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Volume 3 No 12..… Dedicated to the Dialogue on Race ...March 31, 2000

Note: The DISH is based on themes from T.H.I.N.C. (Teaching Humanity In New Consciousness): The Chrysalis of Evolution. According to the President's Initiative on Race, "The issues that this book brings to the forefront are important in our efforts to achieve the goals set forth by the President for the Initiative. This work will serve as a solid resource for us as we begin to examine these critical issues." For your copy of T.H.I.N.C. or to submit comments, contact ICIM, Inc. at (404) 244-6023 or email us at icim@bellsouth.net. All rights reserved ©The DISH.

Trévius by Dot

Like a hot knife through butter,

His innocence pierced my consciousness.

I had already judged him.

It was too late to recall the punishment.

Tré accused me of not listening to him

He is right; I am guilty

But, Tré does not punish me

Instead, he accepts my apology.

Gracious is his forgiveness.

He puts his arms around my waist,

I am moved beyond words

A dam inside me breaks,

Tears spill down my face

I bend to return his warm embrace

Then my grandson plants a kiss upon my face.

He consoles me by sagely saying,

"We all make mistakes."

Filled with innocence, he is a child.

His love is unconditional

I know in my soul when I am told

"I love you grandma!" Tré means it sincerely.

He must know

The sentiment is returned a thousand-fold

He is my Trévius, my super hero!

The Dark Knight-Batman/White Ninja/Zorro is a man of few words. When asked for his long awaited comments, the Dark One/Ninja/Zorro replied, "I do back-flips for pancakes. Want to see me do one?"

Waffles for Tré by Dot

When he was just a baby, my grandson and I spent quality time in a car in search of another Waffle House. Atlanta has many Waffle Houses. Some locales have so many, it seems there is one on every corner. Tré and I breakfasted at a number of them.

Back then, little kids ate cheap; a few dollars bought a complete breakfast. I worked nights; the Waffle House routine fit my lifestyle. After all, I did not care to handle and prepare food every morning. I now realize my aversion to cooking has to do with handling meat, touching it made me a bit nauseous.

Tré must have been all of 18 months when he discovered that waffles smothered in maple syrup flavor and fell in love. Then, Waffle House was charged with blatant racial discrimination; I explained boycotting to my grandson. I expounded on giving up meat, telling him I found visiting the restaurant unpleasant. Unfortunately, my enlightenment has nothing to do with my grandson and his love of the waffle and all that Waffle House came to symbolize. Totally unacceptable, he suggested that I stay in the car on the next visit.

These days, I make pancakes to ease his craving. I share my love of tennis as a way of spending quality time together. Now, I have a waffle iron, and I briefly considered dragging it out and dusting it off. Only I gave up eggs when I gave up meat and dairy, and it is hard to make a waffle without milk and eggs. Does anyone have a dairy-less cookbook for baking? I sure could use it! It would help in breaking the dairy habit and keep us out of Waffle House permanently.

Civilized Society Not! By Dot

In civilized societies, people do not kill their young as punishment for minor and imagined offenses. Yet, in America police kill easily. Obviously, they do not see our offspring as their children. Civilized people do not kill their young. Cops killing ours must see them as another species. Like rats in a cage, our kids make good target practice for the white supremacy mentality.

We must examine the attitude that leaves our children dead at the hands of police. People do not kill their children. What is the offense of having skin color you cannot chemically treat to alter? Unlike our hair, which many of us fry to death to make "bone" straight to mimic white folks’ tresses, we cannot lighten our children to gain acceptance. So, they are killed on sight by cops. Where is the justice in being typecast a criminal from day one of your existence, fodder to feed the prison system, which facilitates the economic enslavement of black people. Otherwise, there would be rehabilitation. None exists in America’s criminal justice system. If this is the civilized leader of a "free" world, the society everyone apes, then humanity is in deep do-do. A civilized society doesn’t practice genocide on its children!

Like the rocket’s red glare and spoken word filling the air, Dionne Farris singed the Atlanta Vibe faithful at Soul Vegetarian’s Righteous Vibe last Saturday night. Hosted by Yohannes Sharriff Smith, the sold out cutting edge venue offered a perfect fusion of Afro-centric rhythms and educational themes. This Sunday, April 2,2000, changing the scene but not his theme, Yohannes returns a second year to support Georgia State University’s Eleventh Annual African American Heritage Awards Ceremony. Hosting this year’s event at the Atlanta Airport Marriott, Yohannes along with the Office of African American Student Services and Programs will honor those exemplifying such qualities as academic achievement, leadership and community involvement. Always eager to support young people, Yohannes said, "They need to be recognized for their efforts, because society has painted this generation so negatively, it seems they all are being fast tracked to prison. I want to change that situation."

