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A pril 8. 2009
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Spending Our Way
Out of Trouble
President
Obama’s new
‘New Deal’
by A lgie G atewood
Faith in the American Dream
A leader who never
abandoned his ideals
by M arc H. M orial
I learned o f the passing
o f the great A m erican his
torian John Hope Franklin
on March 25, the same day
that I presented the N a
tional Urban League's 2009
State of Black America re
port before an audience in
Washington, D.C.
Franklin was 94. Along
with Dorothy Height who
turned 97 a day earlier and
was in the front row dur
ing my speech.
Franklin was one o f the last of a gen
eration o f scholars and activists who had
witnessed and walked with uncom mon
dignity the difficult path from Jim Crow
s e g re g a tio n to th e in a u g u ra tio n o f
Am erica’s first black president.
W hat impresses me m ost about the life
of John Hope Franklin is the fact that, like
Dorothy Height, in the face o f countless
slights and obstacles, he rose to great
ness and never abandoned his faith in
the American Dream.
Sadly, many A m ericans may not be fa
miliar with the life and work o f Franklin.
That is partly because, as he noted re
peatedly in his prolific body o f work, the
h isto ry and c o n trib u tio n s o f A frican
A m ericans are too often ignored by our
schools and popular culture.
Dr. Franklin was one o f this nation's
foremost historians who helped create the
field of African American history. His land
mark 1947 book, "From Slavery to Free
dom: A History o f African-Americans" is
considered the core text o f the African
American experience.
At his death, Franklin was the James B.
Dr. Franklin not only wrote about his
tory, he was also a willing participant at
critical moments.
He was am ong a handful o f historians
who worked with Thurgood Marshall to
prepare the Brown v Board o f Education
case; and in 1965 he m arched with Dr.
Martin Luther King in the Selma to M ont
gom ery march for voting rights. He may
be best known for his leadership of Presi
dent Clinton's 1997 National A dvi
sory Board on Race which was dedi
cated to igniting dialogue and ac
tion for racial reconciliation.
John Hope Franklin was a once
in a lifetime gift to Am erica and in
deed to our world. He helped pro
vide a fuller picture of American his
tory and inspired succeeding generations
o f Black scholars, including Michael Eric
Dyson, Cornel West, O rlando Patterson
and Henry Louis Gates.
The National Urban League joins the
nation in m ourning his passing. We share
the sentim ents o f President O bam a who
said, "B ecause o f the life Jo h n Hope
Franklin lived, the public service he ren
dered and the scholarship that was the
mark o f his distinguished career, we all
have a richer understanding o f w ho we
are as A m ericans and our journey as a
p eo p le.. .his legacy is one that will surely
endure."
John Hope Franklin was a
once in a lifetime gift to America
and indeed to our world.
Duke Professor Em eritus o f History at
Duke University. A graduate o f Fisk U ni
versity, he earned his m aster's and doc
torate degrees from Harvard. In addition
to Duke, he also taught at H ow ard Uni
versity, the U niversity o f C hicago and
Cam bridge University in England.
In 1956, he becam e the first African
A merican to chair the history departm ent
at Brooklyn College. Franklin has been
the president o f the Am erican Historical
A ssociation, the A m erican Studies A s
sociation, the Southern H istorical Asso
ciation and the O rganization o f American
H istorians. He has received dozens o f
honorary degrees and aw ards, including
the Presidential Medal o f Freedom from
President Clinton in 1995.
Dump the Patriot Act
by T om H . H astings
We had eight years o f Bush
and Cheney and we finally at
long last purged ourselves o f
that toxic mess. Now those we
voted in to change it out are all
for keeping some of the worst of
it.
Obama has been in office for
fewer than 80 days. By now we
should still be getting rid o f the
horrific influences and cleaning
up the old mistakes, such as in
vading Iraq, torturing people,
cutting Old Growth forests, pol
luting, m aking the rich folks
richer at the expense of every
thing else, and stealing our civil
liberties.
W hy, th e n , w o u ld o n e o f
O bam a’s appointees advocate
a Dick Cheney approach to your
rights? W hy w ould O b am a’s
new (recycled) FBI D irector
Robert S. M ueller III start ad
vocating for a renewal o f the
USA Patriot Act, the most egre
gious violation o f your civil lib
Marc H. Morial is president and chief
executive officer of the National Urban
League.
The worst o f Bush-Cheney
erties o f the entire Bush and
C heney era?
And why would M ueller do
so even w hen all the historic-
groups organized solely to pro
tect your rights disagree with
him?
“If we were a dog food, they
w ould take us o ff the shelf,”
Rep. Tom Davis, R-Va„ recently
said o f the Republican brand.'
If we imagine looking at the
shelf labeled “American Instru
m en ts to D efend F re ed o m ,”
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some would regard the Bill of
Rights as top shelf, alongside
the Constitution. In the m id
range, we hope, are Congress
and the Justice Department. In
the bargain bin are the warrant
less wiretaps, waterboarding,
and the snoopsters at the FBI,
with their misnamed Patriot Act,
w hich should indeed be re
called and shredded.
M ueller says som e o f the
measures in the Patriot Act save
“an awful lot of paperwork."
