Retirement community plan leaves out Blacks

We have noticed that the individuals who control and run Americus and Sumter County are not interested in growth and expansion. We asked President Jimmy Carter back in 1986 why he did not bring more industry and jobs to Sumter County while he was President? He replied, "The County Fathers do not want the industries." We have learned that Proctor and Gamble and several other major industrial plants tried to locate in Americus but the City Fathers turned them down. Ginger Starlin, local insurance broker and former candidate for the state legislature said during her campaign, "That they did not want urban sprawl in Sumter County." What does that say about the future of Americus for young people who want to live here and be able to find a good job?
When Georgia Southwestern University alumni association held their awards program and David Garriga, the former head of the Chamber of Commerce, made this statement, "We need a hospital if you want a retirement community or a community with industries." Now... we can see why the same small "Clique" of power brokers who run the School System, the County Commissioners, the City Council, the Hospital, and the Payroll Development Agency band together. As we have observed the NAACP fighting and clawing to make the Black community inclusive in the governing of Americus, but that "Clique" has a steel wall blocking them at every point. Of course, they have mastered the art of selecting Blacks that they can sit by the door and block any strong Black who wants inclusion.
After the March 1, tornado, it became very clear that the "Clique" is gleeful that jobs are leaving the area. Many of the young Blacks who held the majority of these jobs will have to leave. Why would we say they are happy to see the jobs go? The power "Clique" desires a retirement community instead of an industrial community. Should industry come to Americus, this would attract young working age people to this area and produce urban sprawl making this a bustling city instead of a retirement community.
Historically, this crowd, the "Clique" has not been interested in real growth and real jobs dating back to when Carter was President. Service jobs like the new Ruby Tuesday Restaurant, Lowe's and others are indeed jobs, but will pay mostly minimum wages.
We who are not in the "Clique" can't fathom what this retirement community would look like. One can only imagine that it will be "White and aging." The young Blacks and poor Whites would have to go elsewhere for jobs that produce a livable wage. The Blacks who stay here will do service work that resembles the "old South." Of course, the "Uncle Toms" will remain loyal until God deals with them later.
We have tried to advance the Blacks in this community for more than 10 years but the White elite will not have it. After the tornado, it is much clearer to us that the White elite and the "Toms" are winning this battle.
We are hearing daily of companies that have left or planning to leave Americus and those of us who want growth are horrified. But the Whites at the GSW alumni dinner were just as happy and joking like nothing is happening in Americus. That is because they can see this retirement community as a definite possibility. They really want the young people to go away and make room for a slow death of a community. I hope the Black leaders and Pastors of our local churches are listening and are sober minded. The people putting money in those church collection plates are young working age adults with good jobs. Many of the young workers have told us that they are leaving Americus too.
In closing, our Black leaders are an embarrassment. All of them are walking into a trap with their eyes wide open. The White elite "Clique" is so transparent in all of their machinations. For example, the White school board members tried to bring a charter school to Americus to give the White students from the segregated Southland Academy, at the taxpayer's expense. All of the main administrative and supervisory jobs are held by Whites. The city and county are the same with Whites in the top positions whether they deserve to be or not. Don't mention the courthouse, where the place is predominantly White-controlled. Although, all of this is in a majority Black town, the school system is 70% Black, the hospital was 90% Black patients, but our Black leaders are not savvy enough to sit down and do something for our people.
Top of Page

TB Revisited

Tuberculosis is back in the headlines again because a high profile, transcontinental, transatlantic traveler got on a jet against his doctor's orders, and against the orders of the CDC, who invoked a federal isolation order on him, and exposed other passengers to an antibiotic resistant strain of the disease.  The traveler, Andrew Speaker, is now being detained by Denver health officials, and is under treatment.  With the drugs available now, Mr. Speaker will require years of treatment, and perhaps surgery.  Interestingly, his father-in-law is a researcher for the CDC, involved in TB research.

Readers of The Observer will remember that the Prison & Jail Project was involved in a major outbreak of TB in the Georgia Prison system that resulted in hundreds of prisoners, guards, and staff members being exposed to the disease.  Those hundreds had to be treated, and many actually became sickened with TB.  Others became sick as a result of side effects to the drugs.  We will never know how many hundreds of visitors and other civilians were exposed and then became sick as a result of the Georgia Prison system's gross negligence, lies, and cover-ups.

As all of this major international news is going on, an equally important local story is unfolding, but no media attention is being paid to it.

