Volume 4 Issue 33…Dedicated to the Dialogue on Race…August 24, 2001

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., The DISH or to submit comments, contact ICIM, Inc. at (404) 244-6023. The DISH © 2001

by John Burl Smith

Arriving in Memphis, TN, after remaining with grandparents in Mississippi, because I was too young to start school, I felt like "Alice tumbling down the rabbit hole." By the time I joined the family in Memphis, my father had abandoned my mother and four siblings for the bright lights and painted women of Beale Street.

Segregation barred black families from receiving welfare until the late 1960s, therefore, in the 1940s single mothers were victims of all kinds of predators, like today's welfare-to-work mothers. The daughter of sharecroppers, Willie Mae, my mother, was independent but unsophisticated about surviving in the big city.

Doubly difficult for a boy entering the first grade in the middle of the school year, mother worked from dawn to dust. The day I saw a man with a Popsicle wagon standing atop the hill behind our two-room duplex, our lives began to change. Wearing none of the regalia of a super hero, I had no idea the impact this man would have on our lives.

He and mother worked for the same company, but at that time, both were laid off. In the "dirty South," blacks not only got the lowest paying jobs, when work slowed, they were let go so whites could work full time. Years later, I learned it was his support that enabled mother to avoid prospects of a street hustler's life.

His name was Otis Gray. Standing about 6 ft. 5 inches with muscles that made him look like a tan "Charles Atlas," he cut a powerful figure. The youngest, I was influenced by my older siblings' attachment to our father, a man I never knew. So, in 1953 when mother remarried, we called him Mr. Otis. Unlike the others, mother insisted I go to see my father periodically. I suppose, it was her way of allowing me to see the kind of man my father was for myself. Juxtaposed, what makes a father and the subtle influences they exert etched Mr. Otis in sharp relief.

I came to think of him as a "three-word man." He said very little; he simply did. Always there, no matter what the situation, his influence was constant, like the wind blowing across Aruba. His gentle nature belied a granite resolve to hold our family together. He was dad.

Otis' strength gradually won over even my oldest brother, who revered our father. However for me, being able to look around the stands and see his face or hear his voice above the roar saying "believe in yourself" made us best friends. Never missing a performance from peewee football through high school, he became Daddy Otis to me. Returning from Vietnam a disabled veteran in 1967, a police brutality episode taught me the awful truth about being black in America. "No matter how strong one is, you cannot protect your family." Although we both were men at that time, we cried together that night. Today, years after his passing, sometimes, it is as though I hear Daddy Otis urging me to "do your best." John 2001

SPEAK (Sister Poets Embracing Altruistic Kinship) -Kimotion, Sunshynethadevine, Voluptuous and MiaMia- presents SisterSpeak - an expression of life through Yin energy. Hosted by Abyss of the Live Poets Society, the evening of music and spoken word promises to be a night to remember. Delivering heart-wrenching spoken words are Bonnie, Yvette, GA Me, Dawn, Tieranie, Andrea Mills, Knyte, Kemi Bennings, Shawna, Starr and the ladies of S.P.E.A.K. Other highlights include Jas Tunica E, vocalists Taffether, Pamela Haynes, Najuma Ali, Blaque Reign and Pamela Best, the sounds of Tiffany Goode and Da Warlocks, and massages by Daphne Nevels of A Touch of Life Wellness Center. It all starts at 8PM, Saturday August 25, 2001 at Penrose - 712 Ponce de Leon Place. For more information, call 678-595-4275 or email speakproductions@hotmail.com

Fifty-five men, representing the thirteen states except Rhode Island, attended one or more sessions of the Constitutional Convention held in Philadelphia from May to September 1787. Collectively known as the Founding Fathers, these delegates were relatively young men, except Benjamin Franklin, who was 81. Despite their youth, most were college educated and they represented the great property interests of the country.

Called initially to revise the Articles of Confederation, the delegates abandoned the old form of government entirely to establish America, the republic. Throughout the summer, there were heated debates between large and small state delegates and between slave and free states over issues of taxation and representation. They debated methods for choosing the members of both houses, as well as the chief executive.

A committee of twelve report, known as the "Great Compromise, " was adopted July 16, 1787. The agreement gave states representation in the Lower House in proportion to their population, with three-fifths of the slaves included for representation and taxation. The three-fifths rule assumed in contributing his labor to the wealth of a state, a slave was on the average three-fifths as productive as a freeman. The compromise gave each state two members in the upper house (Senate). It established the Electoral College for selecting the President. Thirty-nine delegates signed the Constitution legalizing slavery under a republic form of government.

Reparations are a must whenever governments violate the laws of human decency. In the US, one way to accomplish this is to reconcile the neglect and deprivation that have befallen our urban areas.