Walker’s Appeal

by John Burl Smith

Louder than cannon fire, David Walker’s Appeal exploded like a rebellion demanding freedom for African slaves in 1829. Born free in North Carolina on September 28, 1785, Walker was influenced greatly by Denmark Vessey, who educated him about his slave ancestry. Moving to Boston in 1820, he became involved in the northern black reform movement and wrote for The Freedom Journal. Frustrated with the slow pace of emancipation and the tolerant attitude of slaves toward their servitude, he published Walker’s Appeal in Four Articles: Together with a Preamble, to the Coloured Citizens of the World, but in Particular, and Very Expressly, to Those of the United States of America."

His Appeal proclaimed to slaves, "it is no more harm for you to kill the man who is trying to kill you than it is to take a drink of water." Addressing slave masters, "You may do your best to keep us in wretchedness and misery to enrich you and your children, but God will deliver us from under you."

Southern governors passed laws to keep the Appeal from reaching slaves. Anyone caught with an Appeal was hanged on the spot. A $10,000 dead or alive bounty was placed on Walkers head.

Walker’s revolutionary devotion to liberating his people would not allow him to flee to Canada, when bounty hunters hawked his trail. He said, "I will stand my ground. Somebody must die in this cause. I may be doomed to the stake and the fire or to the scaffold tree, but it is not in me to falter if I can promote the work of emancipation."

Like Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Malcolm X, Richard L. Kirksey, Jr. and many others, David Walker was lynched in 1830; no date is given. Sounding like Black Power 1968, David Walker reminds us of Amadou Diallo’s death and the value of a black man’s life in 2000. Blacks were lynched for reading, speaking and/or writing in 1830. With hate speech, has anything changed? For David Walker, speaking the truth became a crime punishable by death. Those who do not know their history are doomed to repeat it! ( Notes from Dr. Leroy Vaughn’s My Hero: David Walker )

By Dot

Thursday's DeKalb Section of the AJC (3/23/00) ran an article alleging DeKalb citizens do not mind subsidizing public transportation for other metro areas where the MARTA 1-cent sales tax is not imposed. Utter dribble! A total mis-characterization of DeKalb County taxpayer sentiment, we strenuously object; the AJC's reporting does not reflect reality.

Media shapes public opinion. Apparently, the local press wants the world to think we are stupid, because no one is objecting to subsidizing services for others we do not receive with our own tax money. Only DeKalb and Fulton County residents support MARTA. In 1971, we voted yes to a referendum creating MARTA; poor folks need reliable public transportation; many of us are poor. The 1-cent sales tax was supposed to last twenty years. Without referendum, the state legislature extended this regressive tax to 2047!

Our elected representatives are silent; some are now justifying a MARTA fare increase. None have dealt with the unfairness of imposing the MARTA sales tax only on DeKalb and Fulton taxpayers, when plans for extending the public transportation service is for other areas. South DeKalb suffers the most in the process; it is time for a revolt against this injustice.

We must send a message for the world to hear. We strenuously object to this unfair tax. One way to demonstrate that displeasure is to buy less. Everyone, restrict your Georgia purchases, especially in DeKalb and Fulton Counties, where this unfair tax is imposed. It is time we stopped accepting labels placed on us by the media. It is time we showed our elected officials and the international community that we object to being marginalized and refuse to subsidize other people's amenities to our own detriment. How ridiculous! It is downright un-American to accept taxation without benefit. Moreover, we do not appreciate the AJC's role in casting us as idiots in the process.

The DISH calls for a tax revolt to put down the unfair MARTA tax! Paying this tax is tantamount to riding in the back of the bus. Or, worst yet, it amounts to paying to eat in a restaurant where the owner wants your money, but he does not want you on the premises! We reject this kind of disrespect and disservice from every quarter, including from the AJC!

National Black Day Out

May 20, 2000 is the 2^nd Annual National Black Out Day. Minority Americans, especially blacks, are asked to remain at home and refrain from expending anything, including money and energy. Its aim is to demonstrate our economic power and highlight institutionalized racism. The DISH supports this action. We ask for your help to make it a success. In addition, we ask your support for an indefinite Georgia/Mississippi boycott, which corrects an oversight in the South Carolina flag issue. These states should remove the Confederate emblem from their state symbols.

Successful boycotts require sacrifice. Suspending habits as simple as not drinking Cokes, eating fewer Waffle House breakfasts or not riding MARTA aid the effort. Success depends on individual action. Coca-Cola and Waffle House are two industries added to our boycotted things, along with Georgia, Mississippi, the MARTA 1-cent sales tax and MCI.

