" " she unknow-- dairy country. I could have compiled« the entire oral history of the region :_ from her uncensored musings. A -comparable experience awaits read-~ ers of Scott Malcolmson Ts oOne~ Drop of Blood �, a work of nobleintent and baffling intellectual_ $prawl. Ruminations of 14th centu-ty scholars; obscure literary tracts;__ the tired old ground of the racial_ progeny of Shem, Ham and Japheth;associations of whiteness with virtueand blackness with sinister forces; minstrel ditties; Indian trails and_ Brer Rabbit tales are cobbled togeth-~ erin dusty archaeology of race thatshould have been subtitled oThe ©Thousand and One Nights of Color_ Coding: From the Old Testament to__ the Internet. �i This is an unfortunate fate for a_ plausible theme that takes us back'_ to.atime when the destiny of a newnation was in play among three corepeoples: black, white and red.Absent a unifying thesis, the book Tssense of the experiential differencebetween black and Indian is a savinggrace. Native Americans were notborn into oppression and had the_ dignity of an armed resistance, butthe end was the isolation and despair- of reservation life. African Ameri-_ cans, by constant contact with__ whites, were able to appropriate theowner Ts manual of white civiliza-_ tion, adapt it to their needs, and_ acquire the means to flourish withinit,Peculiar errors and omissionsrecur. An offhand referencedescribes the Civil War as the most oAmerican � of conflicts in whichall three races fought on both sides.While the Confederacy sought toconscript slaves at the end of thewar, I know of no evidence ofAfrican Americans " unlike theCherokees " fighting in regularunits for the South. Such an explo-sive suggestion simply cannot betossed off without explanation ordocumentation. Also, Malcolmsondwells on a somber late-in-life novelby Mark Twain but inexplicablyignores oHuckleberry Finn �,Twain Ts greatest work, still contro-versial for its take on race and itsuse of the o n � word.Even in retrospect, Malcolmsongloomily sees pre-Civil War Amer-ica, even the great Lincoln, as adriftin a debilitating swamp of racialchauvinism with few seeds ofredemption visible. However, theCivil War at least purged the nation_ of slavery at a cost of 600,000 blackand white lives, precisely what Lin-coln called oa new birth of free-dom. � At Gettysburg, Lincoln |_ " saeThe outcome| of the Florida- recount has the wholeworld (liter-next president of the United States.Partisan politics threaten to try to(may have already) declare(d) awinner, is ti ing tee tabooeriaEs spends ae- vasa erdn prada_ingly spoke her thoughts aloud, a i~ Joycean monologue in-which she ff_ dished about every farmer Ts wife o ~ and tavern keeper in the Wisconsin o4lisadideg who s1lt be theTHE AMERICANMISA DVENT URF OF RAC E oScort L. MALCOMsON ,renowad the vow of. equality i in the .Declaration of Independence, adroit-ly sidestepping a Constitution con-taminated bycompromises with slav-ery. His magnificent Second Inau-gural implicitly recognized that slav-ery, and its underlying premise ofwhite supremacy, had becomeimbedded in the mentality of theNorth as well as the South, leavingboth to pay the blood price of its _eradication in accordance with thebiblical law of consequences.The theme of race mixing that per-vades the book and its title involvessome interesting disparities. Thefather of Americar: democracy,Thomas Jefferson, believed thatIndians and whites could form a sin-gle intermarrying population oncethe Indians abandoned their savage .ways.He entertained no such sentimentsregarding African Americans. Jef-ferson could not bring himself tofree his slaves during his lifetime,even Sally Hemings, his first wife Tshalf-sister who now few doubt wasJefferson Ts mistress.First families of Virginia proudlyclaimed descent from Pocahontas Tson Thomas by her marriage to Eng-lish settler John Rolfe. However, thedemands by African Americans for,recognition as descendants of Jef-ferson and Hemings still had thepower to create uproar even afterDNA evidence convinced many thatthe issue of the famous romance hadbeen put to rest. Malcomson, curi-ously, mentions the Pocahontas mar-riage to Rolfe only in passing, andnot her mixed race son. More curi-ously, he gives no attention what-ever to the Hemings saga.For much of our history these threefounding American races had diffi-culty seeing common humanity ineach other Ts faces. At other timesthey found themselves partners inlove and war. Together they fur-nished most of the poignancy of thenation Ts first century. Their inter-twined stories continue to shapeAmerican mythology and nationalcharacter.There is a serious book in this, butit will require more disciplinethan oOne Drop of Blood. �Demis M. O'Connell. oBETWEEN THE [LINESDid the Bushes (Try to) Steal the Election in Florida?