In Dawson, Terrell County, an unemployed African American man with multiple health problems and no health insurance was diagnosed with an active case of TB.  Rather than the Georgia health officials sending him to a treatment center, where he could receive the proper care and medication, this man was sent home, where his health condition would be a threat to others around him.

One day he was seen in his yard without a mask on.  Someone reported him, and the "punishment" was that he was arrested.  Apparently, it is a crime to be sick in Terrell County.  Wisely, the sheriff said that he did not have a cell that was properly ventilated, and he refused to hold the man in the county jail, nor would he expose his deputies to the danger of transporting this man who had an active case of TB.  While the courts, not the medical system, tried to figure out how to treat him, and where to hold him, the man was imprisoned in the Dougherty County jail, where there is a properly vented cell.

At the hearing, the judge and attorneys learned that there is no longer a treatment facility in Georgia for TB.  It was closed down several years ago.  The closest facility is out of state in South Carolina.  The judge inquired if the man could be transported to South Carolina in an ambulance, but it was determined that the closed-in space of an ambulance is not properly ventilated for a patient with TB.  The Terrell County sheriff stood firm, refusing to expose his deputies to TB, even if the man were placed in the back of a Terrell County sheriff's car with the window's rolled down.  At the hearing, the man was sentenced to the facility in South Carolina, and the county was charged with finding a way to transport him.

Is it a crime to be sick?  Why don't we have a cure for TB?  Our problems stem from this filthy, rotten system.  It's way past time for a change!

Top of Page

Getting "Grounded"

You have heard the phrase, getting "grounded". According to the dictionary the verb to ground means: 1. to have a ground or basis for, 2. to provide a reason or justification, and 3. to instruct in fundamentals. People who have been divorced from nature and living in artificial environments may loose their connections with basic realities. Growing your own food in your garden will definitely help you get "grounded", because the Honorable Elijah Muhammad taught us that "agriculture is the root of civilization". If we intend to separate from this present wicked civilization and build our own, then we must be grounded in the reality of creation and not the illusions produced by our slave masters’ children.

The Honorable Elijah Muhammad taught us that we must have some of this Earth that we can call our own. Now, if after Hurricane Katrina and how Blacks were treated in New Orleans, you still do not want some land that you control, well you are not "grounded". If after the repeated news stories about E. coli in spinach, carrots and broccoli; contamination in baby food, pet food and feed for animals; pieces of metal in loaves of bread; refusal by foreign countries of America’s genetically modified corn, soybeans and rice; the mass entry of non-tested foods from foreign sources; and you still want to live on concrete 20 stories off the ground completely dependent upon the "merchants of death" to eat, well you are just not "grounded". However, for those of you who want to get "grounded", let us get started.

First of all the Earth is 7,926 miles in diameter consisting of 196,940,000 square miles of which 57,255,000 square miles is land according to the Teachings of the Honorable Elijah Muhammad. However, of the 7,926 miles of the Earth’s total diameter, we humans live on the very top surface of the crust of the Earth and our life on this Earth is dependent upon just a few inches of those total miles. If we mess up those top inches, we are out of here.

According to earth science, the thickness of the Earth’s crust varies between 3 and 43 miles and is composed mainly of basalt and granite. In all the Earth's crust occupies less than 1% of Earth's volume.

Soil in which we grow crops is a very then layer on top of the crust. Soil is considered a three phase system, consisting of solid, liquid, and gas. The solid phase consists of minerals and organic matter, including living organisms. The liquid phase is known as the 'soil solution', and is the phase from which plants take up nutrients. The gaseous phase is important for supplying oxygen to the roots for respiration.

Cultivation, earthworms, frost action and rodents mix the soil producing a porous crumbly aggregate suitable for planting and germination. Topsoil is the uppermost layer of soil, usually the top 2 to 6 inches. It has the highest concentration of organic matter and microorganisms, and is where most of the Earth's biological soil activity occurs.

Plants generally concentrate their roots in, and obtain most of their nutrients from this layer. The actual depth of the topsoil layer can be measured as the depth from the surface to the first densely packed soil layer known as "hardpan". The topsoil layer is formed from the deposition of eroded material as well as decaying organic matter. Without topsoil, little plant life is possible. It takes approximately 500 years for one inch of topsoil to be deposited under normal conditions, but there are 25 billion tons of topsoil lost each year to erosion.

