Project 21: New Visions

A New Visions Commentary paper published March 2001 by The National Center for Public Policy Research * 501 Capitol Ct., N.E., Washington, DC 20002, 202/543-4110, Fax 202-543-5975, E-Mail [email protected], Web http://www.nationalcenter.org. Reprints permitted provided source is credited. Jesse Lee Peterson has written a book. This is an accomplishment by any standard, but it's almost a miracle in Reverend Peterson's case. According to conventional wisdom, Jesse was doomed from the moment he was born. He had every possible strike against him: born poor and black to an unwed teenage mother who couldn't bring herself to love him. On top of this, ...
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Have I got a deal for you. Want to buy a new car designed by federal bureaucrats? What, no takers? No wonder! Designing anything - be it welfare systems or the postal service - isn't the forte of the vast army of paper shufflers who show up each day at government offices in the nation's capital and its affluent environs. After all, the welfare system they came up with doomed millions of people who could have been hard-working, productive citizens to the indignity of low self-esteem and subsistence living. The postal system would be out of business if it actually ...
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Reprints permitted provided source is credited. Even though Black History Month just passed, let's pause for a moment and reflect on the notable role lawyers have played in championing - and, in some cases - blocking the progress of African-Americans. Lawyers have been involved in many memorable cases affecting the black community. Some have been wonderfully inspiring and others tragically depressing. Among the most notable: Former president John Quincy Adams buoyed the abolitionist movement in 1841 when he persuaded the Supreme Court that the Africans who seized the slave ship Amistad should be returned to the homeland as free men ...
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Reprints permitted provided source is credited. On March 4, Senator Robert Byrd (D-WV) told Fox News Sunday host Tony Snow he believes race relations are "much, much better than they've ever been in my lifetime." Within seconds of saying this, however, Byrd proceeded to label lower-class Caucasians as "white niggers." To have the former majority leader of the U.S. Senate - a man called the dean of the Senate's Democratic caucus - use such a term raises concern on many levels. In addition to a powerful politician using a universally reviled epithet against African-Americans to slur whites as well, it ...
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Reprints permitted provided source is credited. Viewers of collegiate basketball's "March Madness" championship tournament are seeing players who may become the next Chris Webber or Alonzo Mourning. But no one saw Kobe Bryant playing in the Final Four. Bryant never played college ball -- he was drafted from high school. This ever-younger breed of player is making the upper echelons of the National Basketball Association review the league's policies on drafting kids to play before they attend college. This year the NBA dropped its All-Star Weekend "Stay in School Jam," a concert featuring players and celebrities who encourage children to ...
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A New Visions Commentary paper published February 2001 by The National Center for Public Policy Research * 501 Capitol Ct., N.E., Washington, DC 20002, 202/543-4110, Fax 202-543-5975, E-Mail [email protected], Web http://www.nationalcenter.org. Reprints permitted provided source is credited. It's always exciting to discover the many people who worked, fought and died for the cause of black people. What impresses me the most about them are the various ways in which they advanced our race. Often, however, the celebration of black history is dominated by the story of the civil rights movement and key players like Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Justice ...
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A New Visions Commentary paper published February 2001 by The National Center for Public Policy Research * 501 Capitol Ct., N.E., Washington, DC 20002, 202/543-4110, Fax 202-543-5975, E-Mail [email protected], Web http://www.nationalcenter.org. Reprints permitted provided source is credited. There was a big sigh of relief from the business community when the anti-business political appointees who ran the Clinton Justice Department left. That Big Brother-styled Justice Department brought yet another private business to its knees. This time around, it's Domino's Pizza. Domino's now cannot determine its own delivery policy. On June 5, 2000, Domino's agreed to deliver pizzas to neighborhoods it had ...
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A New Visions Commentary paper published February 2001 by The National Center for Public Policy Research * 501 Capitol Ct., N.E., Washington, DC 20002, 202/543-4110, Fax 202-543-5975, E-Mail [email protected], Web http://www.nationalcenter.org. Reprints permitted provided source is credited. Just weeks have passed since news broke that Jesse Jackson fathered a love child. The entire controversy already is fading away. Now forgotten is that incredible photograph of this country's perjurious, adulterous former President posing in the Oval Office beside his philandering spiritual advisor and that man's pregnant mistress. Yet another first in America's presidency. As that old Grateful Dead song says: "Lovers ...
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Reprints permitted provided source is credited. Although the study of history is sufficient to reward all research, African-Americans would be wise to write their history in advance. That is, we must create self-fulfilling prophecies. Digging deep enough, one can find a relatively complete and reliable account of African-American history. Moreover, there are more than a sufficient number of assessments of our current status. But where are we going? What do we want to achieve? What are our goals for the 21st Century? Many in our modern civilization may find it adequate to "make it up as it goes along." A ...
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A New Visions Commentary paper published January 2001 by The National Center for Public Policy Research * 501 Capitol Ct., N.E., Washington, DC 20002, 202/543-4110, Fax 202-543-5975, E-Mail [email protected], Web http://www.nationalcenter.org. Reprints permitted provided source is credited. At a cost of somewhere between $25 and $35 billion in taxpayer dollars, Congress passed the Clean Air Act Amendments in 1990. It is the mother of hundreds of regulatory laws across America that are supposed to address air pollution. Environmentalists are extremely protective of them, even if it means hurting poor and minority Americans in the process. Sadly, for those who are ...