In conjunction with the prison system, MCI charges inmates’ families, friends and loved ones exorbitant fees to communicate. Local collect calls placed from prison cost at least $2.50, whether the call is a nanosecond or an hour. This obvious fleecing of our people adds to their suffering and increases the burden imposed by the incarceration of loved ones, oftentimes for petty non-violent offenses. MCI must not profit from the people’s suffering.

Heartbroken, my grandson gave up Waffle House. Coke’s black employment history earns them a spot on the boycott list. Feening for the occasional diet Coke, I resist the urge to quench that old aspartame and caffeine habit. You too can suspend a habit. Find some way to express yourself on National Black Out Day! Extend the Confederate flag boycott to Georgia and Mississippi! Show MCI we do not appreciate the way they do business! You can make a difference!

by John Burl Smith

Regrettably, Georgia missed Sen. John McCain’s "Straight Talk Express;" local media may have benefited from rare candor. Reporting opinions on Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority’s (MARTA) sales tax, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution’s (AJC) DeKalb Section (3-23-00) contend county residents, "do not mind subsidizing other metro Atlanta riders not required to pay the sales tax." Contrary to normal American taxpayer attitude and absent demographics and sample questions, it is impossible to ascertain which DeKalb residents are happy to bankroll services for others they do not receive.

White North DeKalb and Fulton got trains first and have enjoyed every MARTA service upgrade since 1971. Conceivably, they may not object to paying for Cobb, Clayton and Gwinnett Counties’ services. However, blacks in South DeKalb and Fulton face different problems. Promised service in 1971, Roy Barnes’ "Great Train Robbery" negated that promise; his Georgia Regional Transportation Agency (GRTA) usurped MARTA and stole our train and money.

No straight talk express running our governor, Barnes sees fighting MARTA as fighting integration. With a dismal record on affirmative action, whites hold and receive 83% of all state jobs and contracts. Barnes changed GRTA’s formula for transportation funding to deprive Atlanta of its fair share of tax dollars. Taking over MARTA, his regional transportation network robs DeKalb and Fulton of any benefit accruing from paying MARTA’s 1-cent sales tax since 1971. Barnes’ GRTA is not demanding that counties outside DeKalb and Fulton pay into MARTA in order to receive service; there is no demand for them to pay the 1-cent sales tax.

The AJC does not represent DeKalb residents’ interests. Consequently, it is no surprise the AJC poll claims DeKalb residents do not object to Roy Barnes stealing our train and giving it to whites in other counties to help their economic development. Polls can not change robbery into philanthropy. To say DeKalb and Fulton residents "do not mind subsidizing others" is to portray Thomas Jefferson’s rape of his child slave, Sally Heming as an act of love. Worst yet, that Sally really did not mind being a concubine to an old fart at fourteen! The AJC is still helping to hold young Sally down for ol’ Tom to screw. We reject this scenario and are calling for a MARTA tax revolt and a Georgia boycott! John 2000

Basic Advancement Politics: (BAP) 102

Run children run! Planning to run for office to advance the interests of your community? Check those qualifying deadlines now! Qualification deadlines are rapidly approaching. If you plan to launch your campaign to represent the people this year, get yourself in gear. Gather information and whatever forms may be needed to qualify. So, what if you don’t have all your ducks in a row? This is a learning process. All you have to lose is your ignorance. The community benefits from your attempts to improve conditions. What if you lose this time? You’ll be better in the next go round, because you will have matured.

State legislators run every two years. THINC about taking a turn at providing us quality representation; we are in desperate need. For information and forms in DeKalb County, call DeKalb Election Commission at 404-298-4020. Visit your state’s website for the election office serving your area. A similar agency exits in most states and counties. If you fail to find what you need, call The DISH. We will gladly assist in your effort to learn the process and improve the level of representation in our community.

Disgruntled says: A USA livestock feed company and a Canadian power supplier teamed up to prevent belching and flatulence in Ugandan cattle with a designer feed supplement. This could explain human obesity. Gas builds up in un-burped and fart-less cow tissue! And, sure enough, meat-eaters tend to be thick and puffy!

Disgruntled wants to know: Dr. King vowed that black people would make it to the "Promised Land." "Black leaders" are coming together in Atlanta to discuss a Freudian slip, i.e., "will Dr. King’s vow ever come true." Having assumed his mantle, if they are not working to make Dr. King’s dream reality, then where have they been leading us like cattle?

Disgruntled feels: Buckhead may want to be the hot night spot in Atlanta to make all the entertainment money, but they do not want black spots showing up for the party!

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