Indianapolis Recorder, Indianapolis, Marion County, 20 June 2003 — Page 7

FRIDAY, JUNE 20, 2003

THE INDIANAPOLIS RECORDER

PAGE A7

READERS RESPOND Enjoys reading paper I would like to thank you for The Indianapolis Recorder. I retired from mental health two years ago. I really enjoy The Recorder in news, religion, business entertainment and sports. Great (job), thanks again. Myrtle L. Johnson ImHanapnlfa

CLEAN GETAWAY

Appreciated cartoon I appreciate your including in your June 13 Editorial page the political cartoon about EPA head Christie Whitman accomplishing a clean getaway, rather than clean air or clean water. The cartoon effectively and quickly conveys much to the reader. Susanna -Judith Rae Leap of Faith Counseling Ministry Doctor says sodomy dangerous Common sense reasons sodomy is dangerous. A recent report on a local television news showed a video of a car in one of our state parks. A man got what he wanted at or near one of the shelter houses, and started to drive away when he was stopped and interviewed about what attracted him there. His purpose was gay sex; 11 men were rounded up and asked to leave and not come back. With no anti-sodomy law in Indiana, the law enforcement can do little else. HIV/AIDS is still infecting about 40,000 people per year in the United States, a rate that has stayed nearly steady for the last few years. A Rand Health Program Study claims that 42 percent of HI V-positive males do not inform their partner of their status before having sex. Health professionals know the reason: “Rectal tissue, containing fecal material and bacteria, is easily injured, allowing foreign agents to enter the bloodstream.” The rectum is a passage to secrete waste, it is never intended for intercourse. Some may call the medical communityand others homophobic and mean-spirited if we point to decades (even centuries) of studies corroborating the danger of sodomy, practiced by 90 percent of the homosexual community. But I and scores of physicians I know have sincere compassion for homosexuals and heterosexuals driven to engage in this dangerous sexual practice. We also endorse acompassionate, commonsense approach to public safety and keeping our parks, schools and workplaces safe from HIV. Roy V. Maxson, M.l). Thanks for response space On behalfof Doris Anne Sadler, I want to thank you for printing the majority of the letter we sent. 1 appreciate the time/space you gave us to respond. While we are disappointed with Mr. Brown's response in his last column, we don’t want it to become a permanent sore spot between the Election Board and The Indianapolis Recorder. We look forward to working with you in the future (we will have a presence at Black Expo and hope to see you there). Robert Vane Election Board Administrator

Black slavery in The 20fh cenfury? Yes

By RON WALTERS sion with the racist county sheriffs who ran the convict-lease sysThe re- tern. Under this system, the shercent story of iffs would charge a Black person a man, now with a crime, lock him up, then 104 years lease him out to the nearest planold, out of tation owner, who would often rural Loui- put the prisoner back in slavery, siana, as- legal slavery, serts that By the way, this is permitted in his family the 13th Amendment to the Conwas still in stitution, which outlawed slavery slavery in “except as punishment for crime the 1960s. I believe him. whereofthe party shall have been In 1997, there was a story in duly convicted.” the Washington Post by Len In any case, the Justice DeCooper, a Black journalist, who partment did investigate and insaid that he remembered sto- diet some slavers in the 20th cenries in his own family about tury. To find it, you have to look in people who were still in slavery another set of boxes of the Justice in the South in the 20th cen- Department 1920-1950, where tury. This prompted him to go the files are labeled “Slavery/Peto the National Archives to try onage.” to find some information on this The last case that I saw was the hunch. prosecution and sentencing of the He found it in the boxes of Dial brothers who ran a plantamaterials on the National Asso- tion 35 miles outside of Birmingciation for the Advancement of ham, Ala., and kept Blacks in slaColored People (NAACP). very in 1946. Len Cooper says I was shocked when I read that the last case he found was in the story, so I went to the Na- 1950. So, the fact that some Blacks tional Archives in downtown were still in slaveiy in the 1960s is Washington, D.C., and asked not far-fetched, for the NAACP boxes for 1920- This means that in some areas 1940. In them I found letters in the South in the 20th century, from Black people in several even during the civil rights moveplaces in the South saying, in ment, whites were still practicing effect, that they were still in sla- slavery, because ifone or two cases very. were discovered you can be sure They were being brutalized, there were many others that were they could not get away, they not. But even this mild evidence were not being paid. In their own also says that we have to stop this words, some said that the share- He that “slavery ended in 1865” cropper system had them in a that so many people are telling, situation “worse than slavery.” just because they are ignorant of Apparently, some of these the facts, cases were passed on to the U.S. Legal slavery might have Justice Department for investi- ended, but if you can enslave gation. Now, the Justice Depart- Blacks legally by criminalizing ment field offices in the South them, when did that end? Comhave often functioned in collu- mon sense says that you can’t in-

