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April 2006
Helping someone can be simple
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
They met at Bally Total Fitness.
Ray Rook works out at the Norcross gym. Michael Hyler worked there as a porter. Sometimes the two would chat.
Rook, a retired IRS branch chief, was impressed with the 19-year-old Hyler. His work ethic. His mannerisms. This affable young man, Rook surmised, could do better. He told him so.
Last fall, Rook stopped by the Wal-Mart Supercenter in Lilburn to buy some shaving lotion. He struck up a conversation with an assistant manager. He told him about Hyler, a hard worker stuck in a dead-end job.
“He said, ‘Send him to me,’ ” Rook said.
Hyler dropped by, filled out an application and took a drug test. He got hired five months ago and works in the warehouse. He’s since gotten a raise and a promotion. He’s eyeing management, possibly as an assistant manager of a department.
Chalk it up to personal initiative — his and Rook’s.
“If he doesn’t come by the store, he’ll call me or I will call him,” said Hyler, a Chicagoan who lives in Lawrenceville with his mom. “Every time I talk to him or see him, I tell him thanks for helping out.”
Rook was 17 when he got his first job. He worked as a clerk with the War Department. It was 1945. A female supervisor showed him the ropes, ensured that he didn’t fail. Other bosses and supervisors did likewise during stints with the North Carolina National Guard, followed by decades with the IRS.
According to Wikipedia, the phrase “pay it forward” first appeared in Catherine Ryan Hyde’s novel, “Pay It Forward.” Warner Brothers made a movie that carried the same name. As a philosophy, it generally means exhibiting a desire to help others because you, at some point, have or will receive help.
Rook, now 78 and retired since 1983, is paying it forward.
“I would like to see Mike advance and have a successful career that would make his mother and family proud,” he told me via e-mail. “I hope that, once this happens, he will develop into a mature man who will someday help someone else get a good start in life.”
Rook contacted me after my column on George Brown ran Thursday. I wrote about Brown, whom I spotted soliciting work in the parking lot of the Dunkin’ Donuts on Jimmy Carter Boulevard.
In Gwinnett, we have some good souls who want to pay it forward. They want to help Brown, a total stranger, regardless of color or how he got in his current fix. A Lawrenceville man has offered free rent. A business owner who may have a full-time position for Brown asked that I have Brown contact him. Other readers have asked me to pass on the names of agencies and nonprofits that offer aid.
In his e-mail, Rook explained how simple it had been to help Hyler. All he did was pass the young man’s name on to a potential employer.
“Just maybe you can do the same for this gentleman,” he suggested.
Maybe I have.
• Rick Badie’s column appears on Sundays, Tuesdays and Wednesdays. Contact him at 770-263-3875. Or e-mail: rbadie@ajc.com.
U.S. citizen can’t seem to get hired for day labor
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
He stood out from the rest of the men.
I spotted him at the Dunkin Donuts on Jimmy Carter Boulevard, in the parking lot where laborers congregate to find work.
Usually, they’re Hispanic males. One assumes that at least a few are in the country illegally.
Not George Brown.
He’s American via Mobile. He has a driver’s license and a Social Security card. He spent six years in the Army. Only one thing separates Brown from the rest of the laborers, and that’s skin color.
He’s black.
“I saw everybody standing out here looking for work, so I said, ‘Why not?’ the 39-year-old told me. “You got to do what you got to do to make it.”
Brown was drinking coffee and reading the newspaper when I introduced myself. He said he recognized me from the photo that appears with my column. I asked him if he wanted another cup. He declined.
Then, occasionally through tears, he told me his story as we sat in a booth. Nearly two decades ago, he moved to Atlanta to study computer technology. He was doing well, too, maintaining a 2.9 GPA while carrying a full course load and working full-time. The last semester he was in school, he experienced four deaths — his stepmother, an aunt, uncle and cousin. Traumatic losses.
Brown dropped out of school. He bounced from job to job. In some cases, he was laid off. In others, he just up and quit. Now, with nothing permanent, mornings are spent outside the doughnut shop, alongsideHispanic laborers, looking for work.
The kind of work that, according to Mexican President Vicente Fox, black Americans don’t want to do.
Remember his statement?
“There’s no doubt that the Mexican men and women — full of dignity, willpower and a capacity for work — are doing the work that not even blacks want to do in the United States,”he said.
Of course, that’s overly simplistic.
