Black America: We Have a Problem!

By Tyra C. Cohen

The media will have you believe the biggest post Black history month news is Martha Stewart’s departure from “Camp Cupcake” (Alderson Federal Prison Camp) after serving five months for what is coined a “white collar crime”. Alderson Federal Prison Camp has no metal fences surrounding the camp because most of the inmates are supposedly convicted of non-violent crimes. Inmates Sarah Jane Moore on September 22, 1975 and Lynette “Squeaky” Fromme on August 22, 1975 tried to assassinate President Gerald Ford. Another notable inmate Jazz great Billie Holiday who in 1959 was arrested for Heroin addiction, an illness not a crime.

Incarceration
44% of all prisoners in the United States are black. The incarcerated populations have quadrupled since 1980 and guess what not because of violent crimes but because of the war on drugs or more particularly black drug users. African Americans are arrested, prosecuted and imprisoned for drug offenses at far higher rates than whites. Blacks constitute 63 percent of all offenders admitted to state prisons. The explosion in the prison populations has largely taken place under your beloved Clinton administration. While Clinton and the Republican Congress have gutted spending for welfare and social programs, they have poured billions into hiring more police, and building more prisons and boot camps. We live in a country that holds itself out as the “land of freedom” yet incarcerates a higher percentage of its people than any other country. The absolute level of black incarceration should be cause for national concern.

Health Crisis
African-American youth are disproportionately affected by HIV/AIDS. Race and ethnicity are not risk factors but are risk markers that correlate with fundamental determinants of health such as poverty and limited access to quality health care. HIV/AIDS is the number one killer among African Americans ages 25-44. Don’t relax yet, the prevalence of HIV infection in people over the age of 50 years is growing. The number of AIDS cases reported in adults 50 years and over quintupled between 1990 and 2001 from 16,288 to 90,513.Yet one of the first things President Bush did after inauguration 2001 was attempt to close the Office of National AIDS Policy. HIV/AIDS epidemic is a health crisis for African Americans, yet we are blinded by the smokescreen called down-low. What is the definition of Down-Low? Does anybody know? New Jersey Governor McGreevey publicly admitted to “an adult consensual affair with another man.” J.L. King down-low poster boy and author of Living on the Down-Low says he was married and having adult consensual sex with other men. These are stories of sex, lies and just plain old cheating. It’s about dealing with critical, uncomfortable conversations about sexuality. White men are on the “down low” obviously and we live in a country that has far more white men than black men, so it stands to reason that there are far more white men on the down low. Why aren’t more white women being infected with HIV? We have a problem when we become so unconsciously entrenched in the media hype that we blame an entire epidemic on black men along with the victimization of black women. The real down low is the correlation between the rise in the prison population of African American men and the increase risk of leaving the prison with HIV/AIDS, Hepatitis B, Hepatitis C and or tuberculosis. Incarcerated persons have a disproportionate burden of infectious disease.

Education
Education is the only respectable catalyst for economic and social improvement. Now 50 years after Brown versus Board of Education we are in an ample position to historically analyze just what integration has done for the education of black students. We have a problem when the number of Americans living in poverty grew from 34.5 million in 2002 to 35.8 million in 2003, while the most affluent fifth of the population received half of all household income and the poorest fifth received only 3.5 percent. Nearly 1 in 4 African Americans live in poverty.

Law
Supreme Court Justices have the power to influence every factor of our lives with their decisions as the highest court in the United States -- from the right to privacy to the right to free speech. Supreme Court decisions affect every law in the nation, and Supreme Court Justices serve lifetime appointments. Now with that in mind understand there is an opportunity during President Bush’s tenure to appoint potentially two Supreme Court nominees. Rumor, also known as the media has it that 80 year old Chief Justice William Rehnquist and 74 year old Sandra Day O’Connor may step down off the lifetime appointment on the Supreme Court. This will give Bush the opportunity to change the overall orientation of the Supreme Court. Sandra Day O’Connor is the first woman appointed to Supreme Court, O’Connor has become one the most watched justices on the Court because she is known as the swing vote. One of the short list nominees is John Roberts. John Roberts clerked for the current Chief Justice Rehnquist, and was nominated in 1992 by Senior Bush but the nomination lapsed before it could be considered. Yet John Roberts was appointed in 2003 to U.S. appeals court in Washington, DC by President G.W. Bush. John Roberts has a record of hostility to the rights of women and minorities. He supported a hard-line anti-civil rights policy that opposed affirmative action, which would have made it impossible for minorities to prove a violation of the Voting Rights Act. He also took anti-choice positions in two Supreme Court cases.