In earth science "humus" refers to any organic matter which has reached a point of stability. In agriculture, "humus" is often used simply to mean mature compost. Compost is the aerobically decomposed remnants of organic materials.

Chemically speaking, organic simply means any compound whose molecules contain carbon. However, when talking about growing food, organic means they were grown without the use of conventional pesticides, artificial fertilizers, human waste, or sewage sludge, and that they were processed without ionizing radiation or food additives.

In a future article we will go into the macro aspects of the ground or land. However to get you started on your own home or community garden, we will concentrate on the micro or small aspects of a piece of ground where we will utilize the information in the above descriptions and definitions.

In March of 2006 we were blessed to be a part of a fact finding visit to Cuba, sponsored and accompanied by the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan. In Havana, Cuba we were struck with the number of vegetable gardens on almost every piece of vacant land in the city. We also noticed that they used a form of gardening called "raised bed" gardening.

In the above information we found that plants grow in the topsoil or about only 2 to 6 inches of the Earth. A productive topsoil will consist of humus materials and ample porosity for water and nutrient uptake while providing oxygen to the roots. Since many of us live on concrete and some of the Black communities were actually built on top of land fills and toxic waste dumps, bringing in new topsoil is advisable in many cases. You can set up these raised beds right on top of concrete and still get excellent results.

Recently the Ministry of Agriculture built a set of raised beds for Minister Farrakhan’s personal garden. Because the Minister had already built compost piles and had aged horse manure into a fine humus that had been mixed with sand, we used it as the main filler for the raised beds. We stacked and staked two four by four inches by 16 feet treated lumber to form our 8 inch high beds.

For those of you who do not have access to composted horse manure mixed with sand we suggest a mixture of one part topsoil, one part composted cow manure and one part fine mulch, such as pine bark mulch. All of these ingredients can be readily found at Home Depot, Lowe’s, Wal-Mart or garden stores. There are more expensive premixed potting soils, however you would be paying for the convenience and not the substance.

An added value of setting up raised beds is that you control the soil content and reduce the amount of weeds that you will have to fight if you plant directly in your backyard ground. However, if you have a piece of ground that has good humus and earthworms, you might just want to till it up and plant and fight the weeds in "hand to hand" combat (smile). Be sure to contact your local Agricultural Extension agent in your county and ask them how you can get your soil tested for toxicity and fertility or you can purchase soil testing kits at garden centers. Otherwise just bring in your own topsoil and compost and "get grounded".

Top of Page

Religion a major force in the African-American Community

With more than 38 million African-Americans, the United States of America has the eighth-largest Black population in the world. Only Tanzania, Sudan, Brazil, South Africa, Nigeria, Ethiopia and the Congo have a larger Black population. Despite this large number of American Blacks, we have had a very small role in political decisions about our past, our present, and if this trend continue, our future.
We did not invite slavery into our lives, yet we were forced to attend the party. Although slavery seem far removed from issues which separate Whites and Blacks today, we must remember that for over three centuries slavery was tolerated and legally protected by the U.S. Constitution. Slavery was the foundation to the U.S. culture, and continues to regulate Black-White interaction even to this day.
Religion was a huge part of a slave's life and slave owners even encouraged their slaves to practice Christianity. By following the Christian faith slaves were instructed to be obedient to their slave masters and to completely surrender their all. Slaves who obeyed were promised salvation and eternal happiness in the after-life, and those who refused were told that their disobedience would bring everlasting damnation. Today we know better. Thank God! But, during those days this belief served as the basis for nightly prayer meetings, old negro hymns, fellowship and unity which gave them hope and the will to work for their freedom.
It is impossible to over-estimate the role religion has played in the social history of African-Americans. Black leaders have come out of the pulpits to protect the rights of other Blacks. Reverend Dr. King, Reverend Jessie Jackson, Reverend Al Sharpton and many others. Churches have and are still serving as the basis for community organization to gain strength and unity for "just causes." Blacks continue to use the church as the focal point for community activities. For many generations the ministry was the only profession African-Americans could enter free of restriction.
Last year when I was a candidate for District 4, I realized the church is the right way to organize Black people and the rest of poor American people (regardless of race). It is not only one's religious belief but also the coming together and interacting in the Spirit of God that causes churches to be a powerful organizing tool. This power was displayed after the tornado on March 1 in Americus. The Black and White churches came together for a "Just Cause." The assembly and show of unity brought people together for the common good of all who were suffering. This is a great example of the church serving as an agent of social change in communities. This display of unity proved the church is not only still the "Anchor" for the community but also can nudge society to move in a desired direction.
In the 21st century the church will be called on again to lead voter registration drives within their congregations. It is passed time that African-American voter truly understand the value of our individual vote. Do you not know that voting day is the only time in poor people's lives when they are considered equal to any other voter? Regardless of race, social status, gender, religion or any other descriptor, you are equal on voting day. At this time the scale of justice is balanced.
Wake-up people! We cannot continue this pattern of not voting. We have to change the direction that wealthy America is taking our country. Poor people are being left out and left behind. Policies and the few rights and benefits we had are being cut and/or discontinued. Do the math! There are a lot more poor people in this country than wealthy. We can change history by helping ourselves. Your vote is the only legal weapon you have to control elected politicians and officials. We must vote not only to reserve what future we may have left, but the future of our children, grandchildren and great grandchildren. Some psychologists believe that children emulate what they see their parents do. Let's be shinning examples for our children who are our future. And when the pastors call upon you to get registered and then vote, let your voice be heard in the number for positive change for all poor people.
Top of Page

