Page A4
JUNE 17, 1998
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P rof . M c K inley B i rt
Last w eek’s article should have
been labeled num ber "III” o f this se­
ries but, actually, the most grievous
error I could m ake w ould be a failure
to fully describe this nurturing pro­
cess; and that could quite easily take a
book or two.
My ending note was, “ lots o f guns
in the house”-and that generally held
true for the neighbors, the friends o f
the fam ily and the parents o f his
friends-wal I mounted or secret cache-
because it has been the nature o f kids
since tim e began to seek out and m is­
chievously reveal anything o f a for­
bidden o r confidential nature. “ Be
my father’s is the biggest.”
I was raised in the southern city o f
St. Louis, Mo., w here the possession
o f firearm s was the life-style o f the not
so rich and the not so fam ous and
those w ho were much better off. As
with most o f Oregon, this w ay o f life
ju st 'w a s ' and did not depend upon
the loud and strident advocacy o f an
NR A orC harleton Heston (“M oses” ).
H ow ever, none o f these factors
provoked orencouraged the frighten­
ing carnage being carried out by
today’s children. That nurturing and
internally controlled hom e environ­
F.B.I.
N ow it seem s m ore than a d e ­
i
cade later, things are still th e sam e
in A labam a. Indeed, som e o f the
sam e tactics used by state o fficials
to keep black v o ters from voting
m ore than a d ecad e ag o have been
dusted o ff and are b ein g used again.
T hey are ac cu sin g black activists
and co m m u n ity lead ers o f v o te r
fraud, sp ecifically aro u n d ab sen tee
ballots. In the 1980’s eight people
w ere indicted on 212 felony co u n ts
and in the end not a single felony
convictio n w as reached.
N ow they are accu sin g som e o f
th e sam e leaders o f “co n sp ira cy " to
com m it v o ter fraud, a charge w hich
is very d ifficu lt to d efend o n e se lf
against. Six p eo p le have already
been co n v icted an d th eir cases are
on appeal and six m o re h av e been
charged. All are ac tiv e m em bers o f
the A labam a N ew South C oalition,
one o f th e m ost vital g rassro o ts p o ­
litical o rg an iz atio n s in the country.
T h ese 1990’s in d ictm en ts grew
out o f an in v estig atio n o f th e 1994
electio n s and w ere sp earh ead ed by
Jefferson Sessions, form er A labam a
A tto rn ey G en eral an d now U .S.
S enato r, w ho as U .S. D istrict A ttor­
ney in M oblc also sparked the 1980’s
indictm en ts. A s in the 1980’s A la­
bam a state investigators team ed with
F.B .I. ag en ts to co n d u c t the in v esti­
gation s, w h o clearly intim idate the
elderly, o ften p o o rly -ed u cated v ot­
ers w ho o ften vote absentee.
Meanwhile, the Alabama legislature
has passed a law making it moredifficult
to vote. It requires a picture I.D. to vote
and requires halfcfthc pol ling officials to
be Democrats and half Republican, cre­
ating highly-partisan polling sites.
Black elected o fficials in A la­
bam a are also fin d in g them selves
u nder attack. B aseless ch arg es w ere
filed ag ain st S tate S en ato r Hank
t i v
e
s
ment with it s solidifying dinner hour
and sim ilar canons o f intimacy and
respect produced, for the most part, a
coping and disciplined youngster-
w ithout ‘P rozac!’
But, now, that tightly wrapped so­
cial fabric o f discipline and civility is
being rent a surrender by (am ong oth­
ers) greedy electronic invaders o f our
privacy and our moral standards in
general. The full depth oftheirdanger-
ous and rapacious assault that we can
no longer discover any signi ficant cor­
relation with such factors as family,
wealth, education, geographic area,
social class or parent's education.
I n these days o f al ienated children,
som e with guns and bom bs at the
ready, it is difficult for many to realize
that in the ‘old d ay s’ people w ould
carry their rifles on the subway on the
w ay to target practice. A nd in the
viciously racist, segregated social
s tr u c tu r e th a t c o n s tra in e d m y
grandfather’s manhood, he and his
friends nevertheless m aintained their
“ Rod and G un Club” at the outskirts
o f the city. A nd nothing was thought
o f it-or o f me the little black kid clean­
ing shotguns, or triggering the clay
pigeons (a dollar every Saturday).
And m any o f my correspondents
say that it is as equally difficult to
realize that the NRA (National Rille
Association) has grow n, intelligent
members who cannot comprehend that
the ‘social landscape’ has changed.
That further o f the “heroes” from the
Springfield High School seemed to
function in a world all o f his own-
where, incredibly he seemed to be­
lieve that the circum stances o f his
family w ere universal. An intact, car­
ing nuclear family, with com mitted
parents observing the “supper table
input" and related canons.
W hile it is quite difficult to find
hum or in any related situations, this
being life, som e does arise. A caller
was trying to m ake a case for a sort o f
‘m orality play’ built around “those
nice fairy tales we enjoyed as little
children.” This lady seemed to have
forgotten what really went on in those
’m urderous’ days.