Reality
African Americans must be revolutionary enough to know what time it is in history and do something about that. It is time in our history to turn inward as strategic planners. We cannot forget that former President Bill Clinton left a legacy in the prison system during his eight years in office that was more punitive than both of his Republican predecessors Reagan and Bush. In the last two decades the rate of Black incarceration more than tripled. The Reagan Administration gave us the Contras, drug for arms scandal and the surge of crack cocaine. While the Contra’s war is barely a memory today, black America is still dealing with its poisonous side effects. Urban neighborhoods are grappling with legions of homeless crack addicts. Thousands of young black men are serving long prison sentences for selling cocaine-a drug that was virtually unobtainable in black neighborhoods before members of the CIA's army started bringing it into South-Central in the 1980s at bargain-basement prices. Cocaine, typically referred to as a white, middle-class drug, users receive lighter sentences than crack users. Crack is seen as a poor, Black drug. It takes 100 times more powdered cocaine to land you in jail than crack. Suppressing the Black vote is also achieved by disenfranchising incarcerated Black men. The best way you can destroy a people is to take away their ability to reproduce themselves. We have a problem.

Solution
African Americans must vote! We must vote because we need political rights and economic security. Out of the entire population of black-America, half of them are registered voters and 90 percent of those voted for the Democratic Party. Some African Americans have accused the Democratic Party of practicing "plantation politics." They say that although blacks repeatedly are depended on to keep the party in elected office, African Americans often are overlooked for key leadership posts. President Bush courted the Hispanic vote in the last election to the tune of an election year proposal that would grant immigrants legal status and release the threat of deportation. According to the last census report Hispanics are the largest minority. Democrats and Republicans, aware of the surge, have placed increased emphasis on attracting Hispanic voters.
Many young black voters are disenchanted with black leadership as well as the Democratic Party. Most aren't out to join the GOP, but they are more independent in their thinking and in their politics. There was a significant increase in those calling themselves independents, especially between the ages of 26 and 35. We need progressive independent political organizing that involves having goals that extend into the next millennium. Politicians are well aware of the correlation between the likelihood of voting and economic and educational background. All politics is local, so it is time that we take the necessary steps to control and fix what is going on where we live, instead of neglecting neighborhoods in order to rush to the aid of our friends across town; or worse waiting for help to come to us. Democrats take the black vote for granted and Republicans don’t need African Americans to win. Let’s join the 35% of Americans who identify as Political Independents. It’s the only way to Political Freedom.

Tyra can be reached at: Tyra_Cohen@yahoo.com

The Poor Have No Voice

By the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan (To read the entire article, please go the the link above) It’s said that most of the congressmen, the representatives of the American people, are from the wealthy class. The wealthy and the privileged in this society, who have benefited most from the federal debt, corporate restructurings and plant relocations, are the people charged with representing the poor. Can they adequately represent the poor? ......In the 1992 presidential debates, a young woman asked the candidates how can they, who have never known suffering in their lives, lead the American people and bring a healing to what ails the country? The closest people to the proper representation of the masses and their suffering are the Blacks, women, Native Americans, poor Whites and Hispanics. In the Congress, the closest representative of the poor is the Congressional Black Caucus. Each year, they have developed and presented before Congress a budget that would keep America strong, while at the same time looking out for the masses of America’s people. Each year, their efforts have been belittled and their budget has been voted down. ......In truth, the poor are voiceless in society as it is presently structured. Every president in recent history has been of the privileged class. This does not mean that being wealthy disqualifies one for leadership. Being wealthy does mean that there is a lack of an experiential vantage point that we must pay careful attention to. It was Mr. Ross Perot, among all the candidates in the ‘92 presidential election, who recognized—and openly stated—that the wealth he has achieved is from the poor. Now he sees that same country and those same working-class people who gave him the opportunity to be a billionaire, going down the tubes.

Same Day Voter Registration

Want more voters? Let them register on Election Day. It works in six states.