Maybe blacks refuse to do certain jobs at wages an illegal immigrant from Mexico might. Or they just can’t get hired.
Take Brown’s situation.
Physically, he’s bigger than many of the laborers who compete for work. And obviously, there’s no language issue. You’d think those would be selling points. “I get overlooked,” he told me. “All the time. I’m not upset with the amigos. They’re nice guys. But I work just as hard,if not harder, than they do. Yeah, it hurts me because I’m a legalized citizen.”
Brown may not be bitter at the laborers or potential employers, but the antics of some perturb him. He’s been accused of being a Homeland Security agent. After all, why else would an American citizen be job-hunting on the streets?
Brown arrives at the doughnut shop early in the morning. Every day. You can’t miss him. He’ll be the black guy who speaks fluent English.
And he would like a break.
Showing love doesn’t have to cost you a $3,600 prom dress
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
With $3,600 I could:
A) Fill my car up 90 times.
B) Take my family to Europe.
C) Buy a prom dress.
You may have seen the story on high school proms in Sunday’s AJC Gwinnett News. It’s accompanied by a photo of a Loganville girl trying on a $3,600 gown at Cinderella’s Closet in Lilburn. The price tag was no typo.
Maybe the young lady (more on that later) knew better. Perhaps she was just trying the gown on, as women are apt to do. You know — checking out its feel and fit.
Tammy Ussery-Bakhtiari has owned Cinderella’s Closet for 11 years. She’s seen styles come and go — from skimpy and bare to this year’s hip look — “old Hollywood.” Chic. Elegant. More respectful.
The $3,600 dress is an egregious exception to what’s typically spent. This prom season, girls are forking over between $200 and $500 for dresses at Cinderella’s.
Don’t think for a minute, though, that high-end gowns linger on the showroom floor. And it’s not always the young ladies who want to spend the equivalent of a Third World income for a dress.
Moms, sometimes, get outrageous. Ussery-Bakhtiari’s seen it.
Last year, a mother came in with the youngest of her three daughters. This would be Mom’s last prom experience, so she wanted to make it truly special. Mom told her daughter she could spend up to $3,500.
The child balked.
“She said, ‘That’s a lot of money,’ ” Ussery-Bakhtiari recalled. “She tried on a $300 dress and she said, ‘Mom, I love this one just as much.’ “
We love our kids. Blindly, sometimes. Our love gets dressed up and expressed in materialistic ways. It’s hard to say no to spendthriftiness. It’s everywhere. Look around your crib. Or the house of your kid’s friends.
My son has a PlayStation 2. So do most of his pals. Many of them have the portable PlayStation 2, too. Miles says he needs one, badly, and that he’s the only one without. Oh, the depravity.
Our kids learn nothing when we bow down and buy them everything they want. Or what’s in vogue. And don’t fool yourself into thinking it’s love. It’s something, but not necessarily love.
Miles was a preschooler when the Home Depot on Jimmy Carter Boulevard was being built. I didn’t work Fridays, so I’d pick him up about noon. One day, I bought a bag of Krystal burgers, fries and drinks. We parked at the massive construction site, ate our lunch, and watched the bulldozers, backhoes and tractors clear dirt. He still talks about that.
And he’ll probably think about that experience long after the PlayStation 2 and its hybrids have been rendered obsolete. When he’s grown, has a family of his own, and his kids bug him for the latest must-have gizmo.
I suspect the same would apply to the girl with the $3,600 prom dress — whoever winds up owning it. The Loganville High School senior shown in the photograph didn’t buy it.
As of Monday midmorning, “it has not sold,” Ussery-Bakhtiari told me.
Yet.
Parents should teach kids difference between real, make-believe worlds
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
When he was younger, I’d ask my son questions while he watched TV.
There’d be some superhero who’d stopped a speeding missile, then rescued a sinking ship. Or some cartoon character who’d jump back up after being smacked by a semi.
“Do you believe someone could actually do that?” I’d ask.
“No,” Miles would answer. Then he’d look at me as if I were crazy.
It was just Dad’s way of making sure his son was grounded, that he could distinguish between the real world and fantasy.
If nothing else, our Harry Potter debate tells me that some critics can’t differentiate between the two.
On Thursday, a hearing was held in which defenders and critics got to say whether Harry Potter books should be removed from Gwinnett County schools. Laura Mallory, a Loganville mother, filed the complaint that led to the hearing. The books, the missionary and mother of four said, teach adults and children witchcraft. It’s anti-Christian, too.
