Project 21: New Visions

With Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor's retirement, the media and organizations of every faith, political orientation, sexual persuasion, and profession are suggesting replacements based on what they deem best for our country. What some say is best for America is usually not. What is best for America is that which upholds our Constitution. America encompasses the whole, while the "good of the country" oftentimes depends on the myopic, egocentric agenda of a few. Justice O'Connor's replacement should not be selected because the nominee is male, female, black, white, Hispanic or some other race.  Likewise, under no circumstances should someone ...
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Legislative obstruction in the U.S. Senate kept anti-lynching legislation from becoming law during the civil rights era.  As a means of making amends, senators recently passed a resolution apologizing for its past failure to stop the racist murders of black Americans. The history of lynching - and the government's inaction - are a black eye for America and a sore spot for many still suffering the consequences.  That makes it so terribly ironic that Senator Robert Byrd (D-WV) was among the resolution's co-sponsors.  It's no secret that Senator Byrd is a former Ku Klux Klan leader and recruiter.  That a ...
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As my grandmother used to say, "the fleas come with the dog."  Seldom have I seen her adage more graphically proven than among those opposing the confirmation of John Roberts to the U.S. Supreme Court. The savage ad hominem attacks from left-wing special interests directed over the years at Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, current and former Secretaries of State Condoleezza Rice and Colin Powell, Judge Janice Rogers Brown and now John Roberts and his family show that these political extremists are more than willing to engage in the politics of personal destruction they once claimed to deplore. Throughout their ...
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A hard truth about homelessness in America smacked me in the nose.  Literally. The day had started out great.  As soon as I stepped aboard my bus, however, the good feelings evaporated like dew in the morning sun.  The bus driver, normally a jovial, smiling man who greeted everyone, looked grim.  The passenger sitting behind him had a pained expression, and her trembling hand covered her mouth.  Had I just walked onto a hijacked bus? In a way, I had.  A homeless man was sitting in the first row. The stench of his unwashed body was overwhelming.  He reeked of ...
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A big question usually posed to those nominated to the U.S. Supreme Court concerns the nominee's views on the separation between church and state.  The upcoming confirmation hearings for Judge John G. Roberts, Jr. will be no different. We've seen prayer removed from our schools, and pretty much any expression of faith in the workplace has become taboo.  Not only do secularists want to erase any mention of God in the public square, they also want to ignore the faith of our Founding Fathers - a faith that built this country. That's something the senators grilling Judge Roberts should be ...
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When I heard the ruckus early Sunday morning, I didn't know I'd later discover that I was the "owner" of a new street sign. While my neighbors up the street have had cars run up on their lawn due to a curve, I question the sign's effectiveness being placed so far from it.  But I'm mainly angry that it appeared on my property without my permission. At least I thought it was my property. When I called my county supervisor, I was told my property between the sidewalk and street is a state right-of-way.  Essentially, the state government can do ...
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When I changed my political affiliation ten years ago, I thought I broke the chains of the liberal plantation.  But I am resentful of the crass racial politics still aimed at me and the rest of the black community. I am angered by liberals taking black voters for granted.  I am outraged when we are used as a shield to deflect criticism for electoral failures.  Candidates, party leaders, supporters and black operatives seem all too willing to blame their shortcomings on black voters allegedly being disfranchised, suppressed or intimidated into not voting. In 1998, the Missouri Democratic Party ran pre-election ...
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It may be hard for those under 30 to imagine, but most Americans once only had three television networks to watch.  If one was lucky and - and had a strong antenna - they might also have channels showing syndicated shows and old movies.  And maybe PBS. Families sat down and watched nightly network newscasts.  That often meant watching legendary CBS anchor Walter Cronkite.  Cronkite wasn't just a talking head.  He was called "the most trusted man in America."  If he said something was so, it was.  No questions were asked. When Walter Cronkite began making critical comments about the ...
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The leaders who gathered at the G-8 Summit to seek solutions for Africa's myriad problems unfortunately overlooked the most obvious: What matters most to poor countries - not just in Africa, but everywhere - is learning what they can do and what they cannot do for themselves. In this regard, the lessons of six decades of post-colonialism provide powerful examples of policies that don't work. Throughout the 1950s and 1960s, for example, the governments of many countries in Africa and Latin America erected walls of protectionism by stacking one trade barrier on top of another. The plan was to give ...
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At an earlier time in their lives, Steven L. Craft and Roxon Flowers could not appear more different.  Craft was a drug addict.  Flowers was a New York City detective. Eventually, however, these two seemingly disparate spirits became friends.  In their discussions about their lives, Craft (now a member of the black leadership network Project 21) and Flowers discovered that - despite their wildly different histories - they actually shared many of the same hopes, fears and concerns.  They recently published a book, Virtue and Vice, explaining how God redeemed each of them from their similar spiritual blindness and ignorance ...
