Credo of the Black PressThe Black Press believes that America can best lead the world away from racialand natural antagonisms when it accords to every person, regardless of race,color or creed, full human rights. Hating no person, fearing no person in thefirm belief that all are hurt as long as anyone is held back.Looking The Other WayBlack people, at least some ofthem, are still having a tough timewhen it comes to powerful blacksand their feet of clay.Consider the case of the late, unla-mented Field Marshal Dr. Idi AminDada, former president-for-life ofUganda.His cruelty, capriciousness and de-pravity were the stuff of legend.His thugs imprisoned, tortured,and murdered hundreds of thou-sands (some say more than a million)young black men. They raped thou-sands of young black women in vil-lages across the country, simply be-cause they knew they could.The world was horrified. Aminwas universally reviled.But in the United Sfates, Amin be-came a hero of sorts among the blackelite, because of his open disdain forand mocking of powerful whites.The feeling was, if white Americafinds this black man so revolting, hecanTt be all bad.Fast-forward to two years ago. Ni-gerian Gen. Sani AbachaTs strangle-hold on his country is squeezing outthe fragile democracy movement.Dissent, freedom of expression,and crushing of any attempts to pullthe country out of its endemic cor-ruption have made it a buzzword ininternational circles.International groups everywherehad joined in calling for him to giveup power and release from jail theman, Chief Abiola, who won the of-fice of president fair and square.Almost everywhere. From thepages of black publications in theUnited States came excuses.The most amazing one was thatWestern countries canTt imposetheir style of democracy on Africa; itmust move toward democracy at itsown pace.?The idea, apparently, was that thiswas some kind of new oAfrican-styledemocracy? that white peoplewouldnTt understand.A dictatorship. Crushing of dissentisnTt a difficult concept, regardless ofoneTs ethnic background. Politicalterror is terror; corruption is corrup-tion; and jail is jail, everywhere.Well, almost. A group of blackpublishers went on a ofact-finding?tour of Nigeria, bankrolled by theNigerian government.They stayed in luxurious hotelsand were chauffeured about thecountry by government officials,where they were given the opportu-nity to ask oordinary? citizens whatthey thought of the government.They reported, wide-eyed andstraight-faced, that there was no cor-ruption or repression in Nigeria, thatthe people loved their leader.Then there was Dr. Henry LyonsTrecent shenanigans. With everybodyin the country lambasting him,voices arose within the black commu-nity to defend him.Leave Dr. Lyons alone, they said.HeTs ours, and itTs not any of yourbusiness to choose who we follow.That, unfortunately, seems to be arecurring theme. The fact that whitepeople are outraged by certainpeople, and are taking a great deal ofpleasure in reporting their shortcom-ings, is viewed as reason enough forthe community to rally behind them.It reminds us of the time when theopponents of black freedom said JimCrow must be defended, because thecommunists were reporting ourproblems with such glee.It was a silly argument then, and itis now.We need to decide, once and forall, that if a black leader is killing,torturing, raping, or even stealingfrom and lying to other black people,it is actually worse than if someonefrom outside the community does it.Not better.Another ControversyIt was bound to happen.The national black holiday, Kwan-zaa, is starting to take off in theblack community.After about 20 years of not know-ing exactly what to do about thenew, omade-up? holiday, African-Americans have incorporated it intotheir holiday ritual.It makes a nice bridge in the holi-day season between Christmas andNew YearTs, which black folks havenot given up.So it shouldnTt be too surprisingthat, with its increased importance,certain groups (possibly hoping to in-crease their importance) have begunpontificating on how it is and is notto be observed.A couple of years ago thosegroups, notably that headed byConrad Worrill, demanded thatKwanzaa-based advertising bepulled by national chain stores. Itsullied the holidayTs spirit, they said.The latest fuss is over Kwanzaastamps and merchandise to be issuedby the U.S. Postal Service.The twist this time is that it is theinventor of Kwanzaa himself, Dr.Maulana Karenga, who is being tar-geted by a watchdog group, the Na-tional Leadership Council of Elders.This group was furious