Potter foes found a poster child in 15-year-old Jordan Fuchs. At the hearing, she said the books made her obsessed with witchcraft. She and friends cast spells and even performed a seance during gym period. It’s unclear whether any of it worked. Her obsession made her angry and depressed. She even contemplated suicide.
Jordan’s mother, Stacy Thomas, said her daughter’s demonic spiral started around sixth grade. She testified at the hearing that she couldn’t explain the change. But she knows this: Jordan’s activities hurt the “Christian family,” cost them friends and made them the “town outcasts.”
Thomas learned that Jordan had been reading Potter.
Eureka! It was all the fault of a wizard-in-training.
“She became heavily involved with witchcraft and Wicca,” said Thomas, a mother of five. “Witchcraft almost destroyed my family, and it all started with Harry Potter.”
Go ahead. Laugh. I admit it’s funny.
But sad, too.
It’s hard to look within. Potter — at least in the case of this mom and daughter — has become the scapegoat for issues that rival any sorcerer’s tale. Blame is laid on the pages of a book. On literature that’s got children reading, whose central theme is friendship, courage and good vs. evil.
But that doesn’t matter to some critics. They want the books banned.
Su Ellen Bray, a retired DeKalb County school administrator who served as the hearing officer Thursday, has five days to give board members a recommendation. Then, the school board will have 10 days to make a decision to remove the six Potter books or not.
Like her mother, Jordan said she wants the books banned. She said she’s turned her life around and is on the road to recovery.
I hope so.
But given the apparent denial and misplaced blame, you have to wonder: Does her mother have her daughter’s recovery taking place in the real world or a make-believe one?
Golden Olympics help seniors stay fit, active, healthy
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
I smelled defeat. My own.
He took his expensive Ping-Pong paddle out of a leather case. It made mine look like something from Wal-Mart. Which it was.
We volleyed. Backhands. Overhands. Trick spins. And in my case, lucky shots. I’d gain some semblance of a lead. He’d resort to a special serve that I couldn’t counter.
In the end, Bill York whipped me like I stole something. Three times. Whipped me the same way I used to rule the table back in the day at UGA. Whipped me like I was a kid and he was the master.
And on this day in the Gwinnett Senior Center off Bethesda Church Road, that held true.
York just turned 80. He’s been playing Ping-Pong — table tennis, if you prefer — ever since he was a 10-year-old in Hymera, Ind.
The itty-bitty town had a teeny-tiny recreation hall with a Ping-Pong table. York took to it.
“Reached the point where I was beating everybody in town,” he said. The man enjoys competition. Says it’s healthy.
Which brings me to Ping-Pong and the reason we hooked up recently to hit a few. The 2006 Gwinnett Senior Golden Olympics kick off tomorrow and continue through mid May.
The Games provide seniors with a chance to partake in different sports, acquire new skills, meet people and learn about recreational outlets available to them in Gwinnett. Only 76 participants competed in a dozen or so sports when the Games started six years ago. This year, nearly four times that many will chase medals in bowling, horseshoes, swimming and such.
“We have everything from A to W, and all the sports in between,” said Al Sandham, the chairman. “We have a dedicated team of volunteers.”
And seniors like York.
People who believe in the benefits of exercise. Of staying active and alert. He has registered for three events. One of them is table tennis. Archery and tennis are the others. He used to play golf.
“Then I began having a shoulder problem,” he said. “After playing, I would hurt. After table tennis, I don’t hurt.”
He ran York Furs of Buckhead for four decades. In retirement, he’s written and self-published four fiction books as well as two on Native Americans. To stay fit, he plays tennis, punches a speed bag and does military-style calisthenics. Man. To be 80 and that healthy.
“I tell you how to do it,” he told me. “Lay off the booze. Lay off the cigarettes. Exercise regularly, and it doesn’t have to be jogging and running.” The day after York whipped me, he sent an e-mail. He thanked me for playing. Said he had a good time. And like a true competitor, he offered advice: Buy a better paddle.
Practice. Practice. Practice.
Never play in dress shoes on a slick floor.
“We’ll do it again,” he wrote.
Count on it.
(The 2006 Gwinnett Senior Golden Olympics takes place April 21 through May 19 at various locations. For more information, visit the Web site: www.gwinnettseniorolympics.org.)
