Indianapolis Recorder, Indianapolis, Marion County, 19 March 2004 — Page 7

FRIDAY, MARCH 19, 2004

THE INDIANAPOLIS RECORDER

PAGE A7

YOUR VOICE

Should a convicted felon have the right to vote?

Robin Kimp

Hope Tucker

Benita Gray

“Yes because they’re still a person. As an American they still have the right. If they can get money for being in jail, they should be able to vote.” - Robin Kimp

Tes, thev have a right to be “Everybody makes a mistake. • able to vote.' If they’ve done their they have been rehabilitated time, they should have that they should have the right. But if chance.” they were in jail for something - Hope Tucker like murder, then they should not have that right.” - Benita Gray

Haiti could spell trouble for African countries

By HAZEL TRICE EDNEY

NNPA

Washington Correspondent The Bush administration’s complicity in the overthrow of Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide implies that other democratic nations, including Africa,

might also be vulnerable for coup ^phere

of democracy" and to use America’s strength to “promote a balance of power that favors free-

dom.”

Fletcher sees that as an extension of the Monroe Doctrine of 1823 that basically holds that it is the United States’ “manifest destiny” to rule the Western Hemi-

d’etats or pre-emptive strikes, says the president ofTransAfrica Forum, a leading research institution in the nation's capital. “It’s particularly nations in the global South, such as Africa, the Caribbean, Latin America and Asia. The U.S. has a history of undermining governments so that what we’re seeing from Bush is not new on one level. What’s new is how blatant it is,” says Bill Fletcher, head of the 27-year-old

organization.

“The implications can be seen in what happened in Iraq and what happened in Haiti. That is that the Bush administration is repudiating international law. That’s what they’re doing. And they’re basically saying that there’s no law that they’re bound to respect because they’ve got the guns. It could happen anywhere.” Human rights activists and politicians have long protested the U.S. treatment of Haiti. “I think it’s largely racism,” says former TransAfrica President Randall Robinson. “I think the Bush administration hates President Aristide largely because he’s not a president to be told what to do by Americans.” As protesters escalated demands for Aristide’s return, he boldly moved to Jamaica, hoping to return home soon. He describes himself as the president of Haiti and continues to insist that he was forced to resign by U.S. officials on Feb. 29 as armed rebel forces closed in on his palace in Port-au-Prince. He has urged his followers to peacefully resist the occupation by foreign troops, including 2,000 Americans, and says he is willing to return to power in Haiti. But the Bush administration insists that Aristide resigned willingly, has pushed ahead for a transitional government until new elections in 2005 That move, says Ira Kurzban, Aristide’s Miami-based attorney, is only Bush’s way of getting even for his father, George Herbert Walker Bush, whose administration first helped to oust Aristide in 1991, only to see him reinstated by President Clinton in

1994.

Fletcher points to the official U.S. security strategy as documentation that the U.S. government currently sees itself as being among what he describes as “the cowboy wing of the ruling group.” The 20-pagedocument posted on WhiteHouse.gov, titled, “The National Security Strategy of the United States of America," states in its overview that “the United States possesses unprecedented - and unequaled - strength and influenceintheworld”and promises to “expand the circle of development by opening societies and building the infrastructure

Fletcher says America is essentially stating, “There will never be a military competitor with the U.S. And if you disagree with the first three points, the U.S. has the right

to take you out.”

TransAfrica raised its profile as a leading group for Haitian liberation in 1994 when its then president, Randall Robinson, went on a 27-day hunger strike, helping to force Clinton to restore

Aristide to power.

“This is a policy of simple meanness. Don’t look for rationale in this. You won’t find it,” Robinson says. “This is a reckless, cruel, stu-

Among other things, the money was to be used for clean water, health purposes, roads and edu-

cation.

“In effect, what they did was simply pay Haiti back for the arrears clearance, so Haiti didn’t actually get any money,” explains Kurzban, Aristide’s attorney in Miami. “Now, I expect in light of President Aristide’s so-called resignation, they will now expedite everything.. .This is the most fierce economic embargo against the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere. I mean, Haiti was given not one penny for three years by the World Bank, the IDB (International Development Bank), the U.S., France and the European Union.” Meanwhile, a coalition of African Americans has agreed to raise money for humanitarian assistance for Haitians. The initiative is being led by the Haiti Support Project; but the Progressive Na-

pid American policy that in large tional Baptist Convention will dispart wears the face of the first burse the funds to families in need.

Black secretary' of state in the

United States.”

Secretary of State Colin Powell was among the first to defend the Bush administration from charges of a coup d’etat. But members of the Congressional Black Caucus express doubt that the administration is being forthcoming. Haiti is among the poorest nations in the Western Hemisphere with 80 percent of its people in poverty'. The Bush administration has long been criticized for helping to block nearly $500 million in international aid for Haiti. Ironically, the basis cited for taking that approach was Haiti’s disputed election in May 2000. The opposition movement and the Organization of American States, a regional organization that includes the U.S. and 35 other nations in the Western Hemisphere, disputed the way Haiti counted the votes for eight seats in the senate after 30,000 people ran

for 7,500 seats.

