Volume 2 Issue 21………… June 4, 1999

by Dot Smith

When The DISH complained about the stench in its South DeKalb County, Georgia community nearly a year ago, the absence of official concern fueled suspicion that environmental racism played a critical role in the lack of concern for the health and well-being of area citizens. DISH research efforts identified Seminole Landfill, owned by DeKalb County, as one source of pollution.

During his bid to unseat DeKalb Commissioner Porter Sanford (Dist. 7), Lou Walker teamed with area residents to demand the closing of the landfill, an end to the building of substandard housing around the site and putting a stop to the purchase of land around Ward Lake for a recreational park. Area residents believe the proposed park would be on land contaminated by leachate from the unlined section of Seminole.

While the unlined section of the landfill has been closed, a new lined section keeps the landfill in operation. Housing subdivisions continue to be built at a rapid pace nearby. In the case of the land purchase around Ward Lake for recreation, concerned community activists caused DeKalb Commissioners Bill Brown and Porter Sanford to re-think the proposed purchase.

In May, 1999, U.S. Rep. Cynthia McKinney (D) asked EPA to look into Seminole Landfill groundwater contamination. Rep. McKinney's request centers around the prospect such contamination places us all at risk.

For more on Seminole and other sources of funk in the hood, visit the Funky Hood Homepage

By Arthur Blair

I think I know a little about history in America and the world. It appears to me, in light of the recent high profile violent acts by young white boys, it has come time for the white establishment to make excuses for these acts by distancing the white race from these acts as a whole; they make every attempt to individualize these acts. Whereas, when a black carries out an unthinkable act, it becomes a " that's how they are kinda thing." Remember O. J. Simpson anyone? This comes as no surprise. Whites have accepted and acted violent since before the colonization of the New World by Britain and other nations.

What we must understand is that the violence was generally against others who were of the non-white race and female. Most of the time, the reason for violence was to make others submissive to the white male by any means possible. Violence in America is only unacceptable when it comes home to the white community. Now that whites see white on white violence, it is unsettling to them in that they have used black on black violence to say we do not like ourselves and are uncivilized. Like Malcolm said, "The chickens have come home to roast". Like Rap Brown said," Violence is as American as apple pie". (Excuse me if the quotations are not exact). But, before modern times, violence was always acceptable and directed by white America towards others. Now, we see other Americans fighting back by pointing out the white on white violence.

About Me: I am creator of the website BLACK QUEST-THE GRIOT. Check it out at http://blackquest.com. Click on the "Creator" when you get there. Venue

Railing Against Hypocrisy!

By John Burl Smith

The slave history of African Americans severed all connections that established our place in the world. After freedom, the next casualty was knowledge. Legally denied the right to learn to read or write, slaves lived in a "Dark Age." Until emancipation and the end of the Civil War, they were beasts of burden. Unshackled, their thirst for knowledge and willingness to endure any hardship to acquire it, freedom fueled a renaissance, which changed the fortune of former slaves in less than twenty years.

Always having been free, whites could not compete with the aggressive drive to achieve by former slaves. Conspiratorially, whites used their political power to stop the freed slaves' advances. Democratic Presidential hopeful Rutherford B. Hayes, as Richard Nixon and Ronald Reagan, helped force blacks into a state of semi-slavery by agreeing to end Reconstruction in 1887. Hayes' deal with the devil helped whites force slave descendants back into another "Dark Age" called segregation. Federal, state and local governments passed laws mandating second class citizenship for all blacks residing in the United States of America. Segregation's laws did not only deny blacks civil rights, they denied them human rights. Even though African Americans paid taxes, as though they were full citizens, they were only granted second class access to education and economic opportunities.

Government's response to white demands to block slave descendants' second attempt to gain full citizenship following Brown vs. The Board of Education in 1953 was institutionalized racism. Using the power of the state to defy court edicts, white Americans refused to honor the right of full citizenship recognized by the Supreme Court. State and local governments used institutions to continue segregation until they could change the make up of the Supreme Court. In 1982, Ronald Reagan and George Bush made the same deal as Rutherford B. Hayes in 1887. They stacked the Supreme Court, as well as lower courts, with judges who agreed to reverse rulings granting African Americans full citizenship. Reagan and Bush's actions are tantamount to using the Supreme Court to suspend constitutional protection for African Americans.