But this m akes my point exactly.
O ur (earlier) generation had been nur­
tured, socialized and civilized to the
extent that w e did not confuse fiction
with reality. For instance, I seriously
doubt if these children can handle the
new bloody electronic carnage com ­
ing from the ‘lie o f W ight:’ “A poca­
lypse N o w ” and “ A rm ag ed d o n ."
W here do the readers think w e should
go from here? Can individuals, orga­
nizatio n s p ro v id e m o re “ S u p p er
Tables" in the com m unity?
For another look at w hat m ost o f us
seemed to have missed in childhood,
see “The hard Facts o f the “G rim m s’
Fairy Tales,” Maria Tatar, Princeton
University Press, 1987. A s I look
back I now realized that a child sees
what he w ants to see, hears w hat he
wants to hear and believes w hat he
wants to believe. A child is a child, is
a child, is a child!
“ Even those who rem em ber that
Snow W hite’s stepm other arranges
the m urder o f her stepdaughter, that
doves peck out the eyes o f Cinderel la’s
stepsister, that Briar R ose’s suitors
bleed to death on the hedge surround­
ing her castle, or that a mad rage
drives Rumplestiltskin to tearh im self
in tw o will be surprised by Maria
T atar’s revelations about the tales o f
th e b r o th e r s G rim m in th e ir
unepurgated form. M urder, m utila­
tion, cannibalism , infanticide, and in­
cest: the darker side o f classic fairy
tales figures as the subject m atter for
this intriguing study o f Jacob and
W ilhelm G rim m ’s N u r s e r y a n d
H o u se h o ld Tales."
The Assault on Educational Opportunity
B y H ugh B. P rice
N ational U rban L eague
Everybody knows that education is
the key to economic self-reliance. The
better educated you are, the better o ff
y o u ’ll be personally, and the more you
can contribute to society.
That’s why the assault on expanding
opportunity in higher education for stu­
dents from racial and ethnic minority
groups is so dangerous to the economic
and social health o f the countiy.
Nowhere is that danger more sharply
underscored than in A m erica’s two
most diverse locales: California and
New York City.
In California, G overnor Pete W il­
son led the drive to pass Proposition
209, which banned affirm ative action
in university admissions.
The predictable result has been a
sharp drop in students o f color ac­
cepted a, the state’s elite universities.
Last year, 260 black students en­
rolled as freshmen at the University o f
The More Things Change...
T w o y ears ag o w e m arked the
100th a n n iv e rsa ry o f the P lessy
vs. F erguson decisio n w hich e s­
tablished the n a tio n ’s “ separate
but e q u a l” d o ctrin e and legalized
se p arate p u b lic and ed ucational
facilities for A frican A m ericans
acro ss the South. T hat case w as
th e first w ave o f o ppression o f
A frican A m ericans w hich included
tak in g aw ay the right to vote, the
dram atic increase o f lynchings, and
th e b u rn in g o f black ch u rch es
w hich w ere all a reaction to the
R econstruction era o f the South.
T h ere are th o se o f us w ho w o n ­
d er if w e ’re not living the S econd
R econstruction right now . F o re x -
am ple, the S up rem e C ourt h anded
dow n d ecisio n s reg ard in g the re ­
d istric tin g o f m a jo rity A fric an
A m erican v o tin g districts w hich
m ay w ell lead to few er A frican
A m erican congressional rep resen ­
tatives. F o r ex am p le, m ore than
200 A frican A m erican church es
have been b u rn ed in th e past few
y ears and there are still A frican
A m erican ch u rc h es b u rn in g , a l­
beit the num b ers are sm aller now
than they w ere tw o y ears ago.
A nd then th e re is A labam a. In
1986 I w as part o f a new g ro u p o f
F reedom R iders, young people led
by th e C o m m issio n for R acial J u s­
tice w ho visited th e sites o f the
civil rights m ovem ent in A labam a.
W e w ent to M ontgom ery, w e w ent
to S elm a, w e w ent to B irm ingham .
A nd w e w ent to G reen e C ounty
w h ere a g ro u p o f A frican A m eri­
can citizens w ere being persecuted
and p ro secu ted by the state o f A la-
bam a, w hich w as aided by the
c
‘Supper Table Input;’ What Was It? What Now? IV
Civil Rights Journal
B y B ernice P owell J ackson
e
S anders, an A frican A m erican leg­
islato r w ith a long h isto ry o f in­
volvem ent in th e c iv il rights m ove­
m ent. T he ch arg es w ere dropped
later by the A lab a m a A ttorney
G eneral and he w as c leared unani­
m ously by the A lab am a Ethics
Com m ission.
In 1996 the ho m eo fC ircu itJu d g e
E ddie H ardaw ay w as shot into and
state investigators tried to imply
that H ardaw ay him sel f w as respon­
sible. O ther A frican A m erican offi­
cials such as D istrict A ttorney
B arrow n L ankster, R acing C om ­
m issioner L ester B row n, County
C o m m issio n ers G arria Spencer,
Frank Smith and Councilm an Spiver
G ordon have all been targeted.