thatKarenga, who understandably con-siders Kwanzaa his holiday and histhe final word on how it should beobserved, made a deal with USPSfor the stamps and merchandise.They said that in doing so, he wasguilty of oan affront to the African-American community, an assault onthe preservation of the cultural in-tegrity of Kwanzaa.?What exactly made the oculturalintegrity? of this African-Americanholiday their personal purview isnTtclear, but they further demandedthat Karenga clear any future dealson the holiday with them.Uh-huh.The whole argument seems prettysilly to us. Not because it is Karenga,and not this group, that should makedecisions about the holiday.No, it is pointless because as of afew years ago, nobody has thatpower anymore.The holiday is now the property ofthe African-American people, notDr. Karenga and not any one or twoor three groups who have decidedthat they and they alone know how itis osupposed? to be observed.It has its own life now, and will go,for better or worse, in whatever wayit will.The best each of us can hope to dois to observe it in our own way, andtry not to get too worried about howother people are doing it.It won't help, anyway.payCRACK STRIKES SMALL-TOWN AMeRICAPets Are ADanger ToAll WritersBY TREY BANKHEADI donTt care WHAT the so-called experts say...these ani-mals in our apartment are plotting something!ITve been trying for three hours to write this weekTs col-umn. ItTs supposed to be on the United States SupremeCourtTs rejection of a challenge to Proposition 209. If you'llremember, that is the new Californian law that makes Affir-mative Action programs illegal, as well as setting back mi-nority and womenTs rights by decades.ITm starting to wonder, though, if ITll EVER get the col-umn finished! When I got home from classes, I went straightto the computer and turned it on. I then left while it bootedup, and put my jacket away, and laid out all my other stuffthat I have to work on tonight.I went back to the computer, only to discover one cat(Sam) lying in the chair, and the other (Twinkie) lying onthe keyboard. Thanks to Twinkie, the computer was makingthe most God-awful screech, the electronic equivalent of oGetyour big butt OFF me!? It wouldnTt have done the poor ma-chine any good: TwinkieTs deaf, anyway.I pulled Sam off, pulled Twinkie off, and looked down todiscover Sam BACK in my chair!Have you ever had a moment while dealing with an ani-mal when, although you canTt prove it, you just KNOW thatitTs laughing at you? Try it with two cats.I grabbed Sam, snatched up Twinkie just as he made aleap for the keyboard, and carried them to the living room. Iwent back into the den and sat down, calling up my notes onProposition 209. While I was reading through them, Twinkiebrushed up against my leg. I just ignored him for a while.The he jumped up into my lap, knocking my hands off thekeyboard in the process. ,I dumped him onto the floor, and went back to my read-ing. He repaid me by sinking his claws into my foot.I jumped straight up, a hard thing to do when your legsare under the desk. Needless to say, I hit the computer deskwith my knees, nearly sending the computer screen topplingover, and definitely sending Twinkie scampering out of theroom.(oHello? Humane Society? ITd like to report a case of ani-mal abuse. No, it hasnTt happened yet, but it will if you canTtget here soon...as in right NOW.?)I was tempted. God knows I was tempted. Still, theyTrejust cats, and ITm human, so! figured they'd just give up.Shows what I know.I donTt know HOW he figured it out, but about ten min-utes later, Sam unplugged the computer. I didnTt even knowhe was in the room, let alone under the desk. So you canimagine my surprise when, in the middle of my typing asentence, the computer shuts down. Any kids outside thewindow learned some new words tonight.I looked under the desk just in time to see a black andbrown tail disappearing out the door. ThatTs when I sawwhat heTd done. I plugged the computer back in, then chasedhim around the apartment, trying to catch him. (oHello, Hu-mane Society? ITd like to report a peticide. No maTam, not aPESTicide, although what I may be killing is a bit of a pestright now. A PETicide. Well, a homicide is when you kill aperson, right? Well, our two pets are about to die.?)Sam managed to hide under the couch, far enough backso that I couldnTt get to him. ThatTs when I heard the com-puter screaming for help again. I ran back to the den, andcleared the door just in time to trip over a furry blur ofmotion moving the other way. I lost my balance, hit a chair,and hit the