Secrecy might just backfire on board
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
First, let’s praise them.
Gwinnett’s public schools operate well. Athletics and academics thrive and co-exist peacefully. Standardized test results, generally, rank among the highest in the state. New campuses open on schedule.The community supports its public schools.
And for that, we can thank the Big Man — Superintendent J. Alvin Wilbanks and his administration. Their pride runs deep. It should.
But sometimes they take it to the nth degree, turn praise and success into high-minded haughtiness.
And history has classic tales of where hubris can lead.
You probably know the details. The good news is that Mr. Wilbanks and his crew spent a whopping $117.4 million on more than 1,000 acres to build dozens of schools. The unsettling news is that they did it in secret, then told the public about it. They signed the contracts, let the ink dry, then announced the purchase during a joint meeting Thursday between school board members and county leaders.
Our school leaders say that they’re operating within the law and that making real estate purchases without public input is better for you and me. Better, they claim, because they can negotiate land prices truer to market value. Yet other government entities buy land in the open with no problem.
Our school leaders continue to ignore taxpayer concern as well as the opinion of the state’s top lawman. George Thurbert Baker, the state attorney general, has said that government entities thatbuy real estate in secret violate the state Open Meetings Act.
He’s said that an exemption to the act allows elected officials to negotiate real estate sales in private. All votes, though, must be taken in public.
It’s been nearly a year since the issue of secret purchases first came to light.
The Gwinnett County Commission has corrected its land-buying ways. At first, they, too, were reluctant to change the way things have always been. But instead of insisting their way was the right way, the commissioners eventually brought their transactions into the light. They still negotiate in private, but they require sellers to sign an agreement that locks in a price. Then, after releasing details of the purchase days in advance, they vote on the deal in a public meeting.
Not the school board. Wilbanks and the school board say they re-examined their policy and found that they were right all along. They wrap themselves in their success and push humility out the schoolhouse door.
They’re caught up in the trap of hubris.
And that can’t bode well for the long-term success of the school system. Board members can’t see it now, because all they see is success. But things change. Gwinnett changes, almost every day. Parents’ support may not always be as strong as it is today. The budget is near a crisis point. Tax increases may be inevitable.
If and when the tide turns and the Gwinnett school system begins experiencing the downside of growth and glory, then the heydays of success won’t much matter. What people will focus on then is the superior attitude of the board, and there will be no bigger example than the secrecy by which the board will have spent billions of dollars.
It’s why open government can never be a bad thing. And why secrecy is seldom a good thing.
Question public officials’ actions
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
We all have our own little way of doing things. Your way may not be the best way. Nor is it the only way.
Let’s say you’re chief operating officer for Gwinnett County Public Schools. And under your watch, 25 campuses go a year or longer without undergoing fire code inspections.
How would you handle public fallout?
Well, here’s what yours truly would do.
First, I’d gather facts — the good and bad of what went errant. That way, I’d be ready for any conjecture brought forth by upset parents and media with questions that deserve answers. Next, I’d schedule a sit-down with the local press corps — a give-and-take with reporters assigned to cover the story. Maybe I’d suggest that Superintendent J. Alvin Wilbanks or one of his lieutenants accompany me.
And I’d attend that meeting loaded for bear. Prepared statements. Charts and copies of school inspection reports. Whatever necessary to clear the air. I might have handouts, too. One would document campuses that had been inspected properly and timely by county fire marshals. The other would show those that had fallen below radar. There’d be details of the violations, buoyed by info on what had been done to correct them since they came to light in January.
Now here’s where it gets critical. I’d lay out what my department has done to ensure parents that no campus goes a year, much less several years, inspection free. I’d be firm. Speak with conviction. After all, we’re talking about student safety.
Finally, I’d address the community — the parents and their kids. I’d write a letter or column and ask the media to publicize it. In it, I’d tell the people that the undetected infractions had been relatively minor. Easy fixes. That, even though the lack of inspections is serious business, it fortunately didn’t result in injury. Or death.
I’d let them know their school system had put in place a procedure to alert the fire marshal when inspections don’t occur. And I’d implore them to contact my office with questions.
Like I said, we all have our way of doing things. By no means is my way the best. But know what: It’s far better than the one taken by Jim Steele, who holds the position of chief operations officer for Gwinnett public schools.
When approached by an AJC Gwinnett News reporter for a face-to-face interview, he declined. Said that he might be misquoted. He even refused an offer to let both sides tape-record the interview. That way, if a dispute arose between what he said and what appeared in print, he’d have proof he was misquoted.
