A u g u s t 9 ,2 0 0 0
Page A 4
(Ti^e }JcirUmtb (Observer
A rticles do not
necessarily reflect or
represent the view s o f
(Tiff Vortlartfo ODbaeruer
The faith of our farmers
1 haven’t a clue regarding the source o f this story, w hich
I have revised and retold hundreds o f tim es in hundreds
o f speeches all o ver the Free W orld for the past half-
century. It’s a story about the pow er o f b elief...o f faith, if
you prefer to call it that. People w ho d o n ’t believe in G od,
or m uch o f anything else, w ill sc o ff at it..b u t no m atter,
because it is ju st a story, after all.
People o f faith, w hether in G od or ju st in positive
visualization will find it both reassuring and, perhaps, ab it
discom forting at the end.
A nyw ay, h ere’s how it goes:
This had been the w orst drought in an y o n e’s m em ory,
and no end was in sight. T he fields w ere parched, the
creeks had run dry and the crops w ere literally dying o f
thirst. T he en tire ec o n o m y o f this sm all, isolated
M idw estern tow n depended on farm ing, and a failed crop
spelled nothing short o f disaster for every fam ily in the
area.. All possible avenues o f relief had been tried, from
airplanes seeding the distant clouds to the divining rods
o fh ired dow sers and even, in desperation, a rain dance by
the Sham an o f a nearby Indian tribe; but all o f this had
been in vain.
Clearly, only a m iraclecouldavert the financial ruin facing
this ill-starred tow n. As a last resort, the clergym en o f all
faiths sum m oned everyone to the Tow n Hall for one final
appeal to the A lm ighty for realization o fw hat had becom e
descended on the gathering, a silence b o m o f the fact that
all the w ords had been said that could be said and additional
utterances w ould serve no discernable purpose.
So, each o f them , in their own w ords and in their ow n w ays,
silently scream ed from the very bottom o f their hearts and
souls for the A ct O fG o d w hich they saw as their only hope.
M inutes grew to an hour that seem ed like a day to som e and
a lifetim e to others, w hile the silence w as broken only
occasionally by a wailing child, a m uffled cough, or a
sobbing adult.
H anging over the congregation, despite their deep-rooted
faith, w as a nagging fear that all this w as an exercise in
futility, yet they prayed on through the stifling stillness,
because
n o th in g
e ls e
c o u ld
be
done.
T hen one m an, w hom they later recalled was reputed to
have the best hearing in town, thought he detected the
sound o f distant thunder, but he dism issed it as a hopeful
figm ent o f his imagination.
But he heard it again a few seconds later, this tim e more
distinctly...and he saw that a w om an across the aisle
seem ed to have heard it, too.
Soon there could be no doubt, as a gentle rum bling from
above announced that the rain had arrived at last!
And this was not a m ere drizzle, nor a destructive cloudburst,
but a steady, gentle dow npour that blanketed the fields and
quickly turned the dusty M ain Street into welcom ed puddles
o f mud.
T hey stream ed, all o f them, from the Tow n Hall like unruly
kindergarten kids at recess tim e, thrusting their happy
a seem ingly im possible dream . A few resisted the idea as
a form o f pietistic self-torture. A fter all, people had been
praying for m onths in their separate H ouses o f W orship
and it had done no good at all...so w hat could this jo in t
effort acco m p lish ? A faith-filled m ajority, tho u g h ,
prevailed and the w hole tow n agreed to participate.
Thus it w as that every m an, w om an and child w as in
attendance at the prescribed tim e and place.
Inside the packed Tow n Hall, the scene w as, arguably,
hellish. It w as m id-day and, despite the heroic efforts o f
a few fans, the heat in that sm all auditorium w as nearly
unbearab le, as an an g ry sun b ro iled u n m e rc ifu lly
everything and everybody in its path.
After a few formal prayers had been murmured, ecumenical
homilies delivered and a couple ofhym ns intoned, silence
faces skyw ard, licking blessed raindrops from their lips,
stom ping through the puddles, splashing each other w ith
m ud and even rolling in it like piglets at play.
It w as a scene o f totally unrestrained hilarity, as pent-up
tensions were released and the air w as filled w ith shouts o f
praise and gratitude to a G od w ho had answ ered their
im passioned please. Their faith had, in spectacular fashion,
been vindicated. This w as a tim e to throw inhibition to the
w inds and celebrate, w hich is exactly w hat they did for
several w ild minutes! Then, one by one, they fell silent and
stood m otionless, as their eyes encountered one sm all girl
who was smiling quietly at the rain... from under her umbrella.
Punch Line: She w as the only person in that com m unity o f
“believers” w ho had brought one with her to the prayer
m eeting at Tow n Hall!
by -
i or T he
(Hlje
^ Jn rtlan b
(Ohscrricr
USPS 9 5 9 -6 8 0
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STAFF
E
d it o r
P
C
in
h ie f
,
u b l is h e r
Charles H. W ashington
E d
i T o r
Larry J. Jackson, Sr.
B
u s in e s s
M
anager
Gary Ann Taylor
C
opy
E
d it o r
Joy Ramos
J oe K lock . S r .
P o r i land O bseryer
letter to the editor
understatem ent, m an w ith an acid
tongue and razor sharp wit. It made
m e so sad to visit him after he started
becom ing ill and each tim e I saw him
seem ed to get w eaker and weaker.
