SCOOP, April 18 copy 2, 2008 - Scoop USA Newspaper

Friday, April 18, 2008

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Your VOTE can make the change on Tuesday, April 22 Election Day

48 YEARS OF COMMUNITY SERVICE PHILADELPHIA, CHESTER, SOUTH JERSEY, WILMINGTON, DEL.

Leadership Awards

Salute to Leadership Awards Breakfast presented by the Carroll Park Community Council, Inc. held

at the Pinn Memorial honored eleven. The Guardianship, Legacy, Service and Lucien Blackwell

Exemplary community service awards were presented to Sen. Vincent Hughes, Zilpha Tapper, James

Grant, Alice Crowder, Heshimu Jaramogi, Wadell Ridley, Tyree Johnson, Dennis Lee, Rev Dorthea

Lindsay, Christine Randall and Robert Abdullah. Corporate sponsor Bravo Health represented by

Elba Torres-Duca pictured here as well as councilwoman Jannie Blackwell assisted the presentation

of the Lucien Blackwell Exemplary award to Mayor Michael Nutter. Councilman Curtis Jones hon-

ored the awardees as well with the staff and board of directors of the Carroll Park Community

Council, Inc.

Martin Regusters Leaping Lion Photo

Chester Celebrates

Citywide celebration and Parade honoring High School Boys Basketball Team and Girls Track & Field State Champions - page 12

Chester Health Fair & Fun Day - page 12

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2 - SCOOP U.S.A. - Friday, April 18, 2008

The Clock is Ticking toward Election Day

thera martin-connelly

Can you believe it? The Primary Election is almost here. In fact, as you read this column the election will be just about 4 days away. What's at stake? Everything. Starting at the top of the ticket, the next person to be the Commander and Chief for the nation will be that much closer to taking the seat once they win the Primary. Albeit they still will have to run in the November General lection, to win on April 22nd means a hell of a lot. After 8 years of George Bush, the country is ready for a change, at least that's what I hear every which way I turn. Folks are saying to me that America and Americans can't take another 4 years of a leader with a Bush mentality, even if their name isn't Bush. If you want to war to go on and on and on in Iraq, that alone makes you the choice I would not want in the White House and many are echoing the same sentiments. So at the top, we have to consider long and hard whom we want to be our next President. Democrats have to consider between two democrats whom they want to walk away from the Democratic National Convention as the endorsed candidate by the party to take on the Republican challenger, John McCain. By the way, I have no problem with people who have lived past the age of 70 who are spry and alert and energetic and clear thinking and who have passion to serve and who love this country. Unfortunately that's not the feeling I get from John McCain. When I see him in speeches and television news interviews and on the campaign travel, via media coverage, etc, what I see is an old man who does not want to let go of his dream even though he looks like he can barely pull himself up out of his bed every day. While he has a wife he wears on his arm like a trophy, John McCain comes across to me like an older, more beat up version of George W. Bush. If Dick Gregory were running for President, (and I estimate that Mr. Gregory is in the same age group as John McCain, I'd have no problem voting for that "old" man. Dick Gregory is fit. He takes care of himself. He's healthy as a horse and he talks with lots of sense. He'd fix the country, yes he would. But McCain? McCain looks like he's two steps away from a stretcher or something. He exudes no energy. He's flat as a 120 day old soda

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that's been sitting out in the hot son. Be very clear, I am not against senior citizens. I love

seniors, I am just against a worn out one trying to become Commander in Chief of America.

In Pennsylvania Congressmen Chaka Fattah and Bob Brady are up for reelection. Neither have opponents in the Primary. At the State level the office of Attorney General is up for grabs and there's one Democrat, John Morganelli and one Republican, Tom Corbett who are running. Then the Auditor General's seat is also up for grabs. The Democrat running for the seat is Jack Wagner. Meanwhile two Republicans are tussling it out, Chet Beiler and Chris Walsh. For State Treasurer we have four Democrats running, Jennifer Mann, Rob McCord, John Cordisco and Dennis Morrison-Wesley. (Morrison Wesley happens to be an African American by the way). On the Republican side for State Treasurer, we have a man by the name of Tom Ellis running. In the first senate race, everybody knows by now that long time powerhouse of a state senator Vincent Fumo will not be running for re-lection. That leaves three hungry candidates ready to pounce into the seat. The Democratic candidates are John Dougherty powerful labor union leader, Anne Dicker, community activist, and Larry Farnese, who is said to be the hand-picked choice of embattled State Senator Vincent Fumo who has been indicted by the Feds. Jack Moreley is running for the first senate seat on the Republican side of the world.

In the 3rd senatorial district, State Senator Shirley M. Kitchen is up for re-election and she has no opponent in the Primary. Senator Vincent Hughes is up for re-election and he also has no Democratic opponent in the Primary. It will be very interesting to see how things turn out in the 179th Legislative District where youthful State Rep. Tony Payton, Jr. is working to keep his seat that is still new. But he has a Democratic opponent Guy Lewis who has been all but invisible during this campaign season. While Tony Payton made a few mistakes with his filing petitions, he came through it, and it is said he can pull off another win. In the 180th District, democratic incumbent State Rep. Angel Cruz has a democratic opponent Jonathan Ramos. Cruz seems to be pretty popular but you

never know what's what until the last vote is counted. State Reps. W. Curtis Thomas, Louise Williams Bishop, James Roebuck, Ronald Waters, Jewell Williams, Kathy Manderiino, John Myers, Mark Cohen, Cherelle Parker and Dwight Evans have no opponets so they can sail through the Primary event April 22nd.

