Project 21: New Visions

A New Visions Commentary paper published January 2000 by The National Center for Public Policy Research, 501 Capitol Court, N.E., Washington, D.C. 20002, 202/543-4110, Fax 202/543-5975, E-Mail [email protected], Web http://www.nationalcenter.org. Reprints permitted provided source is credited. Americans recently paused to reflect on the legacy of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. It is fitting that we did so because he led a dramatic civil rights revolution by asking if America still abided by her founding creed that we are all created equal and have the right to live free and develop to the fullest our God-given talents. King refused to ...
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A New Visions Commentary paper published January 2000 by The National Center for Public Policy Research, 501 Capitol Court, N.E., Washington, D.C. 20002, 202/543-4110, Fax 202/543-5975, E-Mail [email protected], Web http://www.nationalcenter.org. Reprints permitted provided source is credited. Elian Gonzalez's parents were divorced, much the same way that thousands of couples have separated and divorced in the United States. Elian and his brother were in the custody of his father, Juan, with his mother taking him on weekends; again, much the same way as many couples in the United States. What's different is that Elizabet Broton Rodriguez then undertook a journey across ...
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A New Visions Commentary paper published January 2000 by The National Center for Public Policy Research. Reprints permitted provided source is credited. For the first time in decades, issues of vital interest to the African-American community are actually being debated in the Republican presidential primary campaign. This won't change the fact that 90-plus percent of the black vote is Democratic - not right away, anyway. But in the long run, it may do something about the Republicans' ineptness (at best) in crafting a message for and campaigning in minority communities. During a New York visit a few weeks ago, Texas ...
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When I look back and see what has happened to the black family and community as a whole because of the absence of good fathers, I shudder to think of the destruction to come. I believe that, if this issue is not dealt with honestly, we will someday have disorder that will be beyond our capability to control. In my ministering, I come in contact with many young men who are contemptuous of their fathers. Having been left by their fathers and living in an environment where they see only weak men like drug addicts, unemployed men and men not ...
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Former basketball star and current Democratic presidential candidate Bill Bradley hasn't fouled an opponent on the basketball court in years, but lately he's fouling the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Bradley claims the congressional vote on the Act led to which political party he would join. Oh, really? On October 9, 1999 at an Iowa Jefferson-Jackson Day Dinner, Bradley exclaimed: "I remember the exact moment that I became a Democrat. It was the summer of 1964; I was an intern in Washington between my junior and senior year in college. And I was in the Senate chamber the night the ...
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A New Visions Commentary paper published December 1999 by The National Center for Public Policy Research, 501 Capitol Court, N.E., Washington, D.C. 20002, 202/543-4110, Fax 202/543-5975, E-Mail [email protected], Web http://www.nationalcenter.org. Reprints permitted provided source is credited. When you think that you've heard everything, something else shows up on the table to go one better. Atlanta Mayor Bill Campbell is upset with local media for breaking a story involving the Atlanta Police Department (APD) that hits him rather close to home. There is a police car that always sits near the mayor's residence on Atlanta's East Side. This isn't unusual - ...
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A New Visions Commentary paper published December 1999 by The National Center for Public Policy Research, 501 Capitol Court, N.E., Washington, D.C. 20002, 202/543-4110, Fax 202/543-5975, E-Mail [email protected], Web http://www.nationalcenter.org. Reprints permitted provided source is credited. How safe are our children when they are surfing the Internet? There is no denying the incredible educational advantages the Internet offers and how essential mastering it is to future success in the professional world, but there are also dangers waiting for the innocent and unsuspecting. For the many computerless African-Americans households on the wrong side of the "digital divide," it is more important ...
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I've always heard "you can never go home again." Up until now, I assumed it meant changes would make your old home unrecognizable. That's what I thought until I recently made my own pilgrimage back home to Jackson, Mississippi. My five brothers and I made a surprise visit to my parents' new retirement home in Florence, Alabama. The surprise family reunion was fantastic. My Dad enjoyed our company and my Mom cooked and cooked and cooked (and we ate as usual). A great time was had by all. That is, until my Mom and I made the trip back to ...
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A New Visions Commentary paper published November 1999 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. Have you ever wondered why, when blacks commit crimes like murder or rape against other blacks, they will only go to prison for about two seconds before they are back on the street again? How about when blacks (other than O.J.) victimize whites? They seem to always go to prison for two lifetimes. Why the discrepancy? Well, I think I have the answer. Are ...