floor a second later. You know what it soundslike when a 215-pound man hits a floor at full speed? No? Begrateful. What it sounds like is nothing compared to what itFEELS like, believe me!By this point, ITd given up. The furdemons had won. Ishut down the computer, went out to the living room, andIf You Have An Opinion ©About Our Community...SHAREturned on the VCR and TV. Nothing like a good action flickto get your mind off violence, right?That notion lasted until Twinkie hopped into my lap.TwinkieTs our anti-social cat. He HATES people. But then,heTs been acting weird lately, anyway. I mean, THIS is thecat whose eyes glow red when he hisses at something!They planned it. I canTt prove it, but I just KNOW theyplanned it. About thirty seconds after Twinkie got settled inmy lap, Sam came rocketing in from another room. Hejumped onto the arm of the couch, up to the back, down thelength of it, bounced off my head, down to the floor, andwhoooosh out the room. Twinkie just sat there, watching,and ever-so-innocently pinning me to the couch while hisbrother used me as a springboardAnd they say cats arenTt intelligent. HA!Want to guess what ITm tempted to do NOW? (oHere,dear. I made you a pair of furry socks and some fuzzy mit-tens. No, no special occasion. The cats? I donTt know. IhavenTt seen them moving around since | started on thegloves.?)WHY GARY, INDIANA STILL CRIESBy Harry C. AlfordPresident/CEO, National Black Chamber of CommerceGary, Ind. was once a very proud city. A literal suburb ofthe great oWindy City,? Chicago, there should be no reasonwhy the wealth and vitality of its massive neighbor cannotflow into its streets. But Gary gets none of theT economicoverflow of Chicago. Gary is no longer bustling. It has be-come one of the most depressing cities in the nation and noone is to blame but the people of Gary themselves.Gary cries today because of a strategic error made by theblack leaders of the area. They decided to become politicallyempowered without first, or even considering, becoming eco-nomically empowered. This is a good study on how not togovern a locality.Politics controls everything in Gary. If you want a job youmust be approved by the local Democrat apparatus. If youwant to start a business or seek a loan, the local politicalleaders must bless it. Nothing has to do with ability, poten-tial or compatibility, it all has to do with politics. Sadly, thepolitics is even one-sided"Democrats. Thus, Gary has verylittle leverage with the state capital of Indianapolis. Demo-crats take them for granted and Republicans wonTt givethem the time of day. The only gains that are made arethrough the collective efforts and leveraging of the IndianaLegislative Black Caucus. What we have in Gary is a fewpolitical party cronies overseeing a population that is totallyalienated from the process.Under the Richard Hatcher administration, Gary wentthrough 20 years of largesse. Every citizen with a hint ofohustle? became a player. Former President Jimmy Carterwas a sucker for black cities such as Gary, Detroit, Cleve-land, etc., and the federal grants poured in at a phenomenalrate. More than $1 billion poured into Gary during theHatcher years and no one knows what exactly they got forthe money. There became a long line of indicted people whowere carted off to federal prison as the corruption becameapparent.With the corruption at full scale, serious inflation, CleanAir Act costs and the oil embargo, Gary, like many othercities, faced serious decisions. Unfortunately, at this criticaltime, Gary could not function as a normal governmental en-tity. Big business became frustrated and began to leave.With the quick reduction in job availability and a frustration_ caused by the leadership void, youth began to leave as soonas they graduated from high school. The talented andunpoliticized black middle class also began to leave, follow-ing the big flow of white residents.People finally had enough of Hatcher and voted him outin favor of Thomas Barnes. The Barnes administrationproved to be no more capable or less corrupt. The first bigdecision this black mayor made was to eliminate the affir-mative action plan put into place by Richard Hatcher. Imag-ine, a black mayor of a black city abolishing affirmative ac-tion. You see, affirmative action gets in the way of patronageand corruption.We would refer large black businesses to consider Garyfor opening up new offices and providing job growth. Everyone of them was ohit up? by the local politicals to the point ofdisbelief and horror. Their positive attitudes quicklychanged.