In the 198th Legislative District, Democratic Incumbent State Rep. Rosita Youngblood has an opponent once again, but that's not news to her. It seems she always has two or three opponents every time she runs and yet she always comes out on top. Her Democratic opponent this time is Byron Davis. And certainly let me not leave out the 190th District race in West and North Philly. The incumbent is State Rep. Tommy Blackwell, who was kicked off the ballot for not having enough valid signatures on his petitions. His opponent is essentially an unknown, Vanessa Brown but she is the only Democratic candidate on the ballot in the 190th district. Blackwell meanwhile has kicked off a write-in campaign and depending on how hard he works, perhaps that power Blackwell name can pull off a miracle and I would say it will be a miracle if he wins because most voters just don't get it. They don't know how to do a write-in campaign on election day. Blackwell's opponent is advertising. Blackwell is not. Blackwell's opponent is very visible at all the candidate forums and so on and so forth, I'm not sure how visible Blackwell has been in that kind of campaign activity, but if you want to win you gotta be visible. That much I do know.

As you go to the polls on Tuesday, April 22nd remember this: The polls open at 7am and remain open until 8pm. If you have a problem on election day such as not knowing where to go to vote, or being told once you get there that your name is not in the book, then call the Committee of Seventy. They're there to help. Their number is 215-557-3600. Also, you must vote for the delegates that are for your presidential candidate only. This will help your candidate to receive more delegate votes to win the nomination for president. So even before you vote for your choice for president, vote for the people who are running to be delegates for the candidate of your choice. Got it? Good.

"Hip Hop Team Vote: Turn up the Vote"

"With the overwhelming momentum building across Pennsylvania, where young people are making their voices heard in record numbers around youth voter registration, The Hip-Hop Research and Education Fund (HREF), PowerPAC and the Hip-Hop Summit Action Network (HSAN) will embrace and salute them in anticipation of the largest youth voter turnout on at the Pennsylvania presidential primary on April 22nd.

On April 20, 2008 at Temple University's Liacouras Center Arena, located at 1776 N. Broad Street in Philadelphia, PA, a massive national `Hip-Hop Team Vote: Turn Up The Vote' mobilization will be held bringing together hip-hop stars, youth leaders and young people to address the quality of life issues that have resonated with young people across the state and throughout America. Hip-hop stars and youth leaders thus far confirmed to participate include: Russell Simmons; Dr. Benjamin Chavis; platinum R&B/pop star Ciara; platinum hip-hop star, Mike Jones; Flo-Rida; Jim Jones; Rich Boy; Styles P; Chrisette Michelle; Lyfe Jennings, Webbie; Lil X; Green Lantern, Gorilla Zoe, BET's `106 & Park' star hosts Rocsi and Terrence J; Lil Boosie; Latino hip- hop/reggaeton stars Alexis y Fido; O'Neal McKnight; Emily King and NAACP National Director, Youth and College Division, Stefanie Brown. Doors open at 12:30. The Summit runs from 2-5pm.

On this rare occasion, competing radio stations, Clear Channel's Power 99 and Radio One's 100.3 THE BEAT, have come together for this historic mobilization, under a common cause, to get young people out to the polls on April 22nd.

Dr. Benjamin Chavis, President/CEO of the Hip-Hop Research and Education Fund, Steve Phillips, Founder and Chairman of PowerPAC, Valeisha Butterfield, Executive Director of the Hip-Hop Summit Action Network, the NAACP, the United States Students Association and Rosario Dawson's Voto Latino, have joined together to issue a call to millions of 18-35 year olds to participate in the campaign. "Hip-Hop Team Vote: Turn Up The Vote" will utilize a variety of means to reach its target demographic and maximize youth voter regis-

tration and voter turnout, including hip-hop radio stations, artists, recording industry street teams, web and pod casts, social networks, blogs and grass roots organizing.

Dr. Benjamin Chavis emphasized, "An unprecedented groundswell of young people continues to grow across the state of Pennsylvania in anticipation of the April 22 Presidential primary election. The diversity and power of the hip-hop generation will manifest at the Turn Up the Vote National Hip-Hop Summit at Temple University. PA is fired up and the enthusiasm is growing daily."

The 18-29 year old segment of the hip-hop generation will be nearly 50 million strong in 2008, making up one third of the electorate. reported that between the 2004 and 2008 presidential elections, youth voter turnout more than doubled.

"I'm really proud of my generation for rising to this momentous occasion," declared Valeisha Butterfield. "It is clear that young people want change and the best way to bring about change is to vote in record numbers. The Pennsylvania primary will be a milestone for youth voter turn-out."

Added 22 year old Philadelphia native, Lauren Goodwin, "As a 22 year old, recent college graduate, I recognize that my home state of Pennsylvania has an opportunity to make a tremendous impact on this nation. Although I have been involved in the political process in the past, this is the first election that I have felt truly engaged and connected to the issues. More is at stake than ever before because of the current war in Iraq, disproportionate funding for public education and the economic future of the United States. ? Pennsylvania, stand up and join me and the millions of other young adults by registering to vote and making our voices heard on April 22!"