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A New Visions Commentary paper published January 2001 by The National Center for Public Policy Research, 501 Capitol Ct., N.E., Washington, DC 20002, 202/543-4110, Fax 202-543-5975, E-Mail [email protected], Web http://www.nationalcenter.org. Reprints permitted provided source is credited. Since George W. Bush's election, the question is no longer why black people largely voted Democratic. Neither is it what the GOP can do to win the black vote. The question now is: What do black people do now? I've always said we shouldn't put all of our political eggs in one basket. Some of us needed to be "in the bushes." Some of ...
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Reprints permitted provided source is credited. A nation employs arms in order to defend itself. Enemies are less likely to attack a nation with that capability. The American family is like a nation, and it must also be able to defend itself against its enemies. This is especially true for black families since not all attacks against them are propaganda. Some enemies of the black family used and even now are prepared to use physical violence against it - even to the point of (in their own words) massacre. The Second Amendment to our Constitution guarantees all Americans the right ...
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Reprints permitted provided source is credited. A grade school teacher once told me bullies fight because they have a poor vocabulary. She said they express their anger with their fists - lashing out and hurting people - because they don't know how to express themselves any other way. Watching the tactics and behavior of spin-doctors, lawyers and other operatives during the recent election deadlock, I think we've seen bullies in action. Like the schoolyard bullies of my youth, modern political bullies forget about fair play, decorum, honesty and civility. They attack when they can't defend their ideas honorably, logically and ...
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A New Visions Commentary paper published December 2000 by The National Center for Public Policy Research, 501 Capitol Ct., N.E., Washington, DC 20002, 202/543-4110, Fax 202-543-5975, E-Mail [email protected], Web http://www.nationalcenter.org. Reprints permitted provided source is credited. A grade school teacher once told me bullies fight because they have a poor vocabulary. She said they express their anger with their fists - lashing out and hurting people - because they don't know how to express themselves any other way. Watching the tactics and behavior of spin-doctors, lawyers and other operatives during the recent election deadlock, I think we've seen bullies in ...
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Reprints permitted provided source is credited. Environmental laws are unfair to minorities and the poor because, although they are least able to pay, they must bear the greatest costs for adhering to those laws through lost jobs and higher prices. The time is long overdue for government to start considering the negative economic impact of proposed environmental laws on impoverished minorities before implementation. So concludes the results of a recent survey of 69 environmental justice groups conducted by the National Center for Public Policy Research. These groups represent a diverse collection of African-American, Hispanic and Native American activist organizations. These ...
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Reprints permitted provided source is credited. I've never been surprised by the foolish actions of our federal government. Like all things, it follows the laws of nature - and nature abhors a vacuum. If left unchecked, our government behaves similarly, seeking every opportunity to insert itself into any environment it believes is underregulated - warranted or not. Some federal agencies are more eager to fill vacuums than others. Take, for example, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). The FDA is notorious for routinely overstepping its authority. In particular, it sought to regulate the dietary supplement industry out of existence in ...
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Reprints permitted provided source is credited. Well, thank God that's all over. I'm talking about the presidential election. A one-day event turned into a month long farce that had the whole world laughing at America. Of course, being laughed at by Europe is no worse than being laughed at by a senile old aunt, but the Russians and Chinese aren't senile. Both nations are home to hard people who may surprise us someday. I know many blacks, Jesse Jackson included, are bitterly disappointed. Some folks are talking about marching and carrying on about a "civil rights explosion." I don't think ...
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A New Visions Commentary paper published November 2000 by The National Center for Public Policy Research, 501 Capitol Ct., N.E., Washington, DC 20002, 202/543-4110, Fax 202-543-5975, E-Mail [email protected], Web http://www.nationalcenter.org. Reprints permitted provided source is credited. I just finished reading Losing the Race: Self-Sabotage in Black America. I found it about as enjoyable as a series of rabies shots. There's nothing wrong with University of California at Berkley Linguistics Professor John McWhorter's writing. In fact, his style is surprisingly witty and accessible for an academic. My problem was with the substance of the book's message. Like any sudden wake up ...
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A New Visions Commentary paper published November 2000 by The National Center for Public Policy Research, 501 Capitol Ct., N.E., Washington, DC 20002, 202/543-4110, Fax 202-543-5975, E-Mail [email protected], Web http://www.nationalcenter.org. Reprints permitted provided source is credited. The Reverend Jesse Jackson calls it "classic apartheid." The NAACP's Kweisi Mfume decries "technological segregation." To President Clinton, it's the digital divide, the alleged chasm between the information haves and have-nots. Earlier this year, Clinton unveiled plans to give free computers to poor Americans. He specifically called for $2.38 billion in taxpayer money to finance "1,000 community centers with computers serving the adults of ...
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A New Visions Commentary paper published November 2000 by The National Center for Public Policy Research, 501 Capitol Ct., N.E., Washington, DC 20002, 202/543-4110, Fax 202-543-5975, E-Mail [email protected], Web http://www.nationalcenter.org. Reprints permitted provided source is credited. My, how times have changed. In this past mess of an election, the campaign of Vice President Albert Gore demanded that no one lose his right to representation in the razor-thin Florida vote count. With the vote so close, just one could make the difference as to whether he or Texas Governor George W. Bush was the next president. Gore campaign chairman Bill Daley ...
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