Washington, DC area residents see a third tier of suburbia being developed as havens for wealthy robber barons with the government committing billions of dollars for infrastructure development. Yet, not one cent is spent to update the dilapidated inventory of K-12 schools in the world's capital.

Wilson High School sends a large contingent of scholars off to major universities every graduating year, but the deplorable condition of the facility literally brings tears to the eyes of the most profound bigots amongst us within minutes of entering its corridors. Our self-serving contingent of "leaders" would rather play by the rules and ridicule China as the world's most profound human rights violator, than fix this deplorable situation.

The federal mindset that gave us welfare programs with a requirement that the recipient family be dissolved by disallowing the presence of a man in the home, also mandated minimum sentences for black youth who distribute the robber barons' dope, while his white counterpart receives disproportionate leniency.

America's judicial system is the world's largest economic engine. When one accounts for all the police, administrators, courts, prisons, parole functions, federal law enforcement officials and employees, related functions and organizations, the expenditures of goods and services to support its activities rivals the world's militaries and automobile industries in economic impact. What started with slavery persists today in a different hood and cape in government, industry and intellect.

Not only are reparations due to the heirs and survivors of those victimized by such atrocities, a credible democratic government has the responsibility to adjudicate and rectify them. It is certainly not sufficient for the heirs of the wealth created at the expense of other humans to simply exonerate themselves and their companies by simply pointing fingers over their shoulders while lavishing themselves in the blood money of their shadows.

Disgruntled wants to know: The US press is mum on slavery and WCAR. Dubya has promised not to discuss reparations. Lacking power and resources, blacks cannot force the nation to speak about compensation, so the press is silent. Yet, this same press calls America a democracy every chance it gets. Moreover, in American press, NASCAR rules; is there any doubt blacks sing the blues?

Disgruntled says: Reflecting the hypocritical nature of the founding fathers and the Supreme Court coupe that selected him president, a pro-life, pro-death penalty Dubya roves all over his born-again Christian beliefs to enrich his connections in the eugenics business.

Disgruntled feels: Overwhelmed with choices! I faced a serious dilemma choosing between all those designer clothes and shoes bootlegged by street venders. Now, with designer babies the quandary between fake and real takes on a whole new meaning.

by Robert Lederman

Tobacco giant Phillip Morris suffered an embarrassing public relations gaffe by inadvertently revealing a fact economists, actuaries and eugenicists know but rarely speak of publicly. Government saves huge amounts of money when citizens die prematurely. Phillip Morris, one of the world's wealthiest corporations, commissioned a study intended to highlight this fact as a selling point to the Czech government, which is considering legislation to regulate cigarette smoking. It controls almost 90% of the Czech tobacco market. The study described deaths from cancer and emphysema as, "indirect positive effects" of smoking, leading to "savings in public health care costs and state pensions due to early mortality of smokers."

Could the government want people to die prematurely? If millions of today's seniors were to die one year sooner, the government would save hundreds of billions of dollars in health care costs and Social Security. If they died five years sooner, the savings might amount to trillions of dollars. A minor increase in premature deaths would be the most cost-effective measure the government could ever undertake.

New York City is often on the cutting edge of government efforts concerning health. Whether it's throwing children off welfare, issuing police hollow-point bullets, closing public hospitals or spraying its population with toxic pesticides, Mayor Rudolph Giuliani can be counted on to be at the forefront in efforts to downsize the population. Take his enthusiasm during the past three years for spraying poisons invented by Nazis on eight million New Yorkers.

Giuliani consistently lied to the public about the well-known negative health effects of repeated exposure to the nerve gasses Malathion and Anvil. These products' labels specifically state they are not to be sprayed on people under any circumstances. Yet, they were directly applied to children in parks, to shoppers and to millions of workers going to and from their jobs.

Giuliani is ideologically linked to the science of eugenics or population control - as is his pal GW Bush. Both claim to get their ideological inspiration from the Manhattan Institute, a right-wing think tank founded by Reagan's CIA chief William Casey after he brought thousands of former Nazi experts in eugenics to the US.

The increase in disease creates fantastic economic opportunists for drug manufacturers and health providers, while lessening the long-term total in social benefits the government must pay out. Disease is rapidly becoming the driving force behind the entire US economy. It may prove even better than war as a profit-driving engine.

What more cost-effective way to cut government spending than to massively apply chemicals to the population which reduce fertility, worsen chronic illnesses such as asthma (which is at epidemic proportions among minorities in NYC) and lead to terminal diseases such as cancer? E-mail: robert.lederman@worldnet.att.net.

by Dot

Contrary to its history, American school children are taught the nation is a democracy founded on the principles of the Declaration of Independence. An article by Karen Shelnutt (A teacher's powerful lessons on freedom, AJC 8/18/01, kshelnutt1@aol.com ) makes my point about a national mindset characterized by denial.