"We're about expanding democracy through support of communities that have been marginalized and underrepresented in the decision-making process," offers Steve Phillips, founder and chairman of PowerPAC. "Our goal is to build a new base of political activism. "This work is

See "Turn Up the Vote" page 15

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Volumn 48 - Number 12

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Published every Friday by R.E. Driver Jr. Associates with a Controlled Circulation of over 90,000 readership. Copies are distributed each Friday in Philadelphia, PA and suburbs, Chester, PA, Camden, NJ and Wilmington, Delaware to people and customers in Shopping Malls, Beauty Shops, Restaurants, Night Clubs, Hotels, Theatres, Office Buildings and many other business establishments where there is a high volume of people of all ages. Mail Subscription: $35.00 per year. Unsolicited manuscripts and photos are welcomed but will not be returned unless accompanied by a stamped, self-addressed envelope. SCOOP U.S.A. is a city-wide, community newspaper with a broad range of news and information. Display Advertising Deadline is 5:00 p.m. Monday. Call office for rates and information. The Publisher reserves the right to refuse any advertisement or unsolicited manuscripts.

The comments made by the columnists of SCOOP U.S.A. are their own and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the newspaper or of its staff.

SCOOP U.S.A. - Friday, April 18, 2008 - 3

ChildWatch Celebrating young people who beat the odds

marian wright edelman

I'm always delighted to write columns about people who are doing what's right and good, especially when they're young. So I'd like to share with you a few of the inspiring stories of some of the high school seniors honored this spring at Beat the Odds? Awards events hosted by the Children's Defense Fund's Minnesota and Texas offices. Begun in 1990, the Beat the Odds scholarship program was formed by CDF to recognize and celebrate the achievements of courageous young people to counter so many media accounts of the minority of youths committing crimes. These exceptional young people have not only prevailed against great misfortunes, but with caring adult support, they have thrived by working hard, striving for academic excellence and contributing to their communities. Each year, CDF national and state offices honor high school students for their successes while surmounting colossal challenges. Each honoree receives a scholarship in addition to other forms of support such as computers and clothing. CDF has encouraged nearly 600 Beat the Odds honorees to become leaders and successful in a variety of professions as well as advocates for children and social justice. Susan Castillo's chronic anemia and asthma caused her to spend long periods of her childhood in and out of hospitals. She endured crushing poverty and an abusive and drug addicted father. Yet her spirit remained unbroken. She has excelled academically and has been active in Houston community service projects. Susan will be the first person in her family to attend college and she aspires to become a neuroscientist and to find a cure for autism, which afflicts her younger brother and so many other children. Brandon Gassaway is a tall, handsome and articulate Black male. When his father murdered his mother in a rage because she attempted to escape from their abusive marriage, Brandon's life turned upside down. He not only lost both parents, but was separated from his younger sister in a complicated custody struggle leaving each of them with different grandparents in distant cities. But Brandon found a way to turn calamity into victory in Houston. He remained focused on his studies and now mentors younger teens and coaches basketball. He will graduate with a 3.48 GPA and go on to college. Fadumo Hassan's mother died when she was eight. When she was 12, her father brought her and four younger brothers to the United States from Somalia. But once in the United States, her father abandoned the family. Things improved for Fadumo, however, after her aunt, Sadiya Sahal, took her in and gave her a stable and loving family life in Minneapolis. She encouraged Fadumo to be the first in their family to graduate from high school and enter college. However, disaster struck when her aunt was one of the motorists killed when the Interstate 35W Bridge in Minneapolis collapsed into the Mississippi River in August 2007. Determined not to let this chain of adversity dictate her future, Fadumo entered the University of Minnesota, while still in high school, through the state's Post-Secondary Options program and earned 16 credits toward a university degree. She's now on her way to becoming a dentist. Early in his childhood, Justin Haynes McKizzie was nearly felled by poverty and violence. By the age of 10, he had experienced living with his abusive father and crack-addicted mother, in the homes of relatives and then shifting from one shelter or rehabilitation center to another. His life took a hard slide into gang membership and drug dealing, and he almost got sucked into the prison pipeline when he seriously injured another youth in a gang fight.

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What Justin needed was the support of stable, healthy and caring adults. He found that support with loving foster parents and a high school football coach in Minneapolis who mentored him off the field. Justin was able to positively reinvent himself through athletics. He played a major role in getting his football team to the state playoffs and was also a member of the track team.

What is remarkable is that Justin is on schedule to graduate with his class event; though he missed more than a year and a half of school. He has been admitted to Rochester Community College in the fall where he plans to study carpentry, business, and architecture and play football. He hopes to build hospitals and places where young people can receive help.

Other equally inspiring honorees this year are Maipacher Her and Maricruz Monreal of St. Paul, Minnesota, and Fatima Kassim, Petra Villegas and Sheehan Whelan of Houston, Texas.

Whether the recognition ceremonies of these honorees takes place in Washington, D.C., or a city where one of our state offices is located, our Beat the Odds Awards dinners are special occasions for outstanding young people.

