Indianapolis Recorder, Indianapolis, Marion County, 19 December 2003 — Page 8
PAGE A8
THE INDIANAPOLIS RECORDER
FRIDAY, DECEMBER 19, 2003
EDITORIAL
What’s next in the Saddam Hussein saga?
By SHANNON WILLIAMS
Rtcordtr Editor
It was around 7 a.m. Sunday morning when I initially found out that Saddam Hussein, the Iraqi dietator for the last 24 years was finally cap-
tured by U.S. soldiers.
After I received a synopsis of what happened I immediately reached for the telephone and began making calls. Even person I called was stunned by the news and glued to the television set thereafter. It’s so interesting to see how a man, who had an obsession for the finer things in life was found hiding 6 to tt feet underground. Think about it, Hussein had more than 20 palaces complete with gold trimmings and furnished with the best pieces money could buy, yet in the end he had none of those treasures. As I listened intently to the news, I couldn’t help but
wonder, “What’s next?” There are some people that I’ve spoken with who feel that now everything is going to be all right for Iraq. These people feel that since Hussein has been captured, the problems that plagued that country are
over.
There are other people I’ve spoken with who think that Hussein’s capture was some preplanned event set up to confuse or subdue both Iraqis and Americans. Then there are some people who feel that although Hussein has been captured, his sup-
porters are still willing to
pick up where he left off. I’m interested to see exactly how things do pan out in the end. How will Iraq and the United States be affected in the future and how long will it take for a change to
come? I’m also interested
in receiving updated information on Osama
bin Laden’s whereabouts.
On to another topic.
Seventy-eight-year-old Essie Mae WashingtonWilliams, a retired school teacher from Los Angeles recently announced that Strom Thurmond, a white Southern Republican senator who advocated for segregation, is her biological father. Williams, who is African American, says she maintained a relationship with Thurmond since she was a teen-ager and that he has been financially supportive of her since 1941. Thurmond died at the age of 100 earlier this year. It’s ironic, how during the time Thurmond was an advocate for segregation, he had a biracial daughter...kinda hypocritical huh? The good thing about all this is how respectful Williams and Thurmond’s surv iving family are handling things. There isn't any negative talk coming from either side - actually both parties have expressed an interest in meeting one another. Can’t wait to see how
things turn out.
“How will Iraq and
the
United
States be affected
in the
future and how long
will it
take for a change to
come?”
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JUSTTELUNT
Kernan says GOP critics arc all wet; GOP says Indiana’s worst state in union
By AMOS BROWN III Spent last Thursday as a panelist and attendee at the Legislative Conference, an annual soiree sponsored by the Bingham/ McHale law firm and Indiana legislative Insight which attracts a bipartisan group of politicos, lobbyists and legislators to hear first hand the issues facing Indiana’s government in thecomingyear. The overarching theme seemed to be: is Indiana’s glass half full; or is it half empty, with Democrats and Republicans offering stark viewpoints on the state of our state. In a keynote speech, Gov. Joe Kernan articulated one stance he plans to use against Republicans. While acknowledging that Indiana’s lost 76,000 manufacturing jobs during the recession, Gov. Kernan says Illinois, Michigan, Ohio, Texas and California lost far more. Attacking Republican critics who say Indiana’s become as economically deprived as Mississippi, Kernan declared that “Indiana's per capita personal income has climbed every year since 1997’ <md that “our unemployment rate remains lower than our surrounding states and the country.” Calling them “rainmakers” who run around with a “cloud over their heads and a puddle at their feet,” Gov. Kernan upbraided those inside and outside state government who criticize Indiana. "What I found to be true all of my life,” Kernan declared, “Is that if you focus on what is negative, on what is wrong, that colors your attitude. And it will cause you inevitably to be unsuccessful.” Republicans feel differently as House Minority Leader Brian Bosnia and Rep. Jeff
Espich outlined for attendees a litany of Indiana's ills including lack of imagination; horrid educational system; loss of good paying jobs; government waste and scandal. Sometimes GOP criticisms overreach, as they did when M itch Daniels’ campaign alleged that “I ndiana was 49th in the number of adults with a college degree.” The facts are that Indiana ranked 41st (2000 Census) and a census survey released last week said Indiana’s now ranks 34th in adults with college degrees. When questioned, Daniels’ campaign admitted their information came from a census survey prepared and published prior to the 2000 Census. Democrats also play fast and loose with statistics about I ndiana’s economy, emphasizing the economic vitality of Indianapolis, Elkhart, Fort Wayne and Evansville while ignoring the problems in Indiana’s smaller cities and rural areas which are as depressed economically as parts of our African-American commu-
nity.