Uniting the Black, Red and Brown

By FinalCall.com News

FCN Editorial

‘Si Se Puede!’ Yes We Can!

May Day, May 1, 2007. International Workers Day. This year was the second year when mostly Latino groups staged massive rallies throughout the country on behalf of immigrant workers. Their rallies took place near in time to the 24th Annual Gathering of Nations PowWow and Festival where more than 100,000 Native Americans convened in Albuquerque, N.M.

We should point out that from Coast to Coast and from Border to Border, the Nation of Islam marched in solidarity, and bore faithful witness to the striving by the Brown members and the Red members of our human family.

“No More Raids and Deportations!” “Moratorium Now!” and “Not One Family Separated!” read the signs in Chicago. “We are workers, not terrorists,” said the signs in Houston. New Yorkers gathered in Union Square, in solidarity.

In Albuquerque, the largest PowWow (celebration) of Indigenous people of the year, and amid the food, the jewelry, the tens of thousands of Native peoples of all Nations, there was a hearty contingent of Fruit of Islam (FOI) in suits and bow ties, accompanying a delegation representing the Nation of Islam (NOI) and the Millions More Movement (MMM).

In Los Angeles, shortly after Min. Ishmael Muhammad, National Assistant Minister to the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan, greeted the mostly Latino audience in Spanish, their shared language, demonstrators were responding: “Si, Se Puede! (Yes We Can!)”

Together, these activities represent another step led by Min. Farrakhan and his helpers, toward the fulfillment of the vision of the Most Honorable Elijah Muhammad—the establishment of a bond of cooperation between the Black, the Red and the Brown.

“I don’t come to you today as a stranger, but as your Brother,” Min. Ishmael said in Los Angeles. “You must always remember that the forces that attempt to separate and divide us; that are sending parents of children back on the other side of the border—these forces have always been engaged in the break up of family.

“In Los Angeles, there are conflicts that are taking place between the Black and the Brown; the Black and the Red. We must not allow the forces to make us see that we are enemies of one another. We are Brothers and Families!”

Immigrants rights supporters are demanding legislation which will stop the raids and deportations of undocumented persons, and opening a path to legalizing the status of the so-called “illegal” immigrant.

Native people continue to assert their sovereignty, where Blacks and other non-White groups which have been in the numerical “minority” in the U.S. have focused their struggle on seeking “equality” in a system which has never viewed them as equal, and which may never view them as equal.

Uniting the Black, Red and Brown: “Si Se Puede! Yes We Can!”

A strategic alliance and relationship must be developed, because the lands on which we all reside are their lands, the lands of the Native Peoples; the Mexican people. “We are grateful to them because they opened their arms and received many of our forefathers who were fleeing from the evils of slavery, and the blood has mixed with the Red and the Black. We are blood of each others’ blood, flesh of each others’ flesh, bone of each others’ bone and the thing that the enemy has done is to make us all see each other differently,” Min. Ishmael Muhammad said at the Gathering of Nations PowWow. “He has put up a veil and a wall between the Indigenous people. We are divided internally and even divided externally where we don’t even recognize each other as members of one family.”

No one was spared the enemy’s wrath. Blacks in America were destroyed by 400 years of slavery and oppression. The effects of that destruction can be seen everyday on the streets in America where Black people live. “The Honorable Elijah Muhammad saw the unity of Black and Brown and Red and Yellow and even the poor White, one day in this nation.”