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While trying to morally justify the continuous and illegal flow of Mexican nationals over our border, Mexican President Vicente Fox recently sparked an uproar that may be telling about Mexican society. With national security and economic concerns related to this influx of illegal aliens, some state governments are beginning to crack down on illegal immigration.  This is not sitting well with the Mexican government.  Speaking to Texas businessmen visiting Mexico in May, a frustrated President Fox said: There is no doubt that Mexicans, filled with dignity, willingness and ability to work, are doing jobs that not even blacks want to ...
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From his gut-wrenching confirmation hearings in 1991 through his past 13 years on the bench, Clarence Thomas is likely the most misunderstood justice ever to sit on the United States Supreme Court. As a black conservative jurist, he continues to be vilified by the mainstream media, liberal legal scholars and others for standing by his beliefs and refusing to have ideas "assigned to me like an intellectual slave because I'm black."  It is doubtful whether Justice Thomas's critics have objectively examined his political philosophy and jurisprudence and also safe to assume that most Americans simply don't know the real Clarence ...
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Lionel Tate is back in the news again. Tate is the young black boy from Florida who was convicted of brutally murdering a six-year-old girl when he was only 12 and became the youngest person in American history to be sentenced to life in prison.  After serving only three years, however, Tate was released from a juvenile prison last year on a technicality.  In agreeing to plead guilty to second-degree murder, he was sentenced to a year of house arrest, ten years of probation and counseling.  Tate was also ordered to perform 1,000 hours of community service. Now 18, Tate ...
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Recent box office receipts indicate a significant number of people are taking notice of "Crash," a recent movie that attempts to explain why each of us may hold certain notions about other ethnic groups. Douglas Young, on the Internet Movie Database web site, wrote this about "Crash": "People are born with good hearts, but they grow up and learn prejudices... The [movie] begins when several people are involved in a multi-car accident.  From that point, we are taken back to the day before the crash, seeing the lives of several characters and the problems each encounters during that day... 'Crash' ...
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One of the most contentious of President George W. Bush's judicial nominees was California Supreme Court Associate Justice Janice Rogers Brown.  Highly rated by the American Bar Association, Justice Brown is praised by her peers on the California Supreme Court, liberal and conservative alike.  No one disputes her qualifications, but racial and ideological controversy surrounds her. Nominated to the United States Circuit Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia, the recent Senate deal on nominations opened the door to the full Senate vote that confirmed her in June. On May 10, 2005, as the Senate fight on judges was ...
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While shopping recently, I ended up in one of those boxy, warehouse-like stores with a dreaded common dressing room. Four women of different races, ages, shapes and sizes pretended not to notice each other. Suddenly, we heard Michael Jackson's voice coming from the loud speakers singing "I'll Be There." Some of us paused to listen. "What a shame," one of the women said when the song was over. That remark melted the ice, and we were soon talking about Michael. One of the women staunchly defended him but conceded that his behavior during the last ten years made him look ...
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Social Security is in dire condition. Most agree that benefits for present retirees should be protected. At the same time, it's equally important to make sure younger generations - future retirees - see a return on the billions of dollars withheld from their paychecks. Many Americans are rapidly approaching retirement age and Americans generally are living longer, yet the income Social Security generates won't provide sufficient benefits for future retirees. Workers nearing retirement are understandably resistant to reform and nervous about being left out in the cold without Social Security, but who and what will protect tomorrow's retirees? While some ...
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In the Bible, the Book of Proverbs has a passage which reads, "a good person knows the rights of the poor, but the wicked cannot understand such things." The Gospel of St. Matthew talks about society's obligation to the "the least of those among us." If we are to judge our country by our government's treatment of the poor, what would it say if we flooded urban pharmacies with potentially dangerous imported prescription drugs? There's nothing keeping a person from going to a pharmacy to get a prescription filled. Often, there is even a generic alternative that costs significantly less ...
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Terri Schiavo, a woman who collapsed at 26 and suffered severe brain damage, is dead because her husband and our justice system determined that her life wasn't worth living. Many of us never seriously contemplate our own deaths, especially at such a young age. I've often said I wouldn't want to live the way Terri lived, but such remarks are emotionally-charged and don't necessarily reflect my wishes. I will state for the record that I don't want to be unplugged from life support based on my reaction to someone else's condition. I don't necessarily want to remain on life support ...
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"Economics is the study of the use of scarce resources which have alternative uses." That's the premise of Stanford economist Thomas Sowell's book Basic Economics: A Citizen's Guide to the Economy, originally published in 2000. Dr. Sowell, one of the nation's most prominent black economists, sought for the book to explain the basic principles that apply to any economy - whether they be capitalist, socialist or feudal - and encourage readers to look at economic policies and systems in terms of their incentives, constraints and consequences instead of simply their intentions and goals. More than four years have passed, and ...
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