serious female presidential candi- date." And certainly if seri~ « is measured by having a viable shot: at the White House, she may wellisabe.| In 1988, I had the distinction ofbeing the first woman in US.' history to run for President and: on the general election- ballot in all 50 states and the. District of Columbia. I was also thefirst African American to do so. Of| Course, it goes without saying that~ Elizabeth Dole is closer to winningthe White House today -- not yet onthe ballot in a single state -- than |was when I was on the ballot in all50 states. I assure you that when |ran, there were no feature pieces on60 Minutes about what a ofemin-ized" White House would be like.Nor, for that matter, were there anyafticles about a potential_ oAfricanization � of the WhiteHouse. Everyone pretty much knew that I wasn't a "serious femalepresidential candidate" in the wayElizabeth Dole is. Elizabeth Dole is, after all, a Republican and willrun for the White House - if she_ does - as a Republican with the full weight of the Republican Pbehind her. uyThis means, of course, access to osignificant amounts of money, sig-Mificant amounts of press coverage,-automatic access to the presidentialdebates, not to mention the impri- matur of legitimacy that comeswith being a Republican or a Democrat in U.S. politics.I, of course, was neither aDemocrat or Republican. And though I did succeed in achievingand qualified for feral, primary or primary omatching funds--becoming the sec- ond i t and first Black owoman to do so--in fact, those achievements merely ified theextent to which presidential! politicsand the political arena in general isa bipartisan and not a nonpartisan affair, no matter what barriers onebreaks or "firsts" one achieves.Indeed, this fact of political life oin America, was the reason I ran-for President. In other words, I was-not a "serious" candidate for the opresidency in the sense that I had any shot at the White House. But I was a serious candidate for thepresidency insofar as helping toexpose and breaking open the obarriers to a more inclusionary andup-from-the-bottom multi-party de-mocracy is a serious concern. In my opinion, this concern is ultimately- More serious than the question of owho wins the White House in anygiven election cycle.[polled nearly a quarter of a"million votes in 1988, or aboutn= ~ ee.25%, not exactly numbers thatsend the Republicans andDemocrats running for cover. Itwould take a wealthy, white maleindependent and 20% of the vote todo that, an event of tremendous,and, in my opinion, deeply misun-derstood political magnitude whichoccurred just four years later. Insome as I reflect back onthe 1988 presidential run and allthat happened since, I see the yearsthat followed it as a kind ofsimmering cauldron of politicalrevolt that exploded in 1992 onseveral fronts - not the least ofwhich was Ross Perot's independ-ent campaign. I do not mean tosuggest that my campaign was thecause of that revolt. Rather, it wasin anticipation of it.If my 1988 presidential rundetected a bare murmur of publicdiscontent with politics-as-usual - itwas, nonetheless, a clear statementabout the myths of Americandemocracy. My Democratic andRepublican opponents had togather about 40,000 signaturesnationally on petitions to access theballot. I had to gather 1.2 millionsignatures, the result of a patch-work of state laws all promulgatedby bipartisan consent, to makeaccess to the ballot virtually impos-sible for independents. The barriersweren't just structural, they wereattitudinal. Virtually every time thepress mentioned me, which wasn'toften, my name was preceded bythe words "fringe candidate." It wasso frequent that I started to use itmyself, sometimes to illustrate thegap between what I had achievedand how I was perceived. I wouldsometimes say, "Hi! I'm LenoraFulani, the fringe candidate whoqualified for two million dollars inmatching funds from the UnitedStates Treasury." I even named myautobiographical account of mysecond presidential mn TheMaking of a Fringe Candidate.But as traditional political align-ments and alliances melt away, andnew alliances start to form, the"fringe" starts to occupy a moreinfluential _ political §_ position.Millions of Americans - half the Telectorate, actually -- are on thefringes of American politics. Theydon't vote and they view thepolitical process as having little ornothing to do with them. They'reright. And that's exactly what hasto be changed.Reforming our political processto make it genuinely democratic,inclusionary and easy-to- use is thekey. And those reforms could get usto the point where we not onlycould elect a woman or an AfricanAmerican to the White House,more importantly, we could elect anindependent who brings a new wayof doing politics, and