Many of us know other teens who are beating the odds but will not have a dinner in their honor. On their way to

and from school, they daily walk a gauntlet through mean streets that are thoroughfares for crime and violence. They struggle to learn in underachieving schools. They have reached out for positive goals beyond the low expectations of others. We should find ways to recognize and celebrate these young people as well. They are also beating the odds--every day.

For more information about CDF's Beat the Odds program visit beattheodds.

Marian Wright Edelman is President of the Children's Defense Fund and its Action Council whose Leave No Child Behind? mission is to ensure every child a Healthy Start, a Head Start, a Fair Start, a Safe Start and a Moral Start in life and successful passage to adulthood with the help of caring families and communities.

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Coalition to erect a Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. full figure Bronze Sculpture at the entrance of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Drive

The Pennsylvania Juneteenth Coalition (PAJC) and Artist Sculptor Rebecca-Rose tm (RMFAC Studio) Present Plans for a Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. "Freedom Dream" Monument in Historic Philadelphia. The monument will be made a Gift to the City of Philadelphia as a Legacy and Symbol of International Human Rights and dignity for all people.

Ms. Rose, a fourth generation African-American sculptor revealed to the public her designs for the monument, as well as the Coalition plans to bring visibility to the Drive, in Dr. King's honor.

This is a history in the making tribute in Philadelphia to Americas Renown Nobel Peace Laureate. This tribute honors Dr. King, the City of Philadelphia, and R. Sonny Driver, Publisher, SCOOP, USA Incorporated. Mr. Driver spearheaded the naming of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Drive, with the support of the City of Philadelphia and over 60,000 citizens in petition.

Philadelphia's leaders, community organizations, cultural families and sponsors are being asked to support the Dr. King's "Freedom's Dream" Monument. We ask your support at this time to provide us with a letter of interest if you are able and willing to make this tax-exempt donation. For your contribution of one thousand dollars ($1,000.) dollars, your name or that or your organization's will be engraved on the granite base of the monument as a living legacy of your support. Neither deposits nor payments are required at this time.

Please forward to PJC, the enclosed Expression of Interest Pledge Form, so that we may gather and forward your letter along with others to the Greater Philadelphia Urban Affairs Coalition for they have expressed an interest to be our Fiscal Agent on the project. We welcome an opportunity to talk or meet with you regarding the details.philajuneteenth@ /rebeccarosermfac@

PLEDGE FORM Please indicate your preliminary interest or pledge below to contribute to the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Monument fund. No money is required at this time. We will include you in the 2007 Sponsors and Supporters Preview Reception. Our Fiscal agent will follow up for a 501c3 tax exemption for your contribution.

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4 - SCOOP U.S.A. - Friday, April 18, 2008

junious r. stanton

A Hi Tech Lynching

The Clinton's fiendishly cunning plan to destroy Barack Obama's nonthreatening public image by directly linking him to an outspoken unabashedly pro-black minister is succeeding beyond their wildest expectations. This was a calculated and choreographed campaign to destroy Obama in the minds of white folks.

The groundwork was laid by Clinton supporters like Geraldine Ferraro and Pennsylvania governor Ed Rendell. Ferraro played the "bad cop" charging Obama was only where he was because he was Black. She was adamant; she refused to back down from her statement and she willingly took the hit. Her resignation helped bolster Clinton's position with whites because it played out older whites' worst nightmare, a white person losing their job because of a black person. That incident forced white people to acknowledge the elephant in the room, race. Ed Rendell played the "good cop" by making the rounds on the cable networks when Hillary Rodham Clinton was at her nadir. Obama was beating Clinton like she stole something making her look bad as he garnered delegates left and right winning eleven straight primaries. Rendell went on the air whining that Obama was getting a free pass from the media. Rendell even had the audacity to say the media was not scrutinizing Obama's speeches or his campaign. Yet no one in the mainstream media challenged Clinton or her supporters on their cockamamie assertion she had more experience to be Commander in Chief; as if being married to Bill Clinton gave her presidential experience!? Both Ferraro and Rendell were setting us up for what was to come, a vicious yet subtle attack on Obama by playing the race card. The attack was aimed primarily at Obama's core, the young white people. That's why they

Letter to the Editor

The Truth Hurts

The Rev. Dr. Jeremiah Wright only knows how to tell the truth one way-the way Jesus did-strait, no chaser! His unapologetic style is only abrasive to one type of folks. Folks who hate truth because of some constitutional incapability to accept and deal with reality.

They would rather use a media apparatus good at reverse psychology, defame the righteous in order to make saints outta the wicked by confusing and distorting the minds of the blind, deaf, and dumb.

He fought in Korea for his alleged "inalienable rights" of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. He marched for "civil rights" with Dr. King.

What does he get in return? Economic suffocation from the same Koreans he fought to defend the rights for all Americans. The right to use the stool after the haters of truth, freedom, justice and equality. Is this type of nonsense to place America in any moral position to take a brutally honest look and examine her racial history, and how it relates to crime, institutionalized poverty, ignorance, unemployment, big government, high taxed, poor schools, poor health care, housing and so many other diseases?