T he w eeks w ent by and soon, my
u n cle, w ith w h o m he m ade his
residence, started to do everything
for him , including feed him , w hen he
actually could eat, change his bed
linens, bathe him and even change
his disposable adult undergarm ent.
I could tell, since my grandfather had
alw ays been very independent, that
relying on som eone else m ade him
v ery u n co m fo rta b le. H e w as on
Dear Editor
C
r e a t iv e
D
ir e c t o r
Shawn Strahan
4 7 4 7 NE Martin Luther King,
Jr. Blvd.
Portland, OR 9 7 2 1 1
5 03 -2 8 8 -0 0 3 3
Fax 5 0 3 -2 8 8 -0 0 1 5
In light o f the upcom ing W orld
Conference on A ssisted D ying Sept.
1-3, in Boston, I w anted to bring
attention to w hat I feel is a greatly
important cause. M y nam e is Erica
Hanlin and I am a 20-year-old col lege
student from Illinois. I w ould like to
say thank you for supporting a cause,
w hich I have been adam ant about for
quite awhile now. In 1992, m y paternal
grandfather, w hom I w as very close
to, com m itted suicide after a battle
w ith em physem a and cancer. My
g ra n d fa th e r h ad alw a y s b een a
spunky,
and
th a t
is
an
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I
oSygen alm ost 24 hour a day and
during his last couple w eeks o f life,
was com pletely bedridden. Losing
his dignity was n ot an option and
around m idnight on a night in A ugust
1992, my grandfather put a gun to his
head and pulled the trigger. H e m ade
a choice that I know any one o f his
sons w ould have m ade in order not to
see their father suffer. A gain, I w ould
like to say thank you for all o f your
dedication to this cause and I know I
speak for m any o f those w ho have
seen the suffering o f family m em bers
or friends with terminal illnesses when
I say G od bless you all.
Black eye for black leaders
in Mississippi hanging
It’s hard to see how m any other official probes it w ill take before Jesse
Jackson and black leaders accept the bitter truth that black M ississippi
teen Raynard Johnson was not lynched but com m itted suicide. T he latest
to com e to that conclusion is M ichael Baden. T he w orld-renow ned
forensic expert visited Jo h n so n ’s hom e and thoroughly review ed two
autopsy reports one o f w hich w as privately com m issioned by Jo h n so n ’s
family. He found no solid evidence that Johnson w as the victim o f racist
violence. B aden’s findings w ere m ade public by the com m ander o f the
M ississippi H ighw ay Patrol, an A frican-A m erican.
But even this probably isn ’t enough to persuade Jackson and other black
leaders that w hite racists d id n ’t m urder Johnson. N ot surprisingly, Jack-
son w hen told o f the latest result did not return phone calls from reporters
for com m ent. H opefully, M ississippi’s governor w o n ’t hold his breath
w aiting for Jackson and o ther black leaders to heed his call to apologize
for sm earing the state.
T h ere’s a reason w hy Jackson can easily fuel the flam es o f racial paranoia
about Johnson’s death. The civil rights m eltdow n, assaults on affirm ative
action, racial profiling, the w ave o f police shootings in black com m unities,
the grim econom ic plight o f m any young black m ales, the grotesque
disparities in the prison and crim inal ju stice system , has m ade m ore and
m ore blacks convinced that terrible atrocities are being planned for them.
T hat w as painfully evident to m e recently w hen I spoke to a large group
o f A frican-A m ericans. D uring the question and answ er period the issue
o f the burning o f black churches cam e up. I pointed out that nearly one-
third o f the more than 100 arrests m ade by the FBI and Bureau o f A lcohol
and T obacco Force agents in the burning o f over 200 churches w ere o f
blacks. W hile in som e cases there was strong evidence o f a loose
conspiracy by a disjointed group o f racist w hites to b u m these churches,
this should not let the blacks that burned their ow n churches o ff the hook.
There was nothing racial about their m otives. T hey burned their churches
out of: revenge, anger, to conceal thefts or to perpetuate insurance fraud.
T hey w ere crim inals and no one should try to excuse or ju stify their
sham eful and debased acts. D isappointingly, several blacks did. They
im m ediately angrily shouted, “H ow do w e know that they actually burned
the churches? The only thing w e have to go by is the w hite m an ’s w ord.”
T heir blindness to reality was the ultim ate in collective racial denial.
Tim e and again when an A frican-A m erican winds up in front o f a court
bench m ore titan a few blacks w ill shout that they are victim s o f a racist
conspiracy. It is a good, ifn o t well-w orn, ploy that som e black personalities
have raised to a state-of-the-art enterprise w hen they are accused of, or
nailed for, sexual hijinks, bribery, corruption, drug dealing, and possibly
even murder.
H ere’s som e tragic exam ples o f this. R everend H enry Lyons, president o f
the N ational Baptist Convention USA, the co untry’s biggest and m ost
influential black religious organization w as convicted ofracketeering and
grand theft in 1999. The evidence w as overw helm ing that Lyons was a
crook. Y et even after Lyons adm itted his guilt m any black m inisters still
w ailed that he was the victim o f a w hite conspiracy.
Even m ore dam aging w hen Jackson and other black leaders claim racial
plots, as in Johnson’s death, with little o r no evidence to back them up, they
lay them selves w ide open to the charge that black leaders are m ore
interested in snatching racial one-upm anship than in prom oting racial
harm ony and achieving tangible racial gains. This is ju st the kind o fch arg e
that gives them, blacks, and w orst o f all tragic cases such as Jo h n so n ’s a
black eye.