stantly stop a practice that existed for 246 years, from 1619 to 1865. It takes a long time. And so it did with slavery. I can’t help wondering how widespread this was. When did slavery actually end and how many people can say that they know where people were kept in slaveiy in 20th century America? We need to talk to our old timers to see how much of this is true and whether their stories can be substantiated in various localities. Some of the organizations working on African-American reparations, such as the National Coalition for Blacks for Reparations in America (N’COBRA), or the Earn* r-Pellman group or the Reparations Coordinating Committee, have developed law suits against the government or private corporations. In many cases, the evidence rests on the experiences of our old timers they have found. Will more of them now come forward to tell their story? A modern corrective on this story is important because the lie that slavery ended 138 years ago is being used by opponents of reparations and in general by conservatives to block this movement. But Blacks themselves need to know that the link between slaveiy and their lives in 2003 is much closer than they think. If true, and it is, how does that explain the life circumstances of many Blacks with respect to wealth, employment skills, education, and the like? Ron Walters is Distinguished Leadership Scholar, director of the African American Leadership Institute and professor of government and politics at the University of Manland-College Park.

YOUR VOICE

Does Rap music have a place in the church?

Lawrence Hurse

L .:i Rodney Britten

Lois Farris

“It could, to me, I like the beats and the rhythm. If (rap) can have some positive lyrics it can be cool.” Lawrence Hurse “It all depends. If you listen to (rap) for entertainment purposes it can be alright. As far as

the church coming together and having it on the pulpit, no. Some of it is encouraging and has a good message." Rodney Britten "The purpose of the church is not to give you what you want but what you need spiritually.

When I need something to eatI go to the restaurant. When I need something to wear-I go to the mall. And when I come to church-1 need to hear the word of God, not rap." Lois Farris

Martha Stewart and corporate corruption

By BILL FLETCHER JR. I have no idea whether M a r t h a Stewart is guilty of the allegations against her. It is not something that keeps me up at night. I have never been one of her fans, and her commentaries have meant very little to

me.

All that said, there is something that is bothering me about this case and the amount of attention that it is garnering. I keep asking myself, not so much whether Stewart is innocent or guilty, but rather why she has become the focus of so much attention by the government and the me-

dia.

Does it have something to do with her being a woman in maledominated corporate America? Contrast her situation, for example, with that of the corruptionfilled environment of the leaders of WorldCom or Enron. The silence shrouding these corporations is amazing particularly given the damage the scandals have done to their employees, investors and communities. In fact, at the moment that the

government and media are focusing on Stewart, most regular people have trouble remembering the names of these cor-

porate pirates.

Don’t get me wrong. I am not excusing any actions that Stewart may have conducted. Rather I am raising a somewhat different question. Why has there been no aggressive government action in these other cases? Thousands of workers lost their pensions. The state ofCalifornia was manipulated by Enron and other companies into believingthat there was an energy shortage, solely for the advantage of the com-

panies.

Investors were taken for a ride while the heads of these corporations turned out, not only fully aware of their companies' fragile situations, but at the same time taking great steps to ensure their own comfortable survival wit h magnanimous golden parachutes. All this has been takingplace and instead of Justice Department intervention, we are treated to a media frenzy with Martha Stewart. Something is

definitely wrong with priorities. The last two years have witnessed almost unprecedented revelations of corporate corruption. The reality of this corrupt ion challenged all of the propaganda‘we heard first in the Reagan/Bush era and then later i n the '90s ah< >ut the purity and objectivity of the free market. It certainly challenged the campaign rhetoric of then candidate George W. Bush who, in the 2(><)<) presidential race, suggested that big corporations had gotten a bum rap. The politics of so-called compassionate conservatism of Se-lected-President Bush followed from this rhetoric and opened the cookie jar into which the corporate barons inserted first their fingers and then their heads. Privatization, further industry deregulation, all became the

watchwords for this administration until the corporate scandals emerged. It was then that the pro-corporate rhetoric was toned down - slightly - to be replaced with a different sort of rhetoric: preparation for war with

Iraq.

It should now be patently obvious that so much of the propaganda and i’ear-mongering associated with preparations for war with Iraq had to do with deflecting attention from corporate scandals, the blatant incompetence and anti-people orientation of the Bush domestic agenda, and

the November 2002 elections. President Bush’s team did a masterful job in distracting the bulk of the LT.S. public from that which was actually taking place here, and instead focusing us on illusions, fear and racism associated with preparations for war

with Iraq.

After witnessing this whole drama unfold over the last two years, I can only approach the current government and media focus on the alleged wrongs of Martha Stewart with a jaundiced eye. Another distraction; another scapegoat; another means to keep our minds off of that which really

matters.