~ turned away in Hillsborough County :because local sheriffs stated the race:that seems to make one believe thereis something more to hide. .It certainly, now appears to bemore than coincidental that so much Thavoc is being created over voterimpropriety in Democratic districtswith outcomes that favor electing aBush, in a state run by a Bush, thanin electing Gore. With manual handcounts in the most obvious countiespre-occupying the main plot, thesub-plot in Florida is an increasingnumber of revelations foqused oncome next Jan. 20, with hftions they prefer; the public Ts in-_ terest in civic affairs and politics,their current and preferred infor-mation sources, their attention tostate political news, and their rat- .ings of the media; how growingregions and groups "such as theCentral Valley, suburban regions,Latinos, and independent voters "affect. the state Ts elections andpolicy debates; the political atti-_ tude and perceptions that are tied to ovote distrust � of government, andthe social economic and politicalfactors that explain low voter turn-out in state elections; the role ofpolitical, social and economic atti-tudes in public support for: citi-zens T initiatives and governmentreform proposals.In the final weeks of the cam- °paign, California voters focused onfive key issues "education, foreignpolicy and national defense, healthcare, taxes, and Social Security andMedicare. Since the September sur-vey, turmoil in the Middle East has7 " Sins Ghana ess babi oboe. ment and t:| government at all levels, how they stand apart|| rate elected officials and public nation.e services, and what government ac- di' want a larger government with moreservices, although majorities. inboth cases said they would prefer a. smaller government with fewer ser-vices, And while slight majoritiesalso say they would prefer to seetax cuts targeted to lower- andmiddlé-income families (Gore'sproposal), Californians were morelikely than the nation as a whole tosupport Bush Ts plan for across-the-board tax cuts (48 percent to 40percent).The slight tightening of the racein California towards the end might °also have been related to rising con-cern about the state Ts economicprospects. While most Californiansstill believe that the state is headedin the right direction, the number ofresidents sharing this view has beendeclining gradually. Specifically,Californians are concerned bout thepossible economic effects of risingenergy costs. Eighty percent be-lieve that higher prices for thingssuch as gasoline, utilities and elec-, Soaeeteeee_ jority of voters said they would ©vote no, And, despite a of~ television commercials vay Soa~ sides "only 25 percent of votersfeel that they had learned a lot about how a voucher system would work.However, 57 percent believed thatpassage of the voucher initiativewould not help the public schoolsystem.Support for Proposition 39 "which would make it possible toapprove local school bonds with a55 percent majority rather than a -two-thirds vote-inched higher inOctober with 50 percent: support-ing the measure, 37 percent oppos-ing it and 13 percent undecided.~ Even though Proposition 39 lowersthe threshold for passing localschool bond measures, only 38 per-cent of voters thought its passagewould make it easier to approvelocal school construction bonds intheir area, while 15 percent said itwould be more difficult and 30 per-cent thought it would make no dif-ference.While they may be divided aboutthe content of the specific proposi-tions, Californians are devoted to~ nent change in the state constitu-tion through the initiative process.Fifty-six percent also say that pub-lic policy decisions made by statevoters are probably better than de-cisions made by their elected rep-resentatives in state government. However, residents are also. awarethat the process is not perfect. Only10 percent say they are very satis-fied with the way the initiative pro-cess is working today, while a ma-jority say they Tre only somewhatsatisfied. Actually, 3 in 4 residentsthink that the system needs changesand only 1 in 5 says that the systemis fine the way it is.Findings of the current surveyare based on a telephone survey of2,001 California adult residents in-terviewed from Oct. 11 to Oct. 18 "interviews were conducted in ei-ther English or Spanish. Dr. MarkBaldassare, senior fellow and pro-gram director at PPIC, is founderand director of the PPIC, is founderand director of the PPIC statewidesurvey.PPIC is located in San Fran-cisco: phone (415) 291-4400, fax(415) 291-4401].IKLEAVER TS JKLIPPINS »There is a Way to Save Our ChildrenOver the past decade, wehave seen scores of ourchildren shot down indrive-by shootings. Thisincludes babes in arms,preschoolers and too many others to even at-tempt to mention.We have placed the responsibility for theapprehension of these criminals who committedthese dastardly acts on the criminal justice sys-tem: police, sheriffs, etc.These may be the proper steps to take afterthe fact. In the meantime, we need to ask our-selves how we got to this point in our society.Although we a two or three generations aboutthe sanctity of life and today we are seeing theresults of that failure.We sat silently by and allowed prayer to betaken out of schools. The Ten Commandmentsthat once graced the walls of most classroomshad to be removed. As a society, we did littlemore than bemoan the fact and made no effort tofight back.What does all this mean in the strictest mea-sure of morality? Well, the reading of the Scrip-ture gave some sense of right and wrong tochildren beginning with the first grade and itnever changed.Let us take it a step further. Most of ourparents of another generation did not hold col-lege degrees but they believed in the Bible andthey taught their children.to believe in the con-cepts of right and wrong.To be sure, there were incidents but theywere few and far between. Children had been sowell schooled they generally dared not do any-thing that might be seen as wrong in the eyes ofm society and most certainly in the eyes of God.. Itis interesting to note that within.a block ofmost of our churches, there were confectioneryStores, where candies, sodas and chewing gumwere sold. Theif biggest day of the week would_be Sunday, between the hours of about 10:30a.m. and 11:15 a.m. This was the time thatSunday school was over. The children wouldspend their nickels and dimes in between ser-vices. :We acrid awaken