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A New Visions Commentary paper published November 1999 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 has stepped forward yet again to mediate a situation. This time, it is in a local school district in Illinois. But has he gone too far in his criticism of an excessive punishment by advocating no punishment at all? In the city of Decatur, seven black students from Eisenhower High School were involved in a September 17 fistfight at a ...
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A New Visions Commentary paper published October 1999 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 unthinkable has happened in Georgia. A duo of so-called civil rights leaders say blacks should serve on juries, but not to provide justice. Instead, they should make certain that black defendants go free even though they may be guilty. Georgia state Representative Tyrone Brooks, president of the Georgia Association of Black Elected Officials, and Joe Beasley, the Georgia chair of the Rainbow Coalition, ...
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A New Visions Commentary paper published October 1999 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. Al Gore is continuing the Democrats' brainwashing of blacks for their votes. National Review magazine reported that Vice President Gore recently told the NAACP in a speech that his father, the late Tennessee Senator Albert Gore, Sr., lost his re-election bid in 1970 because he supported civil rights legislation. His black audience believed him. The Sacramento Bee reported Vice President Gore, while addressing the ...
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If one believes the claims of the education establishment, the single biggest threat to America's schools is not low test scores, overcrowded classrooms, the marked ejection of evolution as a valid educational curriculum or the lack of school vouchers. The education establishment thinks its biggest threat is the way Hollywood portrays it in films. Case in point: the outcry by factions of the National Education Association this past summer over the movie "Teaching Mrs. Tingle." In a nutshell, the movie is about three high school students who kidnap a sadistic, flunk-happy history teacher - Mrs. Tingle - to cover for ...
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I have lost a good friend and Colorado has lost a leader. Vikki Buckley, Colorado's Secretary of State, died on July 14, 1999 at the very young age of 50 due to heart failure. Vikki was a role model, mentor and friend to my entire family. She worked hard to be the best she could be and give the best of herself to the people. A native of Denver, Vikki was the product of public schools and hard work. She proved the American Dream could still be achieved. Once a young, struggling mother who, for a time, received welfare assistance, ...
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As another school year begins and thoughts of skipping class and missing lessons dance in your minds, think of the consequences. You are no longer little kids being sent off to the cruel confines of school by your parents. You are now young men and women preparing for your futures. Make no mistake about it - the burden of learning falls squarely on your shoulders. Sure, you can claim your parents are mean and rotten, that they pay no attention to you, that your neighborhood and community are forsaken by businesses and there is an absence of positive role models, ...
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Vice President Al Gore now says he thinks churches and faith-based organizations should partner with government to do charity work, but only if they leave out their spiritual component when they do so. Speaking from personal experience as a former welfare mother, I think Gore made a big mistake when he added that "but only if." Letting private religious charities administer welfare services is a common sense approach to the transition from welfare to independence. But the charities need to be allowed to offer their clients spiritual support. The first step welfare mothers must take if they are to mainstream ...
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A New Visions Commentary paper published September 1999 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. Every day, we live comfortably with the notion that we are safe and secure. We don't think of violence as a way of life, but simply something on television programs and in the news. That notion is pure fantasy. America has a domestic violence problem. Every single day, hundreds of thousands of people across the country endure physical abuse in their own homes. Police ...
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A New Visions Commentary paper published September 1999 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. Atlanta, the Metropolis of the South, has a problem. If not rectified soon, it will lead to a fight of the type not seen since the height of the Civil Rights Movement. This past summer, most of America saw a remorseful Atlanta Mayor Bill Campbell discuss the shooting rampage of day-trader Mark Barton on worldwide television. A quiet and reserved Campbell sang the praises ...
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That question fuels an inflammatory new song by a rap band called Screwball. It graphically depicts the assassination of New York mayor Rudy Giuliani. The song begins, "A yo who shot Rudy in broad daylight for cash." Its barely-punctuated lyrics continue: "I woke up this morning and heard the news flash. They said it happened down at city hall he had his wife with him five shots from the crowd made him fall it was chaos and pandemonium blood covered up the podium... when they announced his death wifey was stressed..." The song then mentions "blacks smiling ear to ear." ...
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Years ago, I was called an extremist when I spoke out about the 1930s-era "Negro Project." Now, a dangerous new study entitled "Legalized Abortion and Crime" has African-Americans in shock because it could threaten the very survival of the race. Who's extreme now? In the study, economist Steven D. Levitt of the University of Chicago and Stanford Law School Professor John J. Donohue III conclude that legalized abortion might explain why America experienced an overall reduction in crime from 1991 to 1997. This study is so dangerous it is hard to know where to begin. But let me start with ...
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