He wanted his questions e-mailed, and we obliged.
You might ask what’s the big deal. The questions still got answered and the paper still got the story, right? Sort of.
Experience has taught me that public officials who are reluctant to engage in the give-and-take of a live interview are insisting on a method that allows them to couch statements. They can avoid answering directly. It’s impossible to get clarity on an answer that’s vague, perhaps by design.
In Mr. Steele’s case, it says something else loudly and clearly — that this public official doesn’t answer to the public. He’s not about to let his operation, his decisions be questioned by a journalist.
Or you.
McKinney’s actions a reflection on her, not the entire race
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
My sister called the other day. And like most chats with my siblings, the conversation segued into current events.
We worked our way through Katie Couric’s network leap, dissected the Iraq War and landed on the McKinney Incident. You know the story.
On March 29, Rep. Cynthia McKinney had a run-in with a U.S. Capitol police officer who stopped her as she skirted a security checkpoint. He didn’t recognize the six-term congresswoman. She supposedly hit the white officer with a cellphone.
First, she charged racism and alleged racial profiling. Then, with support razor thin, she apologized.
My sister, Joyce, didn’t take a swipe at McKinney like former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-Texas) did. And she didn’t call her a “ghetto slut” like Neal Boortz, the Atlanta radio talk show host, did on his show. Mr. Boortz disliked the fact McKinney traded in her “classy” cornrow braids for what’s being called an afro. The talk master took responsibility and rightly apologized for his remarks.
My sister has taken the Mc-Kinney confrontation seriously and personally. She looked beyond politics and partisanship. She looked internally.
“She’s an embarrassment to the black race,” she told me.
It sounded like something my late parents would say. They always told us to never embarrass the family or the race. Carry yourself with respect and dignity, they’d preach, even when you know you’re being spit on. It stuck with all 11 of us — to a degree.
Now, I’m grown. Got my own kids to raise. And a perspective that veers from the wisdom of Mom and Dad when it comes to the burden of shame.
The way I see it, what other people do or don’t do has no bearing whatsoever on me. McKinney is her own person. She makes her own choices. Just like me. She can play the role of conspiracy theorist or yell racism on the Capitol steps. And when she or anyone else black does it, right or wrong, it’s no reflection on me.
No more than Timothy McVeigh or DeLay represent all of white America. I’ve yet to hear a white person utter embarrassment or shame for any miscreant. The action may be condemned, but not the whole race.For them, the association with race and skin color doesn’t run that deep.
And it shouldn’t for me. Or my sister.
It’s taken me years to get to this point. Now, when I see stories like this McKinney mess, I view it totally differently. I don’t condone the action. Nor do I equate it to me. It’s one controversial act. Committed by one person. Not an entire group.
Joyce is fiercely proud and independent. She spent 20 years in the Air Force, got out and earned a bachelor’s degree. Now she works for the Veterans Administration in the Midwest.
When we talked on the phone, I told her why she shouldn’t harbor embarrassment because of McKinney, that she doesn’t represent the flock.
She listened. Seemed to understand.
Sometimes a little brother does know best.
Readers split evenly on reciting pledge in court
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
To some, it’s just a piece of cloth.
To others, it’s the fabric of America, symbolic of the Declaration of Independence, the U.S. Constitution, the Bill of Rights and our legal system. In Sunday’s column, I asked for your thoughts on the pledge challenge. Atlanta attorney Donald A. Weissman filed an ethics complaint against Judge Mark A. Lewis for reciting the Pledge of Allegiance in his courtroom.
Readers were almost evenly split on whether a Gwinnett County magistrate judge should commence court proceedings with the recitation. Lewis didn’t require participation, but he’d invite people to join in if they wanted to. He’d started the practice after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. That mere fact raised a red flag with some readers.
One reader called Lewis a “new patriot.”
“If he was truly patriotic, he would’ve said it before that,” he wrote in the Badie blog, identifying himself as “LG.”
The writer lost a friend in the World Trade Center, and had an uncle and several friends barely escape the attack. “I’d rather see bin Laden caught than have someone saying the pledge.”
Nikole Howard doesn’t recite the pledge. Didn’t even say it at her husband’s graduation from Navy boot camp.
“It’s idolatrous to me,” she wrote.