up-from-the-bottom way of doing politics, to thehighest office in the land.ayAXMILLENIA COMMUNITY'BANK_ (Proposep)WASHINGTON (AP) ~ In Boston,cries of police brutality are rela-tively rare. A internalaffairs division seems to be work-ing, experts say."Fa New York, on the other hand,anyone who has ever heard ofBlack. immigrants. Abner Louimaand Amadou Diallo knows thenation's largest city has a problemwhen race and policing converge.But whether these cities have thebest and worst records in policingtheir police -- or whether policebrutality is on the rise in Americancities -- is difficult to say authorita-tively.No government agency keepstrack, and few police departmentscollect information based on race.The question has taken oncrucial dimensions. Police shoot-ings have taken the lives of Blacksin Pittsburgh and Riverside, Calif.In New Jersey, Maryland andFlorida, state troopers have comeunder fire for conducting trafficstops based on a driver's race --so-called racial profiling.A picture can be cobbled to-pether from hearsay and anecdotesut the lack of hard statistics rilescivil rights advocates who believeBlack and brown people are morelikely to end up unjustly facing apoliceman's gun or billy club thanWhites."This is frustrating to me inlarge part because White Americahas refused to acknowledge aproblem exists," said Rep. GregoryW. Meeks, D-N.Y. "Now in 1999,we are seeing some of the samepolice brutality we saw in the JimCrow days, but White America justdoesn't get it."Meeks, said the CongressionalBlack Caucus task force on policebrutality, which he co-chairs, planshearings in several cities, includingBaltimore, Chicago and Dallas."At least it will be a startingpoint, � said Meeks, a former prose-cutor.Said Ron Daniels, head of theCenter for Constitutional Rights, aNew York-based civil rights group,"We know we have a bad problemout there. We just don't knowexactly how bad." oAnywhere I've gone in thiscountry, 15 minutes into the con-versation we are talking about somepolice brutality," Daniels said. Heorganized a national anti-policebrutality march in Washington inearly April after four officers fromNew York's elite street crimes unitfired 41 shots at Diallo, an un-armed West African immigrant,hitting him 19 times. The officershave been charged with second-degree murder.For years, civil rights groupshave urged the Justice Departmentto collect nationwide data onexcessive force cases. The collec-tion of data was authorized by the1994 Crime Act but not funded."So far we only have anecdotalinformation, � said © NAACPna tac» Rep. Jo myers,D-Mich., reintroduced a bill requir- the Justice | t tocollect data on traffic stops by localpolice. "Stopping our citizens to besearched on account of their race isan unacceptable activity on the partof law enforcement," he said.San Diego requires uit patierecord the race of people they stopin order to assess whether officersrely on racial profiling in makingtraffic stops. Some of the 35 policechiefs and activists who met withAttorney General Janet Reno lastweek discussed adopting such aplan elsewhere.But, generally, police officialsare wary."If passed into law, the(Conyers) bill would place a burdenon the police and lengthen trafficstops," said Robert Scully, executivedirector of the National Associationof Police Organizations, whichrepresents 4,000 police unions andassociations. He said officers arevulnerable to attack during suchstops and pausing to collect data"would make a dangerous situationworse.""It's ironic that in the quest for acolorblind society, some peoplewant us to keep track of people byrace," said Jim Pasco, executivedirector of the Fraternal Order ofPolice, the nation's largest policelabor organization, with 277,000members. "We're opposed to anykind of racial tabulation, � he said,opposing proposals to accumulatedata on police brutality cases.Pasco said that police brutalityhasn't been increasing. He notes thenumber of federal prosecutions ofabusive cops has stayed at about 30a year while the number of officershas sharply increased.Available information hints thatalong with Boston, the policedepartments of Minneapolis andSan Francisco have done the bestjobs in curbing such abuses, ac-cording to a study last year of 14cities by Human Rights Watch, aninternational human rights organi-zation.New York, Washington, D.C.,and New Orleans appear to havethe most serious problems ofabusive officers on their forces,according to the report.Los Angeles, where-the RodneyKing police beating led to riots,was judged to be "slowly on themend."Allyson Collins, the report'sauthor, said the FBI, U.S. attorneysand Justice Department all havesome information that could shed |light."Bits and pieces of informationare scattered everywhere," Collinssaid. "It's not a priority until we getsome high-profile case that getseveryone talking and then thepublic is lulled back to sleep on thetopic."Don't sweat the small stuff(Even when it looks big)!