Paraphrasing Bobby Kennedy, Democrats see things as they are and say why not; Republicans see things the way they should be and say why. There were loads of other political conversations at the conference about 2004. Democrats are pumped up, basking in the glow of Gov. Kernan running for election with Kathy Davis, Indiana’s first woman lieutenant governor. Democrats’ priorities are electing them and retaining control of the Indiana House. That partly explains the politics of the recent legislative mini-session with Democrats positioning themselves on the side of homeowners on the property tax issue. Republicans, though, counter that tbe Democratic property tax relief plan would increase business taxes; even though business has received millions in tax breaks, including property tax relief, from the Legislature the past two years.
Democrats are also buoyed because Sen. Evan Bayh, who always runs well, is on the ballot in
2004.
The Democrats’ weakness is having no candidate opposing Attorney General Steve Carter or Superintendent of Public Instruction Dr. Suellen Reed. Reed and Carter are popular and would win in a landslide if the election were today. Democrats will select their attorney general and superintendent candidates at a June convention, far too late for those candidates to generate name recognition, money and support. If Democrats can’t identify a candidate for each of those two offices by March, their chances of victory’ll be hopeless. Republicans think 2004 will be their year believing that Hoosiers are tired of 16 years of Democratic rule. They feel that Mitch Daniels is their Evan Bayh who’ll lead them out of the electoral wilderness. However, Eric Miller told me at the Legislative Conference that he’s in the GOP race to stay and that he can beat the OOP's great governor hope in May’s primary. Also, the drumbeat of mismanagement, mess and scandals in state agencies won’t be positive for the Democrats and Kernan. Especially the growing fraudulent driver’s license scandal, spearheaded by Marion County Prosecutor Carl Brizzi. Speaking of Brizzi, some top Democrats fear Brizzi’s investigations are becoming politically motivated. They cite his prosecutions of state Sen. Sam Smith and a minister for crimes committed outside Indianapolis. Democrats are also upset that Brizzi subpoenaed Fort Wayne Mayor Graham Richards, in tbe midst of the campaign, on the flimsiest of pretexts. Word is Democrats are now actively scouting someone to take on Brizzi in 2006. Are Republicans giving Congresswoman Julia Carson a pass? Two Republicans are running against her, Libertarian turned Republican Andy Horning and political novice Bob Croddy. Nei-
ther is expected to garner the money and support Carson’s last
four GOP opponents had. Do Republicans believe run-
ning Horning or Croddy against Carson will lull African Americans into overconfidence so we won’t come out and vote? If so, then Republicans don’t understand the deep hostility African Americans feel towards President Bush; a hostility that, despite the capture of Saddam Hussein, will translate into a landslide of Black
voters next November. What I’m hearing
in the streets
For years, Nellie Gold ran a soup kitchen at 16th and Delaware. Now she’s planning to run a soup kitchen at the Christian Unity Missionary Baptist Church in the Windsor Park section of the near Eastside. But a shadowy and amorphous group called CINQ (Coalition for Indy Neighborhood Quality) opposes Gold and the church’s efforts. Even though the Windsor Park neighborhood is 40 percent Black, the whites of CINQ think a Black church shouldn’t be ministering to the poor and needy. CINQ wants an elitist, not egali-
tarian ‘hood.
GIPC’s Race Relations Network should investigate why CINQ doesn’t want a church to do Jesus’ work in their neighbor-
hood.