The Atlanta Vibe will not "go gently into that good night." We will not quietly endure another "Dark Age." Our voice will not fall silent about being denied constitutional and human rights. It is obvious; the world fears America's military and economic might. Like Europe facing Hitler, the world has chosen to turn deaf ears and blind eyes to an unending genocide against African Americans that goes back to slavery. Even if no one will speak up about America's hypocrisy, we will rail alone against its tyranny. The Atlanta Vibe will not let the world sleep peacefully as long as hypocrisy and genocide reigns in America. Check Http://home.att.net/~yicim/Vibe.html for scheduling info on where The Atlanta Vibe rails next. Essays by John Burl Smith

Atlanta Vibe

Thinking of Birmingham, Alabama, images of "Bull Connor's police dogs attacking young children and a church bombing that killed four little girls" mournfully pierce our conscious. Though etched by blood and pain, such reflections are being reshaped by a group of intrepid young spoken word artists known as Infinite Currents. Clashing with the images of an antebellum South, the group's founders, which includes The Seventh Sun, envision a full venue of programs this summer designed to connect Birmingham to "the new black renaissance."

With their sights on a new Birmingham, on June 10,1999, Infinite Currents presents The Cipher hosted by Prime Minster AkMu at the Historical Foundation, 331 52^nd Street, Fairfield, Alabama. Like "Sherman's march to the sea, featured artist "Mimi Latoine, "Mother of Iman," will rock the house with a 30-minute set. Spotlighting poets, MCs, storytellers, singers and musicians, the artillery barrage of knowledge will commence at 7:00 p.m. No need to run for cover; they take no prisoners. Free admissions; bring a friend and volunteer for the 1^st Alabama knowledge corp.

On the following Thursday, June 17, 1999, The Atlanta Vibe hooks up with Infinite Currents and Hollis Wormsby & Company in Birmingham as they take it to the next level. Yohannes Sharriff Smith author of T.H.I.N.C.(Teaching Humanity In New Consciousness): The Chrysalis of Evolution, will help Verbal Vybz ignite a spoken word explosion to greet the new millennium. A 1997 finalist in The National Poetry Slam and 1999 Atlanta Grand Slam champion, Yohannes feels Verbal Vybz will bring a new level of consciousness to B'ham. The spot is The Harambe Room 1815 4^th Avenue North. Cosmic knowledge will drop like meteors from the stratosphere at 6:30 p.m., $5.00 will break you off space on the mother ship.

A catalysis in this volatile brew, The Seventh Sun is anticipating the release of his first anthology soon, Full Mental Jacket. Hit them up at www.geocities.com/soho/atrium/6507. E-mail Griot_7@hotmail.com for information or call (205) 780-5669. Atlanta Vibe

Intuit's Weekly Vibe

by Yohannes Sharriff Smith

Stand by for a news bulletin..."This is WICU-TV

And this is just in: Recombant Bovine Hormone or

Bovine Somatrotropin

Have been found to be a carcinogen."

Somewhere in Niggaville, USA,

Sprite syrup mixes with carbonated water,

While we obey our thirst for a commercial image....

Swimming in nonsense

Like bisexual antics for attention.

Another Miss-guided Negro is sitting in Burger King

Swallowing a 90% chance that the Double Whopper

With extra cheese she's eating was hormone treated.

Somewhere, another angry Mutha-fucka

Smothers a three month old crying child,

While his momma takes it in the back room

From another somebody else's baby's daddy

To supply her crack habit.

And what did you do today?

Somewhere spring is singing in technicolor

And I'm writing, screaming, crying and bleeding

'Cause I know God can hear me! Somewhere...

Like babies making their way into this dimension,

Senses flood the first time I taste my new life.

Vibrant like the feeling of squeezing banana

Thru five-month old fingers...

Spinning and learning the texture of life.

Like building blocks, each element labeled

With letters and numbers.

Wonder thru the land and see the green.

Feel it bring a healing Change...

In the wind and thru the trees.

Wise and wicked ways are whispered

We weep like willows on satin pillows,

While somewhere...some aborigine beats the odds,

Back against the last tree of his rain forest home,

Screaming in his native tongue

For the love of the God!

And what did you do today? ( Repeated 3 times)

Somewhere in Malaysia..

The black market is squeezing lives

Squeezing triggers like Littleton, Colorado

Or Kosovo, Yugoslavia

Life squeezing for the battery operated Kodak

Color moment of conscience

Picture factories and sweat shops...