A little m ore than a third o f the
population o f the state o f A labam a
is-A frican A m erican. O ut o f seven
C ongressional districts, one is m a­
jority African A m erican. O ut o f 140
state legislators, 35 are A frican
A m erican. N o A frican A m erican
has ev er been elected statew ide or
from a m ajority-w hite district w ith­
out first being appointed. In other
w ords, A frican A m ericans remain
under-represented at both the fed­
eral and state legislature levels. It
seem s that for som e o f the political
pow ers that be in A labam a even
u n d er-rep resen tatio n o f A frican
A m ericans in A labam a is to much.
T he m ore things change...
( You can w rite to A ttorney G en­
eral Jan et Reno and ex p ress co n ­
cern ab o u t federal pro secu tio n s o f
v o tin g rig h ts activists. Send letters
to the D epartm ent o f Ju stice, 950
P ennsylvania A venue N W W ash-1
ington D C 20530. Y ou can co n ­
tribute funds to the A labam a Black
Belt D efenseC om m ittee. P.O. Box
82, E utaw , Al 35462.)
California at Berkeley. This Septem­
ber, the num ber will plunge by more
than 50 percent—to 98. This spring
African A m ericans, Hispanic A m eri­
cans and N ative Am ericans made up
10 percent o f those accepted for next
fall, com pared to 23 percent last year.
It’s much the same story at the Uni­
versity o f California at Los Angeles.
On th e E ast C o ast, G o v ern o r
George Pataki o f New Y ork and New
York City M ayor Rudolph Giuliani
are trying to narrow access to the 11
four-year and 6 two-year colleges o f
theCity University ofN ew York. They
proposed sharply curtailing the net­
work o f rem edial-education courses
that since 1970 have helped tens o f
thousands o f CUN Y students achieve
two-year and four-year degrees.
The recent decision o f the CUNY
trustees to do so will especially hurt
thousands o f highly motivated black.
Latino, and Asian-American students,
many o f whom are struggling to get
ahead academical ly whi le working and
raising families.
No one can disagree that the contro­
versial open-admissions program trans­
formed CUNY in one stunning respect:
In 1969, the year before the open-
admissions policy began, 91 percent
o f students at C U N Y ’s four-year col­
leges—located in the m ost racially-
andethnically-diversecity intheworld-
were white; 9 percent w ere not.
T o d a y , n ea rly 70 p e rc e n t o f
C U N Y ’s students are A frican-A m eri­
can, Hispanic-American, and Asian-
American.
In other words, open admissions
produced at CU N Y an enormous ex­
pansion o f educational opportunity
across New Y ork C ity ’s color line.
Dismantling it will sharply curtail ac­
cess o f people o f color to educational
opportunity. Try as they might, the
proponents o f the m ove can ’t obscure
that prospect.
What makes, these assaults on educa­
tional opportunity such a threat to the
society is that studies clearly show the
concrctebenefitsofhelpingpeoplereach
their highest potential educationally.
In California, African American and
L atino stu d en ts w h o co uld have
handled the work at Berkeley and
UCLA are now being denied a shot at
the best education their state has to
offer.
Clinton Picks Up Where Bush Left Off
Portland Senior citizen Shines as a Daily Point o f Light
Mildred Bennett, o f Portland, O r­
egon, was named the Daily Point o f
Light recipient for June 1. The Daily
Points o f Light awards are given daily
by the Points o f Light Foundation, the
Knights ofColum bus and theCorpo ra­
tion for National Service. The award
initiative is a national recognition pro­
gram that calls public attention, on a
daily basis, to the contributions that
volunteers are making toward solving
local and national social problems, es­
pecially as they relate to young people.
Bennett, a retired Portland State Uni­
versity mathematics professor, volun­
teers her time every day tutoring stu­
dents o f all different ages, with her
primary emphasis is on children. She
enhances students’ desire and tools o f
learning at 14 different sites. In her
spare time she tutors anyone else who
needs help, includingcollege-aged stu­
dents and adults lacking math profi­
ciency.
In early 1994, Bennett began work­
ing with Safehaven, a church program
providing after-school services in a low-
income region. Since then, she has ex­
panded her tutoring to include several
more sites and initiated a program where
her older students volunteer to help
tutor the younger chi Idren. Bennett cus-
tom-tailors the lesson plans and games
to stimulate within each participant the
joy o f learning math.
Students often visit Bennett at her
home on Sundays for extra tutoring. The
program is funded by donations from
residents and corporations in greater
Safehaven. Through herprogram, teach­
ers continue to find that students have a
renewed interest in mathematics and
perform better in school.
Both [‘resident BillC'lintonand former
President George Bush have endorsed
therecently revived Daily PointsofLight
Award and both will send a congratula­
tory letter to each award recipient.
For those interested in nominating
an individual or organization for the
award, please mail nominations to The
Daily Points o f Light Award, 1400 I
Street, NW Washington, DC’ or call
(202)729-8184.
Connecting with the spirit of Homowo