***** “My man Mitch” Daniels campaign manager Bill Oesterle emailed a clarification saying that Daniels favors “mandatory fiill day kindergarten.” I’m glad there’s at least one issue Daniels and I agree on. But, how will Daniels pay for this needed educational program? See ‘ya next week. Amos Brown’s opinions are not necessarily those of The Indianapolis Recorder. You can con tact him at (317)221-0915 or e-mail him at [email protected]:
An open letter to my stepfather
By GEORGE E. CURRY NNPA Writing from Cairo, Egypt Dear William, As you followed my career for more than 30 years, you told me that nothing I could do in the future would ever surprise you. You told me that after I accompanied Jesse Jackson on a trip to the Vatican to visit Pope John Paul II. You told me that after I attended a private dinner for Nelson Mandela in New York and you told me that after I shared the stage with Bishop Desmond Tutu in Wilmington, Del. You told me that, but I think my two-week trip here to Egypt - with stops in Cairo, Hurghada, Aswan and Alexandria, among other places, would surprise you. You would not be as surprised about my coming here as you might be about what I found. And what I found was what you’ve been telling me since my childhood - and so much more. As long as I can remember, you’ve told me about the glories of Africa, about how civilization originated in Egypt. You told me about Black kings who ruled a civilized society while people in other parts of the world roamed caves. I remember your frequent complaints about the depiction of Africa in the media and how ridiculous those old Tarzan movies were. William, although you never completed elementary school, you taught me more about Africa than all of my teachers combined. I learned more from you, a self-taught man, than I learned in high school, in college, and in the special summer history programs I attended at Harvard and Yale universities.
I thought I was prepared for what I would see at the end of an 11-hour flight from New York’s John F. Kennedy ArporttoCairo, a bustling city with more smog and more people than New York City or London. When I stepped off the airplane in Cairo, I felt I was walking into history. We’re talking about a country that has existed for almost 6,000 years, a place where Jesus Christ himself walked. What is now the Abu Serga Church is said to be the spot where the holy family lived when they escaped to Egypt to avoid King Herod. That was only part ofthe story. Hosea 11:1 reads: “Out of Egypt have I called my son.” You told me about the pyramids in Egypt but they are even more stunning than you could have imagined. Many people talk about the three major pyramids in Giza, but there are more than 100 of them, all perfectly shaped. I even climbed insideoftheGreat Pyramid and would love to show you those photographs. Guarding the Great Pyramid, built around 26,'50 B.C., is the ever-
dutiful sphinx. On this trip through history, one of the first things I noticed was that many of the monuments have been partly destroyed, usually missing a head or an arm. The tour guide said this was done when different countries conquered Egypt. But he couldn’t explain why the nose of many of the statues had been the only parts that had been defaced. He didn’t have to explain why because, as you had told me, early Egyptians had physical features similar to ours. And that is obvious in the statues and monuments that were left intact. One of the most remarkable segments of my trip has been visiting ancient temples and tombs and seeing the sophisticated way early Egyptians communicated. The various drawings and sketches we’ve seen reproduced were not art for art sake; each symbol had a meaning and told a story. Here, too, is unmistakable proof that their features were more African - after all, Egypt is and has always been in Africa - than European.
Your favorite part of the trip undoubtedly would be Aswan. This region is populated by darkskinned people who express pride in seeingtheir American “brother” or “cousin” returning home. You can see the pride on their faces - and on the faces of the AfricanAmerican journalists on this trip. Capturing this valuable history is the Nubian Museum, an impressive modern building that brings to life such figures as King Taharaka, a Nubian-born King who ruled all of Egypt. The museum celebrating Nubian culture dates back almost 3,000 years before the birth of Christ is near the Nile River. It’s amazing how much history we forget - or never learn. You told me that not only is the Nile the world’s longest river, it’s the only one that flows from south to north. So traveling from Cairo to Aswan was a trip up the Nile, not down, even though Aswan is geographically in the southern part of Egypt. I don’t know if any view can match watching the sun set on the Nile. Not only did I cruise “up” the Nile, I saw two other great bodies of water, the Red Sea and the Mediterranean Sea. Oh, there is so much I’d like to share with you, William. This trip comes ayear after your death and because I couldn’t tell you all these things, I decided to write you a letter. You said nothing I could do would surprise you anymore. For some reason, I think this trip might have surprised you. Either way, for a person who had never visited Egypt, your teachings were surprisingly accurate. Thank you for the gift of knowledge. Love always, George tieorge E. Curry is editor-in-chief of the NNPA News Service and BlackPressUSA.com. His most recent hook is The Best of Emerge Magazine, an anthology published by Ballantine Books. He can be reached through his Web site, gcorgecurry.com.