Indianapolis Recorder, Indianapolis, Marion County, 9 July 1999 — Page 2

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THE INDIANAPOLIS RECORDER

FRIDAY, JULY 9,1999 *1

PLANNER Continued from A1

Spree killings reach local families

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light years ahead of where we were,” said Sears, a retired UPS executive who assumed the title in November, 1998. “The primary purpose of Planner House is community development. We’ve taken so many resources from this area. Neighborhood people ire gone, homes are boarded up. flic only way we’re going to be successful is if we can make the community successful.” For Sears and company, revitalizing the community through a struggling facility has been laborious. But, it is a labor of love for its employees, most of whom originally hailed from the struggling inner-city area. According to Sears, the charge to revitalize the Planner House had to come from those who knew first hand its history and mission. ■“A lot of people here are ex-Flanner House kids,” said Sears, who grew up oix 27th and Illinois, walking distance from the center. “It would have been easy to leave but you have to come back and serve the place you left. People always say that a situation is terrible, but what are those people doing to fix it?” Since returning to the Planner House and the area last year, Sears has initiated several programs to “fix” what was once considered a problem. To save its most vital programs, such as the day care, GED and workforce initiative, Sears cut well known programs such as the clothing and food giveaways, which according to the executive director, were high cost but loW yield. “We had no logical reason for those programs,” he said. “We are trying to help people help themselves. We want to use our programs to get people here, then ask them if they went to get out of their situation. Those are the type of thjhgs we want to do here.” •Since adapting the facility’s mission to Wet performance standards, several loial companies have taken notice. The

Indianapolis Marion County Public Library, for example, has renewed its commitment to the center in the form of a new building to house the growing need. The building is expected to be a reality in the year 2000. Additionally, history has repeated itself in the form of support from Planner Buchanan Mortuary head Brian Buchanan. The grandson of Frank W. Planner, the philanthropist who donated the land and property, Buchanan has brought over $100,000 to the facility and is currently the president of its board. In acceptance of that support. Sears has also committed to Buchanan, in that Planner House will now be synonymous with the man responsible for its creation. Along with Planner, the center also recognizes the historical efforts of Star News Publisher Eugene Pulliam and Cleo Blackburn, the African-American architect who conceived the building through pictures and various other reminders throughout its walls. Internal initiatives asitje. Planner House has also engaged in partnerships with various housing agencies and community development corporations to revitalized the surrounding community. One project, a Planner House/ UNWA collaboration, will combine the Rivers Edge properties with a proposed Edgemont housing plan, bringing even more new and refurbished homes to the area. The overall goal, said Sears is to revitalize the over 800 dilapidated area homes to meet the needs of families who want to better themselves. After trials and turmoil, Planner House is officially back with mission in hand. And for its staff of determined neighborhood citizens, the feeling of worth has also returned. “The feeling catches you here,” Sears said. “We feel we have to bring enthusiasm back to people who feel they have nothing to do. That’s the only way we can improved this community.”

fatally shot. IU student Won Joon Yoon, from South Korea, was also killed in the perpetrator’s alleged killing spree. Yoon was to begin a doctoral program at Indiana University this fall. Nine others in Illinois and Indiana were wounded by the alleged gunman. A wiry criminal justice major. Smith spoke to the newspaper after he tucked leaflets touting his white supremacist beliefs beneath the windshield wipers of about 1,000 cars at the Bloomington campus. Those fliers bore the mark of the Illinois-based white supremacist group World Church of the Creator and contained a rambling history of the United States, which it said was formed by heroic white people. It concluded that “Our people, the Great White Race, are slaves to a deceitful, alien government, a controlled media, and a suicidal religion.” One of Smith’s ex-girlfriends didn’t think the timing of the shootings was a coincidence. "This is his Independence Day from the government, from everything,” Elizabeth Sahr told the Daily lllini, the student newspaper at the University of Illinois. “He is not going to stop until he’s shot dead. He’s not going to surrender,” she said Sunday. “He’s not going to give up until he leaves this world.” She said Smith, now 21, was emotionally and physically abusive but kept his racist and anti-Semitic views to himself throughout much of their one-year relationship. “1 only found out towards the end. He was completely anti-Semitic, completely racist - especially towards Asians, Jews and African Americans,” Ms. Sahr told the l>iil\ lllini When he wasn’t distributing white supremacist leaflets in liberal Bloomington, Smith was a regular contributor to the opinion pages of the Indiana Dai lx Student, penning