éIfFuture, is for the Community to oBy the Community - For the Community �The Community of Greenville and its Surrounding Area are encouraged andinvited to purchase stock of Millenia Community Bank (Proposed) One way toinsure Millenia Company Bank (Proposed) maintains its Community Focus into theand Control the Bank. Please call us andrequest your Offering Circular and Subscription Form to purchase your share ofMillenia Community Bank (Proposed.)Subscriptions OfferCommon Stock*Purchase Price 11.00 per share550,000 Shares 850,000 Shares110,000 Warrants** 170,000 Warrants**(Minimum) (Maximum)*Pre-Incorporation Subscriptions**] Warrant for every 5 shares Subscribed_ 100 Shares is the Minimum Number of Shares that Can Be Purchased }5% of the Aggregate Shares Subscribed is the Maximum Number of Shares that Can be Purchased?*| " ~- Millenia Community Bank (Proposed) !- Post Office Drawer 30410 yt |Greenville, North Carolina 27833-410).have any questions or would like additional information, please contact,_Community Bank (Proposed) at (252) 695-0077.aAmerican HeartAssociationA stroke canbe a mind-blowing thing- The Minority Voice: April 22 - April 30, 1999Ms. Rosa Parks, the oMother ofthe Civil Rights Movement,"isthe latest person to receive theCongressional Medal of Honor.By Darlene SupervilleWASHINGTON (AP) " Rosa Parksis getting the gold.Congress voted on April 20 togive the 86-year-old Parks aCongressional Gold Medal, itshighest civilian award, for an act ofdefiance more than 40 years ago.Often hailed as the "first lady" or"mother" of the civil rights move-ment, Parks was tired after a day'swork aS a seamstress inMontgomery, Ala., on a Decemberday in 1955 and refused to give upher seat to a white man on asegregated city bus.Her arrest set off a lengthy busboycott by blacks that lasted untilthe Supreme Court declaredMontgomery's bus segregation lawunconstitutional and it waschanged. The boycott was led bythe Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., alocal minister at the time."One brave act of a humbleseamstress triggered an avalancheof change which helped our countryfulfill its commitment to equalrights for all Americans," saidHouse Minority Leader DickGephardt, D-Mo. For her leader-ship and her example, Rosa Parksdeserves to be honored with theCongressional Gold Medal."e House voted 424-1 in favorof the measure, one day after theSenate passed it without dissent.op. Ron Paul, R-Texas, was theonly lawmaker to vote inst thebill, which President Clinton is- expected to sign."This courageous act changedher life and our nation forever,"said Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen,R-Fla. "Passage of this bill will beour contribution to her legacytoday."Parks, an Alabama native,watched the debate on televisionfrom Los Angeles."Mrs. Parks is very excited tohave this honor," said Anita Peek,executive director of the Rosa andRaymond Parks Institute for Self-Development. Parks co-founded thenonprofit group in 1987 to helpyoung people in Detroit, where shenow lives.She moved there in 1957 afterlosing the seamstress T job and herfamily was harassed and threat-ened. She joined the staff of Rep.~ John Conyers, D-Mich., in 1965and worked there until retiring in1988.She now travels the countrylecturing about civil-rights.A guest at Clinton's State of theUnion address in January, Parkshas received numerous awards,including the Presidential Medal ofFreedom, the nation's highest civil-ian award, and the SpingarnAward, the NAACP's top civilrights honor.Lawmakers initially used. theCongressional Gold Medal to honormilitary leaders but began using itduring the 20th century to recog-nize excellence in a range of fields,including the arts. athletics. poli-tics, science and entertainment.The first such medal was ap-proved in March 1776 for GeorgeWashington for "wise and spiritedconduct" during the RevolutionaryWar.More than 320 medals have beenawarded.Recent honorees include FrankSinatra, Mother Teresa, the Rev.Billy Graham, South AfricanPresident Nelson Mandela and the"Little Rock Nine," the group thatbraved threats and jeers from whitemobs to integrate Central HighSchool in Little Rock, Ark., in1957.The bill is H.R. 573.WwoowJoy 1340Putting the gloryinto gospel!WTOWJoy 1320Bringing out joy forJesus!Eastern North Carolina'soldest Black stations bringyou the best in gospel, news,and the best talk shows onissues that affect YOU!It's time for JOY!ng@ Cashiers@ OpenersWhat you wantISwhat you get.The World Ts NewestMcDonald Ts© � 632 S$. 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