The senators eventually resigned, but the money, including $146 million in approved international funding, and $350 million for which Haiti could subsequently qualify, was embargoed until Haiti paid arrears on other loans amounting to about $105 million. Only $45 million of the money was released.

The American Urban Radio Network, the nation’s largest Blackowned radio network, will give airtime to promote the campaign. “But there’s no way that we can replace the money that the government has withheld,” says Ron Daniels, founderofthe Haiti Sup-

port Project.

The withholding of food, combined with the U. S. polity' that turns away Haitian refuges, Fletcher says, proves that the U.S. is out of control. “It’s a combination of the Monroe Doctrine and the Bush Doctrine,” Fletcher says. “I mean, we’re dealing with a rogue state. When you look at the criteria for not supporting Aristide, basically they’re saying, We didn’t like the way he governed.’ Well, a lot of people don’t like the way different people govern. Bu^h doesn’t have a great approval rating. Should someone invade here? And so, it’s like, when does it

stop?”

The only answer, Robinson says, is to rectify America’s wrong. “They can’t have a legitimate government in Haiti (with) the foundation of the coupe carried out by America against the democratically elected president. And so, the appropriate thing to do would be restore the democracy that they destroyed."

Rapper 50 Cent's gay problem

By EARL OFARI HUTCHINSON The temptation is to chalk the “I ain’t into faggots” silly, inane slur that former street thug and hip-hop artist 50 Cent made in an interview in April’s Playboy Magazine as yet another case of a show boating rapper playing to the street crowd. But 50 Cent’s comment and slur is what many Black men say publicly about gays and many more say privately, and that includes the slurs. Their contempt for gays is hardly new. I vividly recall the audience reaction to the scene in the 1971 film, “Sunday Bloody Sunday" when Murray Head and Peter Finch gave each other a big passionate kiss. The mostly Black audience went wild. They screamed, jeered, and hooted at the screen. It took several minutes for the crowd to quiet down and ushers to restore order. As I left the theater I listened to the young men talk. Their contempt and disgust for these two men spilled out into the street and into the parking lot. They called them “faggots,” “punks,” and “sissies.” It seemed as if they were trying to scrape the slime off themselves that the scene of these two men kissing had left on them. That was 30 years ago. Rap artists such as 50 Cent, as well as legions of Black novelists and poets, have railed against the gay life style as unnatural and destructive, and some have publicly uttered anti-gay slurs without batting an eye. But three decades after actors Head and Finch kissed in “Sunday Bloody Sunday,” it’s not men kissing on the screen, but gay marriage, and as polls show more Blacks, especially men, more rabidly oppose it than whites. The issue still punches hot buttons among Black men and threatens and challenges their fragile masculinity at the basest and most ambiguous level. From cradle to grave, much of America has drilled into Black men the notion that they are less than men. This has made many Black men believe and accept the gender propaganda that the only real men in American society are white men. In a vain attempt to recapture their denied masculinity, many Black men, mirror America’s traditional fear and hatred of homosexuality. They swallow whole the phony and perverse John Wayne definition of manhood, that real men talk and act tough, shed no tears, and never show their emotions. These are still the prized strengths of manhood for many Black men. Whether it’s rapper 50 Cent, and his other rap buddies, grabbing their crotch on stage, or the mindless male testosterone driven gang violence that wreaks havoc in Black communities, the hunt is on to wave their prized tough guy male virtue to the world.

When men break the prescribed male code of conduct and show their feelings they are harangued as weaklings, and their manhood questioned. Many Blacks, in an attempt to distance themselves from gays and avoid confronting their own biases, dismiss homosexuality as “their thing." Translated: homosexuality is a perverse contrivance of white males and females that reflected the decadence of white America. They make no distinction between white gays and other whites. To them whites are whites are whites. That’s evident in the vehement opposition of many Black ministers and Black conservatives to any comparison of the fight for gay marriage to the civil rights movement. Then there’s religion. Long before the religious right launched its national crusade against gay marriage, Black men listened to parades of ministers shout and condemn to fire and brimstone any man who dared think about, yearn for, or actually engage in the godless and unnatural act of having a sexual relationship with another man. I f men had any doubt about the moral truth of this message, there is the oft-cited biblical passage that sternly calls men lying down with men, “the abomination.” Ignored are other biblical passages that encourage love, tolerance and respect among all humans. While many Americans have made gays their gender bogeymen, mahy Blacks have made gay men their bogeymen and waged open warfare against them. Black gay men are the pariahs among pariahs, and wherever possible every attempt is made to drum them out of Black life. They carry the triple burden of being Black, male, and gay. They tell woeful tales of spending sleepless nights and endless days trying to figure out ways to repress, hide and deny their sexual preference from family members, friends, and society. Polls show' that more Americans than ever say that they support civil rights for gays, and a torrent of gay themed TV shows present non-stereotypical depictions of gays. But this increased tolerance has not dissipated the hostility that far too many Black men feel toward gays. That won’t change as long as they feel that their manhood is subverted, accept America’s artificial standard of w'hat a man is, and as long as some Black ministers and Black conservative leaders stir anti-gay attitudes. 50 Cent is proof of that, slues and all. Earl Ofari Hutchinson is a noted author of nine books about the African-American experience in America. He is a radio host and TV commentator. His Web site is thehutchinsonreport.com.