letters under the nickname “August Smith.” In a June 11, 1998, letter to the editor, he defended his latest batch of leaflets. “It is true that the fliers were racially oriented, but to label them racist, bigoted or prejudiced demonstrates bias,” he wrote. Smith also lashed out at affirmative action policies and said that while minority students on campus had university-endorsed groups they could join, white students had nowhere to turn. The Daily lllini reported that Smith was a student at the University of Illinois from September 1996 to February 1998, when he was expelled. Urbana police said he had several run-ins with ^campus police, including for drug possession. Smith attended Indiana University from the summer of 1998 through the spring of 1999. He left Bloomington in mid-May for Illinois, where he was bom and raised, said Richard McKaig, IU’s dean of students. Enrollment records showed Smith was from Northfield, 111., a Chicago suburb. McKaig summoned Smith to his office in late spring of 1998 after receiving complaints about racebased pamphlets being distributed on campus. McKaig grilled him about distributing the hate-filled fliers. “He wasn’t confrontational in any way,” McKaig said. “He just said T’m just passing on fliers. This is America.’” McKaig said that after his meeting with Smith, it appeared that he moved his flier-distribution efforts from the campus to Bloomington’s downtown area. The Anti-Defamation League said Smith was arrested in late April in connection with distributing racist and anti-Semitic literature in Wilmette, another Chicago suburb. Harlan Loeb, Midwest counsel for the ADL, said that the organization has been tracking Smith’s activities

for years.

“Benjamin Smith has been on our radar screen for quite some time, which is particularly tragic for someone so young," Loeb said. “He is representative of the aimless, directionless young adult that is searching desperately for affiliation and tragically has found that kinship with organized hatred and bigotry.” Nationally, several groups have offered their opinions on the killings. Kweisi Mfume, NAACP President and CEO, said the weekend slayings by the member of a white supremacist group, serve as a deadly reminder of the need for Congress to pass the Hate Crimes Prevention Act of 1999. “The Hate Crimes Prevention Act would not stop a mad man from carrying out murder, but it would at least give federal law enforcement another tool to investigate and prosecute hate crimes,”

said Mfume.

The Hate Crimes Prevention Act would make it easier for the Federal Government to assist in the investigation and prosecution of crimes motivated toy the race, religion, national origin, gender

and disability or sexual preference of the \

victim. Rep. John Conyers (D-MI)

introduced the bill.

Mfume said, “It Is also important that we do not let this killer become a martyr for the white supremacist. He was not just a ‘troubled youth’ as some in the news media have characterized him. This man was a hate-filled killer. “Our hearts go out to the families of the victims and the wounded, but we must also ask ourselves why this man was allowed to walk around with a semiautomatic handgun,” Mfume added. “We need better gun control and we need hate crime legislation to help stop this

madness.”

Mfume said he is asking NAACP branches to continue working with the FBI and other law enforcement agencies , to monitor and report hate crimes across t the nation. Branches are being asked to also Increase community neighborhood watch activities.

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said. “When you find these kind of conditions, you really don’t have a choice. The potential for foodbome illnesses increases significantly,” said Gerald Coleman, the health agency’s assistant commissioner for health care regulatory services. During two June visits, state inspectors also found swarms of gnats and equipment with “gross accumulations” of dust, dirt, food debris, grease and insects. Fresh vermin excrement was found on a floor drain cover and rodent tracks

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