Why should Mr. Barack Obama cut ties with Dr. Wright? Did anyone ask Bush to cut ties with Jerry (Falwell), Billy Graham or Pat Robinson? These men preached the most zionist, racist, and chauvinist rhetoric the world has ever bored witness to. One even talked about sending a "hit" team to assassinate a democratically elected head of state - the haters of truth never said a word.

What does experience have to do with being president? Experience is what has produced all the economic, political, social madness mentioned above.

Why are the haters afraid of black blood? He's a brother who's totally aware of the fact that his ancestors were the first architects, engineers, poets, astronomer, chemist, physicist, agricultural scientist, mathematicians, doctors, lawyers, scholars, and universal builders. But he can't minister the truth to a bunch of knuckleheads who's rather stick their heads in the sand, like an ostrich, and pretend America doesn't have a problem......... I mean race problem.

Mr. Obama should not be denied the counsel (Rev. Dr. Wright) of his choice. God damned the people of Lot's time for being so ignorant. He damned Sodom and Gomorrah, Greece, and Rome. So, why not America? Please Dr. Wright do not compromise your unapologetic truth-telling style for a bunch of corporate haters who have vested interest in spreading lies.

harry polis

first used YouTube to get the snippets of Rev. Wright out to the people who use that particular medium, young folks. As many of us who are familiar with YouTube know, something can be hot there but not make any impression outside that medium or have any impact or influence beyond the circle of folks who frequent YouTube.

To penetrate the consciousness of older whites who don't know anything about that technology and to get more folks to log onto YouTube to see it, the corporate media colluded with the Clinton's to manufacture a controversy. Images of a Black preacher railing against the hypocrisy, mendacity and rapine of (America), daring to make moral judgments about (America)'s crimes against humanity triggered deeply rooted psychological angst. The images and words of Rev. Jeremiah A Wright Jr. shocked and unsettled most white people.

Wright's words immediately put them on the defensive, a position that makes them extremely uncomfortable. Wright exposed their evil. The righteous indignation of his sermon was genuine, rightly so because he was chastising (America) for her wickedness and wanton inhumanity. ............... Wright's message cut to the quick. Wright challenged their "we're the good guys" delusions.

The Clinton's knew this strategy would work. They knew showing an angry Rev. Wright denouncing (America)'s ruthlessness and the imperial blood lust that has guided (America) since before its founding as a nation, would generate animosity against Wright and by extension Barack Obama. "How dare he say such things." is the thought of many whites. To them Wright is unpatriotic even though he served honorably in the US military. By linking Obama to Wrights's words, Obama was put on the defensive just like the Clinton's knew they would. When they tried to tie him the Louis Farrakhan, that didn't work. When they tried to say he was a Muslim to exploit the Islamophobia the US mainstream media has created, that didn't work either. But they knew about Rev. Jeremiah Wright from the git go. They knew he was problack, an anathema to most whites, because their fragile self-images are threatened by people who are not mindlessly Eurocentric. The media tried to make an issue about Wright's theology early on, but Obama cut them off at ch. The Clinton's, simply filed the information away for use another day.

While Obama has faced the firestorm and controversy head on, major damage has been done. He was sailing smoothly along as the "Good Negro", articulate, enthusiastic and intelligent a Black (the one drop rule is still in effect) candidate who never mentioned race. Obama eschewed the topic because to do so made whites uncomfortable and to make white people uncomfortable is to court disaster. Race and color are the festering sins of

His Legacy

In honor of President Bush, I have compiled a partial list of his true achievements.

1. Over 3000 American men and women killed in his Iraq war.

2. Thousands of Americans maimed and/or badly injured.

3. Thousands of Iraqi children, women, and men killed, maimed, or injured.

4. Drained the Clinton surplus and sunk us into incredible debt. 5. For Homeland Security, our homeland infrastructure, ports, and defense are falling apart and undefended and we are broke. 6. We are mired in a recession, and sliding into a huge mess thanks to the Decider. 7. People are losing their homes, not just from medical bills not covered by insurance, but also from foreclosures. 8. Manufacturing and high-paying jobs are being lost, while low-paying service jobs are opening. Many people are memorizing the words, "Would you like fries with that?" 9. Oil prices are at an all-time high, resulting in the costs of everything else to climb while pay is stagnating. 10. The Middle Class is shrinking and no longer able to afford their children's college education. 11. Schools are more dangerous and educating less. "No Child Left Behind" has resulted in children being taught for the tests. 12. W has stuffed the courts with so many conservative judges, the laws and programs that previously protected people barely exist. 13. Our civil liberties have been whittled and W has set a precedent for reckless abuse of our constitution. 14. Torture is now accepted as a means for getting information. 15. Government agencies are now headed by people who previously lobbied against those agencies or who had totally unrelated jobs, like running dog shows. These people decide who needs torturing.

(America); sins white folks avoid `fessing up' to at all costs. Like the sin of genocide against the Native Americans, which also undercuts their "we are moral and civilized" image, the race issue also forces them to see themselves outside the bogus parameters they have constructed about themselves. They are forced to confront behaviors that undermine their delusional notions of being civilized. Their collective behaviors are so egregious and pervasive, to maintain their sense of comfort and domination whites and their victims, the Native Americans and Blacks expend inordinate amounts of energy deluding ourselves things are getting better, but they are not.