The 'big lie' about’ Kerry's record

By GEORGE E. CURRY For NNPA _ ' With public opinion polls showing that if the presidential election were held today, Sen. John Kerry would defeat President George Bush, Republicans have launched a “big lie" campaign to distort the presumptive Democratic nominee’s record on military spending. Obviously, they believe that if you tell the same lie over and over, people will eventually believe it. That would be bad enough. But to make matters worse, some of the country’s best journalists are allowing these lies to go unchallenged. Research by Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting (FAIR), aNew York-based media monitoring organization, reports that Kerry is being depicted as one who is repeatedly voting against militaiy funding w'hen that’s not the case. For example, the report notes that Ralph Reed, the former head of the Christian Coalition and now a BushCheney campaign strategist, appeared on CNN (2/3/04) and described Kerry’s record in the Senate as “voting to dismantle 27 weapons systems, including the MX missile, the Pershing missile, the B-l, the B-2 stealth bomber, the F-16 fighter jet, cutting another 18 programs, slashing intelligence spending by $2.5 billion, and voting to freeze defense spending for seven years.” Reporter Wolf Blitzer reacted by turning to Ann Lewis of the Democratic National Committee and saying, “I think it’s fair to say, Ann, that there’s

been some opposition research done.” NBC anchor Tom Brokaw swallowed the line when he said on MSNBC (3/2/04), “...the vice president just today w as talking about (Kerry’s) votes against the CIA budget, for example, intelligence budgets and also weapons systems. Isn’t he going to be very vulnerable come the fall when national security is such a big issue in this country?” The usually reliable Judy Woodruff was transformed into a parrot in an interview with Rep. Norm Dicks of Washington (2/ 25/04). She said, “The Republicans list something like 13 different weapon systems that they say the record shows Sen. Kerry voting against. The Patriot missile, the B-l bomber, the Trident missile and on and on and on.” In his response, Dicks did what Woodruff, Brokaw and Blitzer had failed to do: He admitted that Kerry was being attacked for a single vote on the Pentagon’s 1991 appropriations bill. No member of the media trio pointed out that 16 senators voted against that bill, includingfive Republicans, or that 10 of the 13 purported votes against military spending were part of the 1991 defense appropriations bill. Woodruff was so caught off guard by Dicks' response that she said, “Are you saying that all these w eapon systems were part of one defense appropriations bill in 1991?" That’s exactly what he was saying. Vice President Cheney told Fox News’ Brit Hume: “What we re concerned about, what I am concerned about, is (Kerry’s) record in the United States Senate, where he clearly has over the years adopted a series of positions that indicated a desire to cut the defense budget, to cut the intelligence budget, to eliminate many major weapons programs." Hume failed to note that

Cheney was criticizing Kerry for a position he had taken around that same period. In fact, Fred Kaplan of Slate, the online site, noted that Cheney served as the elder George Bush’s secretary of defense. He quotes Cheney as telling Congress during that period: “You’ve squabbled and sometimes bickered and horse-traded and ended up forcing me to spend money on weapons that don’t fill a vital need in these times of tight budgets and new requirements." He was particularly critical of members of Congress who engage in pork barrel politics by pressuring the Defense Department to move forward on the development of the M-l tank and the F-14 and F-16 fighters and other weapons that “we have enough of.” Although military spending represents only 20 percent of the federal budget, it eats up approximately half of all federal discretionary spending. With so much being spent on the military, growing federal deficits fueled by tax cuts that primarily benefits the wealthy, Bush is particularly nrlnerableon domestic issues. A recent USA Today/ CNN poll shows Kerry leading Bush 52 percent to 44 percent, largely because the public believes Kerr)’ will do a better job of handling such issues as the economy, health care, education and Social Security. Bush’s overall rating in the USA Today poll was 49 percent, matching his lowest rating in late January. Republicans plan to spend $133 million over the next few months to “redefine” Sen. Kerry. If this is typical of the way they plan to do that, they are not trying to “redefine" Kerry, they are trying to mis-define him. (reorge E. Curry is editor-in-chief of the NNPA News Service and BlackPressUSA.com. He can be reached through his Web site, georgecurn-.com. .

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