Go to www.midwestdemocracy.org for more information.

How are "Black Leaders" selected?

This is the question that we have been trying to figure out the answer to for a long time. Do Blacks vote for these individuals? Is it the media's selection of them? Why do so many of them don't practice what they preach? Does the Black American voter need someone to keep them 'in check' and guide them in the right direction?

The major problem with these leaders today that they don't show us how to stand up and be independent!

Save 'genuine' presidential debates

Here are two paragraphs from the following opinion article:

Save 'genuine' presidential debates
By George Farah

http://search.csmonitor.com/search_content/0810/p09s02-coop.html

WASHINGTON – Since 1988, the general election presidential debates have been controlled by a private corporation - the Commission on Presidential Debates (CPD) - that has deceptively served the interests of the Republican and Democratic parties at the expense of the American people. And for the first time in 16 years, there is a vigorous, organized effort to return control of the presidential debates to a genuinely nonpartisan champion of voter education.

The consequences of such deceptive major-party control are predictable and distressing. Candidates that voters want to see are often excluded from the general election presidential debates, such as Ross Perot, Ralph Nader, and Pat Buchanan. Issues the American people want to hear about - such as free trade, government waste, child poverty, and immigration - are often ignored. And the debates have been reduced to a series of glorified bipartisan news conferences, in which the Republican and Democratic candidates merely recite prepackaged soundbites to fit 90-second response slots. Walter Cronkite, who served as a panelist for a 1960 presidential debate, called the CPD-sponsored debates an "unconscionable fraud" and accused the major party candidates of "sabotaging the electoral process." Accordingly, debate viewership has plummeted; 25 million fewer people watched the 2000 presidential debates than watched the 1992 presidential debates.

The Difference Between Democrats & Republicans

Though we believe that the Democrats and Republicans (a.k.a. Republicrats) are the same, there are people who still see that there are huge difference. However, we do see the most important one as stated below to the Black/African American voter:


"The Democrats will take you for granted. The Republicans will pay you little to no attention at all."

A Letter to The Black Caucus from A Black Woman Living in South Central

http://www.commondreams.org/views04/0722-01.htm
Published on Thursday, July 22, 2004 by CommonDreams.org

A Letter to The Black Caucus from A Black Woman Living in South Central
by Donna J. Warren

