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Volum n X X I, Num ber 39
25<P
September 25,1991
"The Eyes and Ears o f The Community"
Reverend Cecil Williams “ Walks the Walk” and
“ Talks that Talk” to Assist Addicts
T he R everend Cecil Williams is a national
leader in the fight against the abuse of crack
cocaine and the empowerment of the
African-American family.
I n 1990, Rev. Williams also Co-Chaired the
second national conference to focus on “The
Black Family/Community & Crack Cocaine-
Prevention, Intervention, Treatment and
Recovery.” Subtitled “The Rebirth Of A
Race,” almost 2,000 attended from across
the country. The first conference presented
in 1989 was subtitled, “ The Death Of A
Race.”
M any concepts presented at these
conferences are the results of the daily
search to indentify and deal with addiction in
people’s lives at San Francisco’s Glide
Memorial United Methodist Church. Glide
Church, in 1991, is one of the fastest growing
Methodist Churches in America. Its growth is
derived from the emphasis by Williams in
cultivating a diversified congregation. From
all economic levels, the congregation if forty
percent African-American, forty percent white
and tweniy percent include Asians, Hispanic
and newly arrived Southeastern refugees.
"New Suspension
System Eliminates
Bounce and Sway"
PAGE 2
"Mt. Olivet Baptist
Church to Relocate"
by Mattie Anne
Callier-Spears
"Discrimination In
The Church!" by
Michael Lindsey
PAGE 4
1
"Black Frats: A
Strong Institution"
by Ullysses Tucker,
Jr.
everend Williams has been
the Minister of Liberation at
Glide for over twenty six
years. From that position he has
been on the forefront of change, as
a minister, a television personality,
author, lecturer, community leader
and spokesperson for the poor and
those in recovery.
In February, 1990 Williams
began an experiment that may be­
come one of the most significant
models in a war, not against drugs,
but against addiction. Hundreds have
joined a public/private coalition in
conjunction with the residents and
R
PAGE 3
PAGE 5
Dimond Announces Candidacy for
City Council Position
Tourplay"
PAGE 6
One Stop Record's
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Chuck Dimond
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their Tenant’s Association to bring
recovery to a San Francisco public
housing project. Redefining the prob­
lem created by addiction, people are
being empowered to again take control
of their lives.
Rated one of the most highly re­
spected public figures in the city, he
consistendy stands with the poor, those
addicted to drugs, the outcasts and the
outsiders. He has transformed Glide
Church into an urban center which
powerfully advocates for poor people
and those in recovery.
Glide’s “ Facts On Crack’’ pro­
gram, is acknowledged as a leading
From the steps of Portland’s Jus­
tice Center, Chuck Dimond has an­
nounced that he will be a candidate for
Portland City Council, saying he be­
lieved voters wanted to tear down the
“ business as usual banner” that flies
over City Hall.
“ W e’ve waited too long for gov­
ernment to answer the alarm bells. It’s
time for the people to go to work,”
Dimond said.
Dimond released a position paper
on community policing, the first in a
senes on the issues of the 1992 cam­
paign and challenged other candidates
to make public safety their first priorty.
“ In the past year Portland families
have buried a five-year-old and a 14-
month-old child - both shot while in
the heart of their own homes. The shots
that claimed these children mortally
wounded our claim to our community.
The hard fact is, there is no community
in the midst o f fear and violence. Be­
fore any voter listens to any idea from
any candidate they ought to demand to
know how that candidate will work to
cure the fear and end the violence.”
Dimond called for hiring 100 new
police officers and the full implemen­
tation of community policing, said he
would argue for a strong regional plan
to manage growth and devote time and
resources to the care and education of
children.
After the announcement, Dimond
walked to City Hall and filed for the
seat currently held by Dick Bogle.
“ I believe the voters will choose
to replace Dick Bogle in the next elec­
tion. They know he’s not up to the task.
My full time job over the next eight
months is to successfully make the case
that I am .”
Dimond, 45, spent 25 years cover­
ing politics and government in radio
and television, from local school board
meetings to national presidential con­
ventions. For the past two years, he
served as assistant director for commu­
nications for the state Human Resources
Department. He resigned August 16 to
devote his full effort ot the campaign
program in the country. Begun in March,
1988, the program confronts the rav­
ages of crack cocaine and works to
find solutions for people’s lives. A
“ Facts On Crack” brochure prepared
by those in recovery has been distrib­
uted to over one hundred fifty thou­
sand people.
Responding to requests from across
the country, Rev. Williams created
“ The Drama of Recovery,” a three
day training workshop. This project
has now been presented in over 15
cities from coast to coast and is creat­
ing a functional network of recovery.
An adjunct of Glide’s substance abuse
activity is an intern program for 50
students which will be implemented
this year.
Each day hundreds of people par­
ticipate in the many Glide programs
specifically designed to allow them to
confront the pain which is at the root of
their addiction. From these programs
has come a book written by the chil­
dren of San Francisco’s Tenderloin. “ I
Have Something To Say About This
Big Trouble,” has sold thousands of
copies since its release in September,
1989. For the first time, children have
been given the opportunity to tell their
own story about how they experience
the drug culture that surrounds their
lives.