Racism and violence have metastasized deep into the marrow of (America). Obama's message offered hope; he exhorted the need for change generating a false sense of healing. He seems to actually believe (America) can be better. Alas even if that is true, people like the Clintons really don't want change. They want the status quo because they benefit from things not changing. So to prove how committed they are to the status quo they offered up Rev Jeremiah Wright Jr. to the racism gods as their sacrifice; just like Bill Clinton offered up Sistah Souljah when he was running. Now Rev. Wright is being demonized, vilified and castigated by the white media. They have to, because he poses a serious threat to their self-image and their policies. If this were sixty years ago an uppity Negro like Buddy Wright would have been found hanging from a tree or his church would have been bombed. But today they lynch you electronically, for the whole world to see. The difference between the old time lynchin' and today's version is, back in the day when they lynched you, you were dead for good. Today if you aren't strong enough to withstand the vilification, and character assassination, you become a living example of a broken man or woman, which is what they really want. They want a symbolically castrated, emasculated man, psychologically wounded and hobbling for all the world to see.

Buddy Wright can take it and he will bounce back stronger than ever.

The Clintons and the media mind control apparatus are playing the tried and true slave massa role/game: beat down or lynch an "uppity" black leader and the rest of us will fall in line. By fall in line whites mean: go along with their okey-doke, swallow your manhood and humanity, think like they tell us to think and don't get out of our "place". It remains to be seen how successful that part of their strategy will be.

The Digital Underground hosted by Junious Ricardo Stanton airs live Sundays from 12 Noon to 2 PM Eastern time on and Log on and learn, engage in mental decolonization. Free your mind the rest will follow.

The comments in the column are the opinion of the writer and are not an opinion or reflection of the beliefs of the SCOOP U.S.A.

16. Our nation's scientists have been blindfolded and gagged by Bush's minions. We drill in pristine wilderness and do not pursue stem cell research.

17. Bush's mandate was a mandate stolen from the man who was actually elected in 2000. He has managed to trash everything he touched.

18. Even more than previously, the industries and lobbyists who will be affected are writing our laws.

19. The service people who fought in Bush senior and junior's wars are being treated badly.

The list goes on and on, too long to write. It is more negative, more damaging, than I can express. This soonto-be ex-president will need to stay on his ranch in Texas. He can wear his big cowboy hat and boots, cut brush and ride his bike. He will not be able to visit the good people of the USA because seventy per cent of the people can't wait to get rid of him.

Copyright 2006 by Harry Martin Polis and edited by Jaynee Levy-Polis

Harry is available for lectures and entertainment with stories and poetry. Contact SCOOP USA, or e-mail Harry

Pennsylvania "Teacher of the year" award nominations to close April 30th

Meriden, CT --- No-

minations for the Pennsy-

lvania 2007-2008 Teacher

of the Year award are

being accepted through

midnight on April 30,

2008. The award, which is

being presented by

Teachers'

Insurance

Plan(tm), includes $1,000

to the winning teacher and

a $500 grant to that teach-

er's school.

Each state winner will also be eligible for the National Award that includes a special recognition and a $2,500 travel certificate.

Nomination forms are available online at toty. Winners will be announced at the start of the next school ye

SCOOP U.S.A. - Friday, April 18, 2008 - 5

Richard Wright's Long Black Blues Song: A 2008 Centenary Celebration

Copyright James G. Spady 2008

[Dedicated to Wright's Daughters: Julia and Rachel]

"All over Paris he looks out/An unbroken blue window/He is just as much outside/As his vision is as outside..." Ted Joans, "L'affiche La"

Wright's long black blues song is now a hip hop anthem. Different genre. Same understanding/overstanding. Memories. Motions and The Mimetic Force of History. When Native Son entered the literary landscape things could never be the same. Visionary black man crafts memorable characters that are etched into your memory like Billie Holiday's own "Strange Fruit." Who is this writer? Whose child is he? How did he come to understand both the gift of laughter and the tragicomedy of those bleu noir nights/knights? From Chicago's Southside in 1930s to St. Denis in 2008. The changing same. From Richard Wright to Malcolm Herve. Outsiders. Insiders. Can't Stop! Won't Stop!

Wayblackmemories: "I can make myself at home almost anywhere on this earth and can, if I've a mind to and when I'm attracted to a landscape or a mood of life, easily sink myself into the most alien and widely differing environments. I must confess that is no personal achievement of mine; this attitude was never striven for. I've been shaped to this mental stance by the kind of experiences that I have fallen heir to." This is what Richard Wright writes in that powerful trilogy, Black Power: Three Books From Exile (Black Power, the Color Curtain and White Man, Listen, Harper Perennial Modern Classics, 2008).