“This last century—the 20th Century—was the last century of imperialism, colonialism. It is the last century of racism and injustice, evil and the rule of Satan,” continued the National Assistant Minister. “The new century belongs to God and the righteous from the Black, the Brown and all of the peoples of the earth.”

The Nation of Islam delegations, including Mother Tynnetta Muhammad, Min. Ishmael Muhammad, Nation of Islam Chief-of-Staff Leonard F. Muhammad, Southwestern Regional Minister Robert Muhammad, Western Regional Minister Tony Muhammad, and Sis. Yo’Nas Da LoneWolf McCall-Muhammad, and others helped to extend our frontiers.

Uniting the Black, Red and Brown: “Si Se Puede! Yes We Can!”

Top of Page

Will Blacks and whites ever agree on race?

By George E. Curry, Daily Challenge

The huge gap between Blacks and whites about whether O.J. Simpson was guilty of killing his wife and a companion was in many ways expected. But subsequent polls, ranging from whether race played a part in the slow federal response to Hurricane Katrina to, more recently, was radio shock jock Don Imus’ firing fair and whether baseball slugger Barry Bonds should break Hank Aaron’s major league record of 755 home runs, exposes a racial gulf wider than the Atlantic Ocean.

A poll by ESPN/ABS News found more than twice as many Black fans as whites are likely to be pulling for Bonds to break the mark (74 percent to 28 percent). More than three-fourths of whites – 76 percent – think Bonds used steroids, compared to only 37 percent of African-Americans.

A sports fan observed on one sports blog: “If there is racism involving Barry Bond’s chase for 758, it cuts both ways. Is it that a majority of white people are coming down on Barry Bonds because he is Black? Or is it that a majority of Black people don’t find fault with a fellow Black person?”

Complicating matters on both sides of the divide, there are many reasons to dislike Bonds that have nothing to do with race.

“Away from AT&T Park, Bonds is viewed mostly as a pariah, someone who has tainted the game and made its most sacred statistic meaningless,” wrote Tim Dahlberg, a columnist for the Associated Press. He explained, “People liked Henry Aaron. They still do. Bonds, by contrast, wasn’t a popular player even before his body grew large, his head ballooned to cartoonish size and his home runs started splashing in McCovey Cove. From the beginning of his career, he treated fans to growing contempt for him.”

Speaking of contempt, there was nothing like the contempt shown for Don Imus after he expressed contempt for the predominantly Black Rutgers University basketball team, calling the players “nappy-headed hos.” The radio shock jock was fired by CBS, the distributor of his syndicated radio program, and MSNBC, the cable channel that simulcasts the show.

There was a general consensus that Imus got what he deserved. Or, was there a consensus? A survey by the Pew Center for the People & Press found that majority of people – 53 percent of whites and 61 percent of Blacks – felt that the Imus punishment was appropriate; approximately twice as many whites as Blacks believe his punishment was too tough (35 percent to 18 percent).

For me, the most shocking racial comparison was the response to Hurricane Katrina. Both Don Imus and Barry Bonds could be written off as creeps. But with Katrina, we were talking about the national disaster. Yet, Blacks and whites failed to see eye-to-eye on Hurricane Katrina.

According to a CNN/USA Today poll, a majority of African Americans – six in 10 – said the federal government was slow to rescue New Orleans residents because many of them were Black. However, only one in eight whites shared that view.

The highly-publicized O.J. Simpson murder trial in 1996 was the mother of all racial divides. A CNN/USA Today Poll showed that 62 percent of African-Americans agreed with the jury’s decision to acquit Simpson. But only 20 percent of whites thought the jury was right to acquit the former football star.

A 2001 Gallup Poll put all of the polls in context: “Nearly half of whites and two-thirds of Blacks think that race relations will always be a problem in this country.”

It will certainly remain a problem if whites and Blacks continue to look at major issues through their own racial lenses.

But there is some good news buried under all of those polls.

The Gallup survey reported: “When asked whether relations between Blacks and whites have improved, remained the same, or gotten worse over the past year, similar proportions of Blacks (33 percent) and whites (29 percent) say that relations have improved.”

The ESP/ABC Barry Bonds poll proved further cause for optimism. Younger whites are 15 points more likely than older whites to recognize Bonds as the home run king and feel that he deserves to be in the Hall of Fame.

Now, if they could only get the old heads to catch up.

Top of Page