Stop the ill harvest like crop fields

Filled with aliens of all ages and persuasion

Slaving away for slave wages illegally making a living.

Somewhere third world workers riot at a Nike warehouse

As secret weapons snipe radicals one by one.

Somewhere in Ethiopia..

A Nigerian is falling down a mine-shaft

Grabbing, grasping, gasping for air, choking on the earth

Collapsing all around him. Somewhere..

Some bodies outlined in chalk...Somewhere..

Somebody's momma walks in search of lost children,

Even though she sees them playing

Good Christian every Sunday at service

Everyday people treat the greatest gift like its worthless.

And what did you do today? Intuit

Comments from the Bat Cave

When asked for his weekly comment, the Dark Knight-Batman/White Ninja/Zorro, who was not a happy camper because he had to clean his room, responded, "Grandma, I'll tell you when I finish this." Bat Cave Comments

1. Don't be caught between two cars. Car-jackers often work in pairs. 2. Don't pull off the road at night in an unpopulated place. 3. Carry a cell phone! 4. Stay calm. 5. Remember that most criminals want easy victims...DON'T LET YOURSELF BECOME ONE!!! 6. Make sure you know how to react BEFORE you are in the situation! Thinking about what to do when it happens is too late! 7. ALWAYS make sure you do not stop until you are CERTAIN that help is present. (i.e., even if you are in a slight accident, head straight for the police station, and don't stop until you are there. Car-jackers often slightly damage vehicles by bumping them from the rear to try to get the driver to get out.) PASS IT ON! KAREN L CAMPBELL News.html

Infamous hemp tales abound, especially now with the concerted push to legalize marijuana for medicinal purposes. Hemp has been around for centuries. In fact, it was raised as a cash crop during and before George Washington was elected the first President of the United States. The story goes that George, an honest bloke, but not your everyday fieldhand, loved to be on hand for the hemp harvest. According to popular hemp folklore, George believed "there is nothing like a good hemp fire." Indeed, whenever something took him away from the plantation at harvesting time, George lamented; he loved the gathering after the harvest when hemp was burned on a pyre. Phantom Scribbler

Mailbox: Letters, Faxes, E-mails, etc.

Oct22nd Coalition at Oct22@unstoppable.com provides a wealth of information on police violence. With nationally covered events like the murder of Tyisha Miller by Riverside, CA police late last year, the sodomy of Abner Louima and the murder of Amadou Diallo in New York, you may have missed this murder by police in Chicago, which happened at the end of the year. Now, you know about it thanks to our police watchdog group - Oct22nd.

"Our hearts filled with both sorrow and rage, we solemnly add another name to the Stolen Lives List of Names*: Brennan King, 21 years old, shot six times in the back and once in the back of the head by Chicago police. When 300 people demanded to see the body right after he was shot, they weren't allowed near it, but instead were subjected to the sound of Brennan's head thumping down the stairs as the cops dragged him out in a body bag. In an outrageous turn of events, the ambulance on the scene wasn't for Brennan, it was used to smuggle out the murdering cop! Brennan's body was taken away in a paddy wagon. This is the third murder this year (1998) committed by the Chicago police in Cabrini-Green (that we know about). Brennan King is the 19^th person known to be killed by the CPD in 1998."

Lewinsky Virus: Sucks all the memory out of your computer, then e-mails everyone about what it did. Kenneth Starr Virus: Completely examines every aspect of your computer, then compiles a complex report that discredits every aspect of your computer. Ronald Reagan Virus: saves your data, but forgets where it is stored. Mike Tyson Virus: Quits after two bytes. Spits everything out. Oprah Winfrey Virus: Your 300 MB hard drive suddenly shrinks to 100MB, then slowly expands to 200 MB. Dr. Jack Kevorkian Virus: Deletes all old files. Ellen Degeneres Virus: Disks can no longer be inserted. Titanic Virus: Your whole computer goes down. Disney Virus: Everything in your computer goes Goofy. Prozac Virus: Screws up your RAM, but your processor doesn't care. Joey Buttafuoco Virus: Only attacks minor files. Arnold Schwarzenegger Virus: Terminates zome viles, leaves, but it vill be baaack. Lorena Bobbit Virus: Reformats your hard drive into a 3.5-inch floppy, then discards it through Windows. Viagra Virus: Makes a new hard drive out of an old floppy. Clinton Virus: Gives you a 7" hard drive with no memory. E-mail from Yemi Toure ytoure@mindspring.com Mailbox

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