'We respect your right to run Mr. Nader, now withdraw.'- Elijah Cummings, chair of the Congressional Black Caucus of the United States House of Representatives.
To Representative Cummings and members of the Black Caucus,
You demanded Independent Candidates Ralph Nader and Peter Camejo withdraw from the presidential race in favor of NAFTA approving, Iraq invading, Afghanistan bombing, Sudanese pharmaceutical plant bombing, right-wing Israeli prime minister and murderer Ariel Sharon supporting; impeachment of George W. Bush for the forced removal of democratically elected President Jean Bertrand Aristide refusing, and mandatory minimum sentencing supporting - John Kerry.
Kerry? Contempt for human rights, international law, arms control, and the United Nations is unforgivable.
'Anyone but Bush' was your cry when Nader and Camejo visited your offices in late June. But lets be honest - when Bush delivered lie after lie after lie during his state of the union addresses, it was the Democrats who stood and clapped. The Democrats made the monster George Bush!
You don't challenge the Democrats and Republicans in their abdication of our communities but you challenge Nader and Camejo for fighting for our communities. During your meeting you condemned Nader for choosing Camejo who speaks Spanish fluently because you fear Malcolm X's friend will take away your brown votes!
Peter Camejo changed the minds and hearts of Californians to oppose California's horrendous 3 Strikes Law during his campaign for governor. 3 Strikes imprisons African-Americans 12 to 1 for every white person for the same non-violent crime.
What have you done for us?
Does it matter to you that your constituents are hurt by red-lining, lead based poisoning, predatory lending, pay day loan rackets, and dirty meat? It matters to Ralph Nader.
Does it matter to you that student Nader challenged Harvard University when they published the lie that blacks are inferior to whites? It matters to me.
Does it matter to you that only Nader campaigned in Ward 8 of the District of Columbia exposing that 65,000 people live without a single supermarket yet the District of Columbia has had black mayors and a black city council for the last 35 years? It matters to your constituents.
What are you afraid of? That Nader and Camejo may mess up your little party because they advocate for Black Americans and you don't?
'Anyone but Bush' is your mantra. But even if Bush self-destructs, how can you support John Kerry without demanding a mandate? Corporate interests pull the Democrats 24 hours a day. Without a mandate to pull John Kerry in a progressive direction, there's no way you can demand equity.
You told Ralph Nader you wanted him out of the race so Bush can't appoint another right-winger to the Supreme Court but let's look at the record.
Kerry promises to appoint anti-abortion judges while professing to protect a woman?? right to choose.
The Senate Democrats confirmed right-wing Supreme Court Judge Antonin Scalia 98 - 0. Not one Democratic senator including Gore, opposed Scalia.
The Democrats could have blocked right-wing Supreme Court Judge Clarence Thomas's confirmation, they were in control of the Senate, but 11 Democrats moved across the line to confirm Thomas 52-48 while Senate Majority Leader George Mitchell sat in his office twirling his thumbs.
You don't stop anything that hurts us!
You could have filibustered the tax cut for the wealthy but you didn't.
You could have demanded gas efficient car engines but instead you sanctioned the SUV and gave the auto companies an 8 year holiday without requiring better gas efficiency.
You could have opposed genetically engineered foods, the petroleum industry, and the WTO but you didn't.
You could have opposed the federal crime bill which imprisons drug addicts for the drugs our government allowed to flow into the inner cities but you didn't.
You could have opposed the leave no child behind high stake multiple testing fraud but instead you chose to sacrifice our children.
You could have said 'no' to the patriot act but you didn't.
You don't represent me!
In 2000, Congressman Julian Dixon sold me out like a $2 dollar whore when as ranking member of the House Judiciary Committee, he announced the CIA was not complicit in the destruction of the inner cities by crack cocaine. I'm tired of being sold out like a $2 dollar whore by black people living the good life as my representative in our Nation's capitol.
Thomas Paine said in the 1700 'If there must be trouble let it be in my day, that my child may have peace.'; Ralph Nader and Peter Camejo are voices taking on the trouble of our day so that we and future generations may have peace.
Get off your knees and demand the Democrats stop sabotaging the Nader/Camejo Campaign. Demand Ralph Nader and Peter Camejo be included in the debates. Don't go down like a punk, remember the ancestors and stand tall!

Sincerely,
Donna J. Warren  

Donna J. Warren, is a former Green Party candidate for Lt. Governor of California. She sued the CIA and the Department of Justice in 1998 for their complicity in the destruction of South Central by crack cocaine. She may be reached at cottry@sbcglobal.net
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The Independent Voter.com

"The Independent Voter - a portal to Independent content and opinions on the web"
 
http://www.theindependentvoter.com/

 
This web site has a list of the politically-related Independent movement organizations on the Internet. A good tool to use if you are doing research on Independent politics. The also belong to the Independent Voter web ring.

Article: A CONSTITUTIONAL CRISIS

The following article will appear in the Fall 2004 edition of the Neo-Independent.

http://www.neoindependent.com/hkfallneoind.htm

CITIZEN CHANGE IS LOOKING FOR VOLUNTEERS

From: www.republicatrading.com
 
http://www.republicatrading.com/pages/2004/07/citizen-change-is-looking-for.html
 
Citizen Change is a non-partisan, non-profit organization with a mission to educate, inspire and mobilize millions of young Americans to access their power and vote on November 2nd. This organization is spear headed by the one and only Sean"P.Diddy Combs. He is extremely passionate about this new organization and is seeking for volunteers interested in participating.Volunteers will be needed through out the duration of this project, and the more the better. On Tuesday, July 20th, he will be launching the official Press Conference.If you have the time and are interested in being part of this event, please contact me at cconcepcion@badboyworldwide.com, or at my cell phone (917)279-3931. Also, please forward this information to others who might be interested as well.

Official web site of Citizen Change
www.citizenchange.com

The Network goes public

The Black Independent Network is registering with different search engines on the Internet. If you know of any search engines or web sites to recommend, please post the name of the web site and the URL. Thanks!

Welcome!!

Welcome to the Black Independent Voter Network. This blog will serve as meeting board for Black Independents to discuss topics in the political arena. The network is for voters who believe that the two-party system has lost touch with Black America as well as taking the Black vote for granted.