From Bigger Thomas to Biggie Smalls Richard Wright's blues sensibility enabled him to navigate contradictions experienced as a Black man in the Western hemisphere. The novelist and cultural critic, Ralph Ellison, explores: "The Blues express both the agony of life and the possibility of conquering it through the toughness of spirit." In the early 21st century Wright's Bigger Thomas resonates in so many hip hop centered conscious men of color in the streets of Philly, Brooklyn, Newark, St. Denis, Marseilles, Paris, Toulouse, Atlanta, Chicago, Jackson, New Orleans, Melbourne, Tokyo, Berlin, Algiers, Dakar, Cairo, Mombasa, Dar Es Salaam, Harare, Havana, Toronto, New Haven, Oakland, Miami, Los Angeles and Detroit. The brilliant African American philosopher, Dr. William Fontaine provides deep insight into the psychological, philosophical, and social dimensions of both the central and centering character in Wright's classic novel, Native Son. Fontaine explains, "Bigger does not laugh and loll his time away; Wright's hero seldom laughs. When he does it is the punitive kind of laughter, such as when he forces his friend Gus to lick his knife blade while the crowd laughs in the poolroom. Sometimes he laughs at the white folk, but in a churlish way, such as the gutsy scene in which he and Gus give mock impressions of the chief executive and the military. Normal laughter for Bigger Thomas is, in Wright's phrase, `a wry smile.' Bigger consequently lacks the sense of being a free and equal self. He is conscious of his body only as a black, despised object. He has no clear consciousness of a set of values claimed by him as his own. He has no clear consciousness of such a set of values in relation to similar sets held by others. The response of the black criminal of the South-Side Chicago slums are bound within narrow, tense feelings of fear, shame, guilt and hate." Dominant Wish for Freedom, Dignity and Equality

Burns in Bigger's Body Fontaine continues, "But the dominant wish for freedom and equality burns in the body and mind of Bigger Thomas. For the psychological mechanism of fearshame-guilt-hate is a conditioned response to repeated frustrations. These frustrations have only suppressed the wish into bare latency. Wright's novel tells how conscious appreciation of himself as a human being with human strivings and worth is revealed to the young, black criminal of the urban ghetto. The novelist employs historical materialism, the relativistic ethics of Marx and the psychological mechanism of fear-shame-guilt-hate to explain the psychic life and overt behavior of both racial groups. The story reaches its first climax with the accidental murder of the white girl, Mary Dalton, and the kidnap note signed `Red.' The note now sets off counterfears and torrents of hate in the white world. Discovery that the real criminal is Bigger Thomas, a Negro, intensifies both feelings, and attendant emotive meanings of the word `Red,' deepened by the known association of Bigger, Mary, and Jan...."

Beginning To Discover the Deep Meaning in Wright's Message

Fontaine concludes, "Since the death of Richard Wright in 1960, old critics and admirers have come to recognize the true depth of his message. Formerly they had charged Wright with overemphasizing violence and with the conception and use of artistic creations as media of blatant social protest. James Baldwin, who himself, chooses to be a writer and not a `Negro writer', notes that in a later book, Eight Men, two of the stories, "Man, God Ain't Like That" and "Man of All Work," reveal that Richard Wright was approaching that aesthetic distance

characteristic of the

true artist. And

Baldwin adds also the

very significant obser-

vation that within the

South-Side Negro

community of the

Chicago of Native Son,

where Bessie and

Bigger, Jan and Mary,

Max and Buckley, the

state's attorney, were

joined together in a

tragicomedy of lust

and love, murder and

venality, degradation

and regeneration---

within this wasteland

on the borders of wast-

ed riches---Wright

uncovered the longings

Richard Wright

of the human heart."

On Becoming and Being A Native Son

What is the relationship of the characters in Native Son

to the lived experiences of Blacks in the United States?

Again, we turn to the philosopher/literary critic, William

Fontaine. He states, "America's history is traceable to

lowly serfs, hands of white men who crossed the Atlantic,

who, in their drive for freedom, enslaved millions of men

of alien races as necessary means to the battle for exis-

tence. From this first wrong sprang a sense of guilt, and

there has been no atonement, because of self-interest and

fear. Bigger's accidental murder of Mary and the kidnap

note are not only the same kind of acts as those by which

the new world was created, they are causal products of

these very historical forces. Bigger Thomas is a `native

son.' Judged by a moral philosophy which divorces the

message of `good' and `bad', `right' and `wrong' from

existential contexts, Bigger's actions may be called

unjust. But, if such absolutes re unanalyzed fiction, if

moral systems are complexes of attitudes and ideas which

may be dated and shown to arise from economic sub-

structures for the double purpose of promoting and legit-

imizing action, then Bigger's actions are creative just as

the building of America was creative. If one persists, nev-

ertheless, in calling his action criminal, then his existence

is a crime against the state. You cannot systematically

deny equal claims to an entire segment of the population

and condemn its members for injustice without con-

demning yourself."

Julia Wright: Daughter of a Native Son Celebrates

Her Father's Year With Birthday Gifts and

Worldwide Colloquies

Burning out it's time And timing it's own burning One lonely candle.

