills in our Black community, with available jobs. Employers must be challenged, once and for all, to break their habits of stereotyping, ignorance and racism in the hiring and advancement of African-Americans. The Indianapolis Chamber of Commerce, Mayor Goldsmith, the Corporate Community Council and the Greater Indianapolis Progreu Committee should convene a summit of Indianapolis employers, including the city’s myriad of small butinessca. Indianapolis employers must undcntand that there are thousands of qualified Blacks, ready and willing to work, if only given the chance!
StarNews is serious, then they should provide
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the politicians that we’re prepared to accept a tax increase to get that done. Police corruption must be rooted out, branch and trunk. Civilian review and civilian command and control of the police must be implemented, NOW! There must be a thorough departmental housecleaning! The Indianapolis African-American community must break its cycle of complacency. IF, our community’s goals and aspirations aren’t met by the power structure during this year, say by September, then our community should seriously consider its own Million Man and Woman March. If Downtown continues to ignore the legitimate aspirations of our 190.000 strong Black community, then maybe 100.000 Black men and women should march downtown for jobs, peace in the streets and justice. 1998 might have to be the year when 100,000 of us take to the streets to achieve the respect and rights and opportunity our community deserves!”
Ob out WAV-TV Channel 53 Amos Brown Show, Black Police Association head Michael Blanchard revealed that IPD Chief Michael 2unkhas yet to meet with Blanchard and Black officers. Why hasn’t Zunk, who meets with Black ministers and some Black community leaders at the drop of a hat, met with African-American IPD officers and the head of their association? After a wait of six months, Cheryl Adams is co-anchor of WXDM Fox 59’s nightly news-