to the smells of fryingchicken and hot biscuits. The radio would be onwhatever radio station that carried oWings OverJordan � and/or oPet Milk Sunday Morning. �The Pet Milk show, hosted by one of the greatestannouncers in the world, Sid McCoy, was thefirst black syndicated radio show in the country._ Then we would go off to Sunday school,Let us not be misled here. Sunday school wasnot the total answer. It did however reinforce thesubliminal teachings we had gotten throughoutthe week.The key here is not Sunday school or churchper se. It is the involvement of the parents andthe determination of the parents that their child(ren) would not wind up behind bars or runningafoul of the law.Without question, some of the young menand occasionally, women, did have problemsbut in no way did they. approach the magnitudewe see now. If your response is that there are soMany more people, then approach it from apercentage perspective. The comparison doesnot even come close.What happened? Again the answer is simple.In an attempt to keep up with the Joneses, wehave all too often abdicated our responsibility togive our children the training they needed inorder to preserve the sanctity of life.Several years ago, in an interview for one ofthe TV stations, a gang member said life meantnothing to him because he did not expect to liveto see 25 years. Somebody failed him.More than 10 years ago, this reporter, afterdiscussing the matter with two different psy-chiatrists commented that prospective gangmembers sought out other gang members be-cause this was the only familial structure thatwas available to them. Nobody listened andtoday, we see the results.Part of the bottom line is that all may not belost. We can save this new generation. It will notbe an easy task and it clearly will have definedthe goals of the parents. Instead of buying thebiggest most expensive car in the show room,they have to step down a notch or two andrecognize the time spent on the second job to payfor the car could and should be spent on rearingtheir children and teaching them life is sacred.It might also be.helpful to set the VCR torecord the football game and,get up.on Sundaymorning and take the children to Sunday schooland church. They need to know that since theycannot create life, they have no right to arbi-trarily take it.We need to understand that our children areproducts of their environment and when we donot create the proper environment, our childrenbecome like the legendary Topsy from HarrietBeecher Stowe Ts book, Uncle Tom Ts Cabin, whojust ogrowThe responsibility for our children does notfall on the shoulders of the police departmentprobation department and social services. It fallson évery parent and by and large, we have trulydropped the ball.Each time there is a parent-teacher night orconference, the rooms should be filled to capac-ity. We need to stop taking adversarial rolesagainst the teachers. Despite our protests to thecontrary, our children will, have and will con-tinue to lie when it fits their purposes. It isalmost a joke when we see mothers angry withteachers or authorities, and declaring, oMy sonwouldn't lie to me. �Yes, Mother. They have and they will if itmeets their needs.We can save the lives of our children in thisnew generation. It will, however, take determi-nation, devotion and sacrifice.Ask yourselves if the lives of your children |are worth the effort.victory, hook or crook. When is ittime to ask if the Bushes tried toThe Florida NAACP respondedthat-no such calls were placedWhile Jeb has withdrawn from |:the election challenge process af- |: steal the election in Florida? Whenthe case is in court? Maybe Tso.What has become more obviousthan the 19,000 odouble punchedballots, � were the many acts of voterintimidation that came light out ofthe election night darkness. Much.of which would have been covered.up with a close victory, a quickconcession and an immediate focuson presidential transition.Claims of voter intimidation, "apse ti aaron herda Goustioaheteencap oui ise : ald-Tribune reported that thepoids alnpati cena hindnation, turned out to beimagined. Three dayson the I.D. card didn Tt match the_ person standing in front of them, �or that they were convicted felons-and coouldn Tt vote (tough they hadno proof).Now, we know many of us don Ttlook like our drivers license pic-tures, but this is extreme behavior for qualifying to vote. Yet it was happening in the South again. InFlorida, not in 1955, or 1965, but i inthe year 2000,The Herald-Tribune reportedthat a disproportionate number of T Afri¢an, American voters span oturned away from the polls � ovce WA stolons eee shite.full of sheesince they are a non-partisangroup. While local law enforce-ment worked the group, Politicalpartisan operatives worked the air.This included the media that heldstories of voter disenfranchise-ment until it was broken in theblack press, and not given muchcredence until Jesse Jackson gotin the national spotlight. Jessethen had to face hostile crowds .that shouted oJesse, go home, � asif he had created the allegations.for some self-servingKatherine Hari the biestate, aneand told himBush � toter election night, where he re- portedly spent the night otracking | Tvotes � in.the Secretary of State Ts |:' Office, itis clear he was ocommand ':control � the night of election. A\.Bush running interference for a:' Bush. He even publicly stated that |:he felt he had his brother down � :on election night.The closeness of the election \caused the election night oAm- |:fall apart. Voter disen- :franchisement claims, that were Never meant to come to light in a ii i"will of ve