...Julia Wright Not only does this Richard Wright Centenary Celebration provide us with an excellent opportunity to teach Native Sons to eager students desperately wanting to know more about the evolution of the Hip Hop generation , it also resuscitates memory for parents, grandparents and those who came to consciousness during the Black Power and Civil Rights Movement of the 19060's and 70's . In an exclusive interview with Julia Wright, daughter of Richard Wright, we learn even more about this visionary writer, thinker and global citizen. Julia states, "There are a number of gifts to Richard Wright that I initiated because I wanted to given him some presents in commemoration of his birthday. The trilogy was left out of print. This trilogy includes: Black Power, Color Curtain and White Man, Listen! These three books are packaged as a trilogy and came out as an omnibus, three in one. This trilogy was issued in paperback so they can be bought by students. I am so proud. I'm really patting myself on the back. And I know my father would be because when he went into exile, everything he wrote was treated with contempt in this country because if you're an American, you write in America! That was Cold War policy. I'm not saying it is true today. But in those days [these books were originally released in the decade between 1954 and 1964] and in some respects we are coming back to some of these things today. That is why he is coming back because some of the things he said are still true.... I mean, KATRINA. .. The way Brother Man died with the bullets at the end of "Down By The Riverside." But anyway, let me come back to the present. The second gift I am giving him this year is an unpublished novel, the last he wrote which is a draft, uncorrected. It was just in the form of a draft. He didn't even have time to finish. It stops of page 306. You don't get page 307 because he is dead! "

Richard Wright's New Novel, A Father's Law Just Released Julia Wright vividly recalls discovering her father's manuscript near the old Underwood typewriter in his Paris studio immediately following his death. Writing in the introduction to A Fathers Law (Harper Perennial, 2008), she explains, "I remember curling up on the green

sofa, not even wanting to look at his empty bed with the fake fur blanket. The paper and objects strewn over the long rustic table of a dark held no possible interest for me. I was like a trapped animal curled around frozen pain but tense with vigilance. No, I didn't see the manuscript then. It was later, after the funeral, when Ellen went back to London to terminate her business there that I took to returning to the studio, unable to mourn except in denial and vigil."

Daughter of Richard, Daughter of Africa

She continues that ritual of remembrance: "It was then I found it ?or it found me. Did I roll the last page out of the Underwood? Or was it in one of my father's binders by his bed (he would never go out without the manuscript he was currently working on clasped in one of his favorite cardboard or leather binders)? It all rings a bell. I started to read and never stopped til those 306 pages were finished. And I wanted to protect both protagonists---the father and the son. The draft--so peculiar, so unwieldy, like a patchwork quilt of psychological horror with some pieces not quite fitting---became an integral part of my mourning. It was almost like a long letter, unsubmitted except to a few loved ones, and now to me. The notes I took ended up in dusty boxes at the other end of the Atlantic but not buried since they are to see the light of day."

Daylight. Bright and Morning Star. The Temple at Ihadan is closed but the pages of Richard Wright's A Father's Law beckons interested readers to turn them one by one. It's been a long journey for Richard Wright's daughter. Born in Brooklyn, New York she joined her parents in the even longer journey to France. This hegira did not end there. Soon thereafter she followed her father's footsteps to West Africa. Memories and A Daughter's Love. All to be documented and released to the public.

Our conversation turns to her long awaited biomemoir. When asked about its completion, Julia smiled as only she can and in her characteristic combination of reserve and muntu kuntu energy, her voice rises: "A biographer said Julia Wright will never finish her memoir on her father. She will take her memories with her. Did I give her an interview saying that? I never met her. I was being very ironic when I said, `This is new. Maybe they can pass a new law saying daughters and sons of famous people have to write a memoir! The book will be a biomemoir. What I want to tell people is this is what Richard Wright encouraged his daughter to become---me. I know my father would be proud of me. He'll probably joke a bit and say, `Oh Julia, come on. You're a little too much. Come on. Simmer down.' But he'd approve.... In thinking about how my childhood impacted me, I became addicted to things, to food. I have problems with food because my father was poor and our household turned around food but not in the sense that Conrad Kent Rivers wrote. HE never went down to the Riviera to eat Caviar. That was wrong. We respected food. Another thing I became addicted to were danger zones. My father loved adventures. He loved getting close to danger."

Julia Wright's Letter to President Kwame Nkrumah

When Julia went to Ghana to live and work, she was fully conscious that she was entering a danger zone. But like her father, this was the price one had to pay for freedom. Her father had written about his visit to Ghana during the colonial era, a few years before Ghana won its independence. Julia arrived there a few years after President Kwame Nkrumah had embarked upon a valiant battle against the final vestiges of imperialism. Indeed, he wrote a book with the title, Neo-Colonialism: the Last Stage of Imperialism. This young Afropean arrived in Ghana prior to Malcolm X's and Muhammad Ali's visits to the country. She became a vital part of the growing African American community Nkrumah attracted to make good on his promise of a Pan African reality. Among this group of outstanding African Americans were Sylvia Boone, W. E. B. DuBois, Shirley Grahmam DuBois, David Levering Lewis, Martin Kilson, Adelaide Cromwell Hill, Leslie Alexander Lacey, Nell Painter, Maya Anglous, St. Clair Drake and Julia Wright. Not only did Julia have the honor of being President Nkrumah's French instructor but she also asked this Pan African patriot to take a pubic position on behalf of the Black Power Movement in the USA. She wrote, "Osagyefo, this is why I am writing to you. Because you are the only African leader who in his writings has shown an understanding of the plight of the American Negro. Because you are the only African leader who has made African American solidarity a reality by welcoming to your Ghana Afro American freedom fighters of the calibre of DuBois, Hunton and my father." President Nkrumah complied with Julia's request as many others have since that time.

Celebrating the Centennial of Richard Wright's Birth is something that all of us can be a part of and we can welcome Julia Wright to Philadelphia for a week long celebration of Richard Wright and The Struggle for Freedom.

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