Right. Why no, eliminate all
o f it and just allow the federal
governm ent to read all your
emails, follow all your financial
tran sactio n s, m onitor w hich
books you buy or check out of
the library, and peruse your
telephone records?
Oh, that's right— the Patriot
Ac, already does that. Just one
w h iff o f d is s e n t from Big
Brother and you are fair game.
Do you doubt that? Do you re
member when it was revealed
that three of the most spied-on
g ro u p s w ere G re e n p e a c e ,
C o d eP in k and the C ath o lic
Workers?
All three of these “organiza
tio n s " are n o n v io le n t an d
transparent. We were fair game
by the Patriot Ac,. Maybe if the
FB I w o u ld sto p sp y in g on
n o n v io le n t p eacefu l people
they could really save some pa
perwork.
Tom H. Hastings teaches
Conflict Resolution at Port
land State University.
S e v e n ty y e a rs ag o .
P re s id e n t
F ra n k lin
R o o s e v e lt w as in the
midst o f w orking to en
act the firs, program s o f his far-
re a c h in g a n d re v o lu tio n a ry
“New D eal” for the A merican
people. Today, President Barack
O bam a is in the midst o f w ork
ing to enact the firs, stages of
an equally sw eeping set o f ini
tia tiv e s th a t so m e h av e d e
scribed as a new New Deal.
Then, as now, unemployment
w as a la r m in g ly h ig h an d
headed higher. M ortgage fore
closures were becom ing more
and more com m on every day.
T h e b an k in g sy stem w as in
free-fall, with gun-shy bankers
hesitant to extend credit. Then,
as now, the econom y suffered
from a crisis o f dem and, with
cautious consum ers unw illing
or unable to spend their money.
Then, as now, the president
proposed a controversial - and
seem ingly co u n terin tu itiv e -
solution to the cascading array
of challenges: we will spend our
way out o f trouble.
In d e e d ,
it
se e m s
w rongheaded at first glance to
And it worked. R oosevelt’s
public w orks program s gave
consum er dem and the stimulus
it needed, and the A m erican
p eo p le w ere w ell on
our way to pulling our
selves out o f the G reat
D ep ressio n ev en b e
fo re th e o u tb re a k o f
W o rld W ar II c a t a
pulted us into a w ar
tim e e c o n o m y . P re s id e n t
O bam a, to his credit, is trying
to do the same thing with the
recently-passed A m erican R e
covery and Reinvestm ent Act.
Billions o f dollars are being
made available to federal, state,
and local governm ent agencies
to b e g in so -c a lle d “ sh o v e l-
ready” infrastructure projects,
and billions m ore will be in
vested in restoring and upgrad
ing A m erica’s transportation,
energy, and com m unication in
f ra s tru c tu re . F u rth e r - an d
again to the president's credit
- many o f these forthcom ing
projects will incorporate the lat
est in “green” and sustainable
te c h n o lo g ie s, m a te ria ls and
techniques.
M any skilled professionals
w ho have been forced out o f
work by the economic slump will
be able to find gainful em ploy
ment once again. M any more
people, however, who want to
be a part o f this grand reinvest
ment in America will need toYirst
What Roosevelt realized -
and Obama realizes today-
is that the secret to demand
is jobs. People with jobs
earn and spend money.
-A;
propose, as President O bam a obtain or upgrade the skills they
has, to dram atically increase need in o rd er to p articip ate.
governm ent spending during a Where will the vast majority of
tim e of fiscal crisis. It seems them turn? To community col
m istaken to increase the deficit leges.
Community colleges already
when the co untry’s tax base is
in no shape to make good on have begun the process o f reach
ing out to regional contractors
the debt anytim e soon.
B u t ju s t as P re s id e n t and subcontractors in order to
R o osevelt d id 70 years ago. determine their personnel needs
President O bam a is doing ex in light o f President O bam a's re
covery plan. And Portland Com
actly the right thing.
Roosevelt, guided by the coun munity College, for example, will
sel o f the great economist John in the m onths to com e m ake
M aynard K eynes, realized in available to current and prospec
1939 that the way back to fiscal tive students information about
health was to stimulate the de the courses they need to take to
mand side o f the economy. A prepare themselves to work on
prosperous nation is one in which new “ g re e n ” in fra stru c tu re
consumers - that's you and me projects in four broad categories:
- are spending their money on renew able energy, transporta
goods and services, circulating tion, manufacturing and sustain
their wages through the network able building.
President Roosevelt, on the
of producers, middle-men, retail
ers, and service providers that occasion o f his first inaugura
tion, famously said that we have
make up the economy.
In other words, in a healthy nothing to fear but fear itself. In
economy, there is no shortage other words, we need only to find
o f demand. Where demand ex the will to get ourselves out of
ists, supply is sure to follow. trouble, and then we can find the
What Roosevelt realized - and way. By setting an example, Presi
Obama realizes today- is that the dent Obama is helping America
secret to demand is jobs. People to find its will. And with the help
with jobs earn and spend money. of our nation’s community col
Roosevelt used the federal gov leges, the American people can
ernment to put people to work, fin d a way as well.
Algie C. Gatewood, Ed.D., is
building schools, roads, bridges,
community centers, dams, and president o f Portland Commu
more, many o f which are still in nity College's Cascade Cam
pus.
service today.
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