Though it is a republic built on slavery, Americans call the United States a democracy. Even the college educated, like Dubya and his handlers, call America a democracy when addressing international audiences. They never say America, the republic, which is what it is and what we pledge allegiance. Public schools teach our children to confuse the Declaration of Independence with the Constitution. As adults, they doublethink like presidential candidate Alan Keyes. Acknowledging the truth would cause a schism; denial is more user friendly.

In blind allegiance, teachers fail to mention the Founding Fathers discarded the Declaration of Independence in drafting the Constitution. Failing to appreciate the hypocrisy, Americans confuse these documents. Denial is a defense mechanism otherwise intelligent people use; they doublethink like Shelnutt's teacher to paint a pretty picture of American 'democracy.' Blind to true history, public school educators glorify the past and feed fallacious feel-good pabulum to pupils year after year. Few public school educators address the fact that America is a republic built on slavery. Shelnutt should sue her teacher for sowing seeds of hypocrisy!

Without public comment, DeKalb County plans to enlarge Seminole Landfill. It proposes "to fill 6,360 linear feet of streambed in the southwest quadrant of the intersection of Linecrest and Clevemont Roads," according to an application filed with the US Army Corps of Engineers. In addition to expanding the landfill, the plan calls for the creation "of a recreational and educational facility adjacent to the landfill." According to the Corps of Engineers application, it is necessary to expand the landfill because "with the current rate of growth in the DeKalb County area, the existing landfill will be exhausted in less than seven years. This expansion will fulfill a commitment to the community to provide recreation and greenspace."

Garbage has to go somewhere. Seminole Landfill is in predominantly black South DeKalb County. The county zoned area around it as 'residential.' Over the past five years, there has been an explosion in residential constriction. Developers erected shoddy overpriced houses and unscrupulous realtors and bankers redlining lured black homebuyers onto this garbage heap.

Enlarging Seminole without public comment adds insult to the injury these black families suffer after buying overpriced poorly built homes on a landfill that scientific studies suggest is responsible for area groundwater contamination and health problems. Moreover, DeKalb's liberal codes mean some of these homes have plastic plumbing pipes, making groundwater contamination a health disaster waiting to happen.

For the record, area residents want Seminole closed. They vehemently opposed past efforts by the county to fulfill its recreational and greenspace obligations to the area by providing space near or adjacent to the landfill. Parents and concerned citizens protested the acquisition of land around Ward Lake because of environmental pollution.

Given this historical opposition, enlarging Seminole for more landfill space and recreation is unacceptable. DeKalb Commissioner Lou Walker has written the US Corps of Engineers about the need for public hearings before a bigger Seminole becomes a fait accompli. DeKalb Commissioners and CEO Vernon Jones are being asked to end DeKalb's historic practice of putting landfills and other funk factories in primarily black areas. This is environmental racism; it must end.

According to the Atlanta Journal Constitution (8/11/01), Lt. Gov. Mark Taylor proclaimed, "It's a great day for democracy in Georgia," when the state legislature approved the senate reapportionment plan. In the same article, State Senator Bart Ladd (R-Atlanta) "wept through his speech" opposing the new districts. He carried a framed copy of the Declaration of Independence. Eerier still, Republicans threatened a court challenge of the redistricting because it violates the Voting Rights Act.

Georgia redistricting epitomizes the vagaries of 'democracy' in the 'dirty' South and across America, especially where there are sizeable minority populations. Given Confederate heritage reigns supreme in the Capitol of the dirty South, Georgia redistricting reeks hypocrisy. Diluting minority-voting strength is so par for the course, we would have been surprised if anything else happened.

Black people who are set to lose representation in the state senate and house, where Governor Roy Barnes brought back the racist scheme of multi-member districts, should file the first wave of lawsuits. Ironically, black lawmakers voted for multi-member districts. With computer technology, individual districts can be drawn to keep Democratic control of the state house and provide for one-person one-vote representation, but this was never the goal of Georgia redistricting.

Loyally, blacks vote for Democratic Party candidates more often than whites. White Democrats voted against Louise Lucas in Virginia, and they voted for George Bush in 2000. Allied to Democrats, blacks are in a precarious position. We lack representation. Invariably, black elected officials do more harm than good as our representatives. Adding insult to injury, some have nerves enough to suggest we do not understand the process. Redistricting is not rocket science. Moreover, we know we are robbed when paying the MARTA sales tax while counties where it is not imposed receive all the benefits.

Georgia redistricting went down just like MARTA and the Georgia flag bill, which reduced the size of the Confederate symbol, but enshrined Confederate heritage and brought Robert E. Lee back to the Capitol rotunda. Black elected officials agreed; some went out of their way to try and convince us this was a good deal for the black community. Strange things happen in the dirty south. Blacks are preyed on by everybody including the blacks appointed and elected to public office

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