Bill Fletcher Jr. is president of TransAfrica Forum, a Washington, D.C.-bascd non-profit educational and organizing center formed to raise awareness in the United States about issues facing the nations and people* of Africa, the Caribbean and Latin America. He also is cochair of the anti-war coalition. United for Peace and Justice (w ww. uni ted for pea ce.org). He can be reached at btletcher(i/ transafrieaforwn.org.

Investors were Taken for a ride

while The heads of These corporaTions

Turned ouT, noT

only fully aware of

Their companies' fragile siTuaTions, buT aT The same Time Taking greaT sTeps To ensure

Their own

comforTable survival wiTh magnanimous

golden parachuTes.

Some are sHlI standing in the schoolhouse door

By. GEORGE E. CURRY There have been many recent events in my hometown, Tuscaloosa, Ala., commemorating orcommiserat i ng (take yc >u r chi >icc) the 40th anniversary of Gov. George C. Wallace’s famous “Stand in the Schoolhouse Door" at the University of Alabama. 1 will never forget June 11, 1.963. 1 had just completed my sophomore year at Druid High School, the all-Black facility at the opposite end of town, and we followed the televised erosstown antics jus they unfolded at Foster Auditorium. Wallace was making his stand there, having hail a circle painted on the ground, a line that the two Blaek students, Vivian Malone and James Hood, were not to cross and then register inside. With sweat dripping oft of his face, U.S. Assistant Attorney General Nicholas

Katzenbach, representing President John F. Kennedy, asked Wallace if he would grant "unequivocal assurance that you or anybody under your control will not bar these students." Wallace replied, "No.” As they had agreed to in be-hind-the-scenes negotiating sessions, Katzenbach left but returned three hours later to successfully enroll the students. Vivian Malone, now Vivian Malone Jones, graduated in 1965, the first African-American to finish Bama since it was founded in 1831. After two months, Hood decided to leave campus, enrolling in Wayne State University in Detroit, where he graduated with a bachelor's degree in political science and police administration. ()n that hot .1 uneday, likeother African-Americans in my hometown, I wanted to see the federal government win the showdown with our state’s segregationist governor. And 1 couldn’t have been happier with the outcome. For years, I had w atched my stepfather leave home for work at the university as a truck driver. I had watched my next-door neighbor.

Ms. Willie Mae Temple, go to w ork there, too. We could w ork at the University of Alabama, our taxes could support the University of Alabama, hut Black students could not attend classes there. Not until Wallace put on his public show and stepped aside. That’s why you don't hear many intelligent African Americans say the federal government has no substantial role to play in our lives. If it had not been involved that day, the University of Alabama and otherstate universities in the Deep South might still be lib White. Instead, the University of Alabama now has a student bod\ that is 13.3 percent Black and a faulty and staff that is 15.3 percent African-American. Blacks have served asstudent body president and in other leadership capacities on campus. While t hey are celehrat ing back in “the heart of Dixie," 1 hope t hex don't forget about the other pioneersofthat era. Before there was Vivian Malone and James I lood on the Tuscaloosa campus, there was Autherine Lucy, now Autherine Lucy Foster. She arrived on campus in February 1,956,

but was expelled three days later by the hoard of trustees, supposedly for herow n safety. I w as about toturnnineand I have few memories of her time on campus except the photos of the violent opposition to her presence. She returned to campus more than three decades later and earned her master s degree in library science, graduating with her daughter. And let’s not forget what happened after I'resident Kennedy went on television that night to defend his decision to federalize the Alabama National Guard and to address the "moral crisis" that led to that day s standoff with George Wallace. Shortly after Kennedy ended his address, Medgar F.xers was murdered as he was getting out of hi'> car and about to enter his home in Jackson, Miss. While not as inert as 10 years ago, today we luxe public olli cials— including I’resident Bush xvho are still "standing in the schoolhouse door. No. they are not usingtheu word No. they are not openly adxocating White supremacy. But the end result of their policies xxdl prexent some

African-American students from enrolling in college, a pattern that if left unchecked, could return us to the educational apartheid of George Wallace’s hey day. Bush suppositiontoaftirmatixe action at the Unix ersity of Michigan. for example, would decrease the uumherof Blacks xx hoxx ill haxe access to higher education and. by extension, better jobs, better housing and better fixes. Republicans and Democrats in Congress have shifted the hulk of financial aid to college students from need-based Fell Grants to student loans. Consequently , the average student debt has doubled over the past eight years to S16..928 and one-third of college students noxx graduate xx ith debt of more than 820.000. It's nice to celebrate or commiserate the passing of an era. But it xxould be even nicer to celebrate it by making a stronger commitment to higher education and to students xx fio need financial assistance to attend. tleorge F. Corn is editor-in-chiefofthe W/’.ti .New s Sen ice ,unl BlaekPressl 'SA.eom.