“ Computers & You,” is the merg­
ing of hundreds of thousands of dollars
of computer hardware and software,
volunteers from the Bay Area’s com­
puter industry and the people of the
Tenderloin. Opened at Glide in Janu­
ary, 1989, many of these people have
been placed in jobs as a result of their
training and students indicate improve­
ments in their school grades.
Glide is the most comprehensive
non-profit provider of human services
in San Francisco with a food program
serving approximately 3,300 meals each
day. There is also a Children’s Pro­
gram, Crisis Center and a program to
meet the specific needs of the poor, the
homeless and single parent families.
Under Williams’ direction, the Glide
Goodlett AIDS Project provides edu­
cation, help and counsel to individuals
who are HIV positive.
Williams serves on the board of
the Martin Luther King, Jr. Center for
Non-Violent Change in Atlanta, Geor­
gia and is Chair of the Northern Cali­
fornia Martin Luther King, Jr. Birth­
day Observance Committee which,
each year, presents the alrgest holi­
day commemoration in the United
States, outside of Atlanta.
His commitment to human rights
is unswerving. He joined Dr. Martin
Luther King, Jr. in the Great March in
Washington in 1963. He organized
contingents from Northern California
to commemorate the historic moment
in 1983 and in 1988 in Washington,
D.C. He stood with the Black Pan­
thers, played a significant role in the
anti-war movement and was deeply
involved in the Patty Hearst/SLAcase
in which he was designated a media­
tor.
Williams’ autobiography, “ I’m
Alive,” is published by Harper and
Row. He regularly is invited to sub­
mit articles for publications around
the world. In February, 1990, his views
on genocide in the Black community
were published on the op-ed page of
The New York Times.
Each Sunday morning Williams
“ walks that walk” and “ talks that
talk” at the now famous Glide Sun­
day Celebration. Created in 1966, the
Celebrations are an intense multi-media
mixture of music, singing and speak­
ing, all without traditional religious
symbolism and concentrating instead
on contemporary issues.
The Reverend Cecil Williams is
one of the first African Americans to
graduate from Southern Methodist Uni­
versity. He was bom in San Angelo,
Texas. He is married to Janice
Mirikitani and is the father to a son
and a daughter.
Crime and Punishment in America, Part I
by P r o f e s s o r M c K in le y B u r t
We cry and wring our hands, over­
whelmed by the media reports on the
immorality and savagery in our com­
munities; but is there anything new
about all this? We would not be the first
to observe that “ WESTERN CIVILI­
ZATION IS FUNDAMENTALLY
VIOLENT,” and always has been. The
contemporary trauma of our culture is
not some phenomenon that has arisen
from some generic disability peculiar
to this generation.
Many of us, whatever the age group,
arc reflecting that, “ It was rough out
there in the ‘old days’ but nothing like
this.” There is the wailing, “ We could
safely walk to the store, sit on the
porch, go out to the parking lot alone,
or enjoy a public event without an
apprehension of imminent danger. And
we could have a difference of opinion
with a neighbor (or even a
stranger) and not anticipate
a possible shootouL Or come
home and find grandma
stretched out cold with Jun­
ior long gone to the crack-
house with her Social Se­
curity! eck.”
However, we should
not be so naive as to sup­
pose that the GRASS­
ROOTS people are the pri­
mary victims of ‘ ‘perpetra­
tors” in this heightening
onslaught against our bod­
ies, property and sensibili­
ties. On Wall Street and in
the banks, and saving and
loans, the MBAs o f Harvard, Wharton
and Y ale have raised the art of highway
robbery to a level not seen since the
turn of this century when the Morgans,
Rockefellers and old man Kennedy
recklessly pilaged the nation. And were
admired and enshrined in what seems
cyclic versions of the “ American
Dream.” The “ new” phases are new
in name only; “ junk bonds and lever­
aged buyouts.”
With the aid of our so-called Crimi­
nal ‘ ‘Justice” System, we seek to arrest
the headlong failure of a process in free
fall. Few of the players (or public)
seem to comprehend the meaning of
that initial insight in our first paragraph
here, that ‘ ‘western civilization is fude-
mcntally violent. ’ ’ The failures to iden­
tify the problem and structure relevant
goals remind me of nothing so much as
that simplistic prescription offered by
the playwrights Gilbert and Sullivan in
their farcical little folk opera, “ The
Mikado;” “ My object all sublime, I
shall achieve in time. Let the punish­
ment fit the crime.”
If there is a solution it must lie in
the context of our experience and espe­
cially this is indicated for a black popu­
lation which, apparently, cannot rely
upon the structure or empathy of the
current social systems. Survival to date
has depended upon intergroup dynam­
ics peculiar to the African American
from slavery to die civil rights era --
and of course similar dynamics have
sustained other hyphenated Americans
in the so-called “ melting pot.” So, let
us examine things in this particular
ethnic light
Of course there is nothing new
here, whether one views things in ei­
ther a religious or a secular contexL For
many of us the Bible provides our con
cepts of justice, morality, fairness,
legality and other codified prescrip­
tions for ethical relationships. And at
the same time there are described ter­
rible times of complete breakdowns in
law and order as a whole as well as in
interpersonal relationships. Butalways
these conditions are followed on by
equally violent periods of ‘ ‘punishment
for sins” leading to eventual redemp­
tion and restoration of righteousness.
And the secular-minded are able to
go back 2000 years further in history to
find their models in African history --
continued on pngt; 7