Project 21: New Visions

A New Visions Commentary paper published November 1996 by The National Center for Public Policy Research, 20 F Street NW, Suite 700 , Washington, D.C. 20001, (202) 507-6398, Fax (301) 498-1301, E-Mail [email protected] Spike Lee is viewed as the premier African-American movie director in the U.S. He is noted for his unique style of presenting the issues facing Americans in general, and African-Americans in particular, whether it be in "She's Gotta Have It," "Do The Right Thing," or "Malcolm X." He has a knack for carrying the audience through the plot of his films, sprinkling in his brand of humor ...
READ MORE

A New Visions Commentary paper published October 1996 by The National Center for Public Policy Research, 20 F Street NW, Suite 700 , Washington, D.C. 20001, (202) 507-6398, Fax (301) 498-1301, E-Mail [email protected] As the anniversary of Martin Luther King's speech in Washington, D.C. passed, the Democrats staged their convention. Since the advent of the Civil Rights movement, African-Americans have looked towards the Democratic Party to help them fulfill their dream of achieving equality in America. Until this time in history, the liberal wing of the party has been the torch bearers of the fight for equality. The recent Democratic ...
READ MORE

A New Visions Commentary paper published September 1996 by The National Center for Public Policy Research, 20 F Street NW, Suite 700 , Washington, D.C. 20001, (202) 507-6398, Fax (301) 498-1301, E-Mail [email protected] One of the best and most rewarding experiences of my life was teaching high school in the Bronx. The students at Mount St. Michael Academy on E. 241st Street come from typical urban families, many of them racial and ethnic minorities. They do whatever it takes both to survive in the city and to receive a quality education. Neither of these is easy in today's Bronx. But ...
READ MORE

A New Visions Commentary paper published September 1996 by The National Center for Public Policy Research, 20 F Street NW, Suite 700 , Washington, D.C. 20001, (202) 507-6398, Fax (301) 498-1301, E-Mail [email protected] Leaving liberalism was painful, and came in slow stages. Leaving liberalism was painful and slow, first, because the compassion of others is a life-or-death matter for me (I am severely disabled), and second, because I would not deny to others what I must have for myself. I'm not talking about the rhetoric of politics. To paraphrase George Orwell, many of the politically compassionate people I have known ...
READ MORE

A New Visions Commentary paper published September 1996 by The National Center for Public Policy Research, 20 F Street NW, Suite 700 , Washington, D.C. 20001, (202) 507-6398, Fax (301) 498-1301, E-Mail [email protected] When First Lady Hillary Clinton referred to Chicago as "my kind of village" at the Democratic Convention, she was, of course, referring to her idea that it takes a village to rear a child. Should it really take a village to rear a child, and, if so, who will raise the village? Mrs. Clinton was long on politics and short on reality; urban America is neither stable ...
READ MORE

A New Visions Commentary paper published September 1996 by The National Center for Public Policy Research, 20 F Street NW, Suite 700 , Washington, D.C. 20001, (202) 507-6398, Fax (301) 498-1301, E-Mail [email protected] In my years of life on this planet, I've found that if there is one axiom that has proven to be true time and time again it's that the hardest thing for a person to do is change. As I look back at African-American history, I am filled with an immense sense of pride at what we have accomplished and, at the same time, I am filled ...
READ MORE

A New Visions Commentary paper published August 1996 by The National Center for Public Policy Research, 20 F Street NW, Suite 700 , Washington, D.C. 20001, (202) 507-6398, Fax (301) 498-1301, E-Mail [email protected] Whatever justification there may have been for calling successful Black Americans "Uncle Tom" because they catered to whites in order to succeed is dead. It should also be buried and forgotten. Uncle Tom belongs to the culture of dependency; he belongs to the welfare state thinking which elevated criminal street gangs to the level of folk heroes. In fact, if anyone deserves the title of Uncle Tom ...
READ MORE

