When the story is finally written, events today will seem strikingly similar to the Warren G. Harding Administration. Students will compare and contrast Teapot Dome and Enron. One thing they are sure to note is the facilitator roles played by media, whose boundless hypocrisy aided cover-ups for corrupt patrons.

Harding's handlers were men with deep pockets. Their smoked-filled backroom deal put him on the 1920 Republican Party presidential ticket. They controlled government and media, which gave Harding a bye, just like G.W. How the media handle Enron will be telling. So far, American media have been weighed and found wanting by those burned by the Enron scandal. The good news is reporters are finding it difficult to stay on message, because the 'official line' sounds ridiculous. Unflappable, White House press secretary Ari Fleischer sweats bullets over Enron, the blue dress; its millions of dollars in contributions are stains on Bush's presidency. For hiding it, blah on the media's boundless hypocrisy. Issue 3

Showing more backbone than the one they voted for as President, who promised to fight, fight, fight, Alcee Hastings and the gentle ladies of the Congressional Black Caucus manifested Yohannes Smith's THINC philosophy. These individuals showed they believe in one-person, one-vote democracy as a human value worth fighting to secure and protect. A handful among the 538 congressional members, these courageous few gave us the crowning moment in our historic struggle for black Americans to be treated as whole persons with full rights of citizenry, including voting to elect our president. Kudos to Alcee and the ladies; they defied the odds and stood for equality among Americans. Making the black community proud, they promised no justice no peace.

For a heart-wrenching moment, we thought none of our elected representatives would speak; they would all go along to get along and play Booker T. Washington. However, U.S. Rep. Alcee Hastings (D-FL) vowed to challenge the certification of Florida's twenty-five (25) Electoral College votes for President-select George W. Bush, Jr. And, he had the distinguished company of approximately sixteen others, mostly gentle black ladies. For the first time in history, blacks challenged the 3/5ths Compromise on the floor of Congress. Specifically, they opposed the practice of legally not counting 2/5ths of black votes in certain southern states, such as Florida, Georgia, Mississippi and South Carolina.

Ironically chaired by outgoing VP Al Gore, the 1:00 P.M. meeting on Saturday, January 6, 2001 of the joint session of the 107^th Congress would normally be a mundane affair. However, this day Alcee and the gentle ladies made history. Joining Hastings and the gentle ladies - Maxine Waters, Sheila Jackson-Lee, Cynthia McKinney, et al - was Jesse Jackson, Jr., John Lewis and one white representative. Their efforts failed when not one of the 100 non-black Senators, including liberal Democrats Ted Kennedy and Hilary Rodham-Clinton, would sign their challenge to Bush's debacle in Florida.

Kudos to Alcee and the gentle ladies! We appreciate your efforts and stand solidly behind you. Black elected officials and blue-dog Democrats that are going along to get along are hereby placed on notice. We intend to rid the black community of all the Booker T.s and white Demo-Republicans.

Black blondes populate the Atlanta landscape; they occupy some high profile positions. One of the most famous is Monica Kaufman, a local television news anchor. Over the years, Monica has sported some unusual hairdos. Her latest is a blonde affair. Shirley Franklin, one of the black candidates for Atlanta mayor, wears a similar hairstyle. The election is not until 2001, but several individuals, including Jack Jersawitz and Robb Pitts, have announced their candidacy. In a letter to the editor of Creative Loafing (8-26-00), one Lewis Charles of Atlanta wrote, "I won't vote for Shirley Franklin because she has her hair dyed blonde. I think that is a sign of racial self-hatred, unless she has a medical reason for having it done. That narrows my choices down to two, so Gloria Tinubu stands a very good chance of getting my vote." Blah on the high profile black women in blonde drag; they give being black a bad name. Blah! Blah! Black blondes and perms to make it bone-straight scream self-hate.

"Kudos to the NAACP for filing the lawsuit and the Florida judge for preventing obvious discrimination against black college students in Daytona, FL. A similar suit should be filed in Atlanta to prevent Mayor Campbell and the city’s police from rerouting traffic to keep black children out of certain areas.

For years, the city of Atlanta has kept blacks out of Piedmont Park during Freaknik. This is the same kind of blatant discrimination that was not allowed in Daytona, i.e., the city sought to limit access to the beach. It is time the black Mecca stopped its discriminatory practices. For one weekend out of the year, young blacks do what buck wild white kids do without the negative publicity all the time.

The vast majority of the students attending Freaknik are good kids; those who openly engage in lewd acts and commit crimes are local yokels, most of them are not even students. Much of the criminal activity during Freaknik would occur whether or not the event came to town. More important, if the police were not preoccupied with towing cars, setting up speed traps and rerouting traffic, real criminals could get caught, and there would be fewer occasions for traffic gridlock. Over-policing screws up Freaknik; the city’s law enforcement goal seems geared toward letting our children know they are not welcomed in the city too busy to hate."