A New Visions Commentary published July 1996 by The National Center for Public Policy Research, 20 F Street NW, Suite 700 , Washington, D.C. 20001, (202) 507-6398, Fax (301) 498-1301, E-Mail [email protected] Could someone please tell me why mainstream Black America is not taking a stand against abortion, even though every two years about one million black babies are killed in the womb? Could someone please tell me why it does not concern enough blacks that black women receive 44% of all abortions in the U.S., despite composing only twelve percent of the population? The socialist pro-abortion agenda is killing ...
READ MORE

Perhaps it's a sign of the times that not even the death of a Cabinet member can prevent a partisan tussle from erupting among Republicans, Democrats and their respective media allies. Commerce Secretary Ron Brown died in an April 3 airplane crash in Croatia along with a trade delegation of business executives and Commerce Department staff members (including my amiable, talented Georgetown University schoolmate, Deputy Assistant Secretary Bill Morton). Just before Brown's April 10 funeral, NBC's Bryant Gumbel asked Rep. Charles Rangel (D-NY) in an interview: "Although many have praised Ron lavishly, I understand no Republicans have yet expressed condolences ...
READ MORE

(A New Visions Commentary published April 1996 by Project 21, a project of The National Center for Public Policy Research. New Visions Commentaries are the opinion of their author and not necessary those of Project 21.) I'm not a damned victim, so please quit treating me like one. I'm tired of your willingness to accept my failures without encouraging me to get back up. I'm tired of your willingness to accept the demasculization of the black male. I'm tired of your willingness to accept less than what I'm capable of. In short, I'm tired of what is currently recognized as ...
READ MORE

Black children are inherently incapable of learning unless seated near white children. Only when enveloped by the intellectual aura of white children can black children receive a meaningful education. Or so hold the opponents of the Milwaukee Parental Choice Plan (MPCP). The MPCP provides vouchers to parents who are permitted to select the school their children will attend. It is the product of the Herculean efforts of Wisconsin legislator Polly Williams. The MPCP is being challenged in court by the Milwaukee teachers union and others who oppose school choice. The opponents argue that the MPCP will result in the resegregation ...
READ MORE

Reprints permitted provided source is credited. A higher minimum wage appears more probable every day. Recently, 20 House Republicans offered a proposal that would boost the minimum wage by a dollar in two stages. Whether Congress passes this version or the bill introduced by the Democrats, which would increase the minimum hourly wage by 90 cents over two years, the result will be yet another band-aid slapped over a gushing wound. And the fact that more lawmakers are leaning toward such legislation does not legitimize it. Since the passage of the Fair Labor Standards Act in 1938, labor advocates have ...
READ MORE

A New Visions Commentary paper published March 1996 by The National Center for Public Policy Research, 20 F Street NW, Suite 700 , Washington, D.C. 20001, (202) 507-6398, Fax (301) 498-1301, E-Mail [email protected] George Orwell is not dead. He is running the Justice Department in the Clinton Administration. For any doubters, ample proof was on display at the recent Congressional hearings on the Equal Opportunity Act of 1995 where a prominent Justice Department official was last seen arguing that prohibiting intentional racial discrimination by the government may be counterproductive. [The House Judiciary Committee is expected to vote on the Act ...
READ MORE

A New Visions Commentary published March 1996 by The National Center for Public Policy Research. "That is how it sounds," insisted the 12-year-old who was carefully printing "borad of eudaction" on my wooden pointer. She meant "board of education," of course. That incident occurred about thirty-five years ago, during my first year of teaching. Neither my skills nor my experience in teaching was developed enough then for me to connect her poor spelling to her equally poor reading skills. I remembered the episode as I listened to parents call Rush Limbaugh one Friday afternoon to defend the new inventive/creative spelling ...
READ MORE

The object of The Equal Opportunity Act of 1995, which the House Judiciary Committee is expected to vote on by the end of April, is to prohibit our federal government from giving preferences based on race or on sex -- and to prohibit the government from requiring or encouraging others to give such preference. Why in the world would any fair-minded person object to that? Surely there is no ground for complaint if our government does not discriminate! But many well-intentioned people do complain, struggling to retain group preferences -- some because they seek to engineer a redistribution of goods ...
READ MORE