And can be cultish, warned Michael Wilcox, a 24-year Navy veteran. ” … the judge may deny it, but his actions can be interpreted as worship,” he wrote via e-mail.
Weissman has said he filed a complaint with the state Judicial Qualifications Commission out of concern for fairness and the perception of impartiality. The commission hasn’t ruled yet. And the judge has recused himself from the civil complaint in which Weissman was defense attorney.
Lewis, wrote Arva Williams in an e-mail, shouldn’t have to step down. “We should have the Pledge of Allegiance in every courtroom, and I am grateful to Judge Lewis for following his beliefs. I am a little frustrated that certain customs in our nation are being banned because certain groups label them as discrimination. These people are the ones practicing discrimination. If someone doesn’t want to participate, that’s fine. If I do, that’s none of their business.”
Other readers viewed the complaint as another form of social engineering.
“All this politically correct stuff is crap,” Nancy J. Clark wrote. “The Christmas tree is a Christmas tree. The Easter Bunny is the Easter Bunny, and Halloween is Halloween. Anyone objecting to those shouldn’t be here, either. If they do object, they should keep it to themselves.”
Equality at heart of pledge challenge
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Donald A. Weissman grew up reciting the Pledge of Allegiance.
The Atlanta attorney is just as patriotic as you.
Or me.
But Weissman felt compelled to object when he saw a Gwinnett County magistrate judge open court proceedings with the Pledge of Allegiance. Judge Mark A. Lewis started the practice after Sept. 11. Been doing it ever since. He doesn’t mandate it, request it or require it. He simply invites people in his courtroom to stand, then turns his back to them and faces the U.S. flag.
“I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.”
Some join in. Some don’t. Their choice.
Weissman is the defense attorney in a civil complaint that was to be heard by Lewis in Gwinnett Superior Court. He was concerned about the propriety of the pledge practice. He wasn’t out to attack Lewis or denigrate his patriotism. He just didn’t think Lewis was aware of the impact the practice might have on people, notably immigrants. So Weissman filed an ethics complaint with the state Judicial Qualifications Commission.
In a March 17 letter, he objected to Lewis’ beginning court with a “public declaration of national loyalty.” And he asked the judge to do one of two things: discontinue the practice or recuse himself from the civil complaints case. Lewis chose the latter.
It’s easy to dismiss Weissman at first blush. To say that his concern isn’t a concern at all. Just political correctness gone amok. After all, this is America, and Lewis presides in a U.S. court of law. Besides, if a judge can’t recite the pledge, who can?
Weissman said he’s rightly concerned about fairness. And motivated by strange behavior he’s seen judges exhibit through the years.
One judge saluted the Confederate flag. Another one called blacks by their first name and addressed whites as Mr. and Mrs. Yet another started court with a prayer.
“When a person walks into the courtroom wearing a black robe, then that person is called upon to decide issues based on the facts of the law and not where people stand on politics, religion, national origins or loyalty,” he said.
Or whether defendants stand up and recite the pledge with the judge.
“What (Lewis) is trying to do is perfectly laudable,” Weissman said. “My objection is to whether he leaves, or creates, an appearance in which people in his courtroom perceive his loyalty as partiality.”
Then there are the immigrants.
Gwinnett is the Ellis Island of the Southeast. Nationalities abound. You’d be hard-pressed to name a country unrepresented in the county fabric. Imagine, Weissman said, being a non-U.S. citizen in the courtroom of a pledge-reciting judge.
“Is he going to treat them the same as if they are native born?” he asked. “That question mark needs to be taken out of the equation. I’m not saying the judge would do anything different, but it’s the perception.”
Lewis told AJC Gwinnett News that Weissman had a right to challenge the practice. Still, he doesn’t think he should be forbidden from saying the pledge. He hopes the qualifications commission — if it finds merit in the ethics complaint — rules in his favor.
What do you think?
Is fairness jeopardized when a judge recites the Pledge of Allegiance? Would it cause immigrants consternation to see a judge expressing loyalty to the USA?
You have spoken: Hyphenated terms are not a necessity
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Be careful what you ask for.
I’d hoped to start a dialogue about the use of hyphenated descriptions like African-American and Irish-American. In Tuesday’s column, I wrote that I prefer the term, “black.” Never said I was right. Didn’t say anyone else was wrong. Simply stated my preference, then asked readers to respond.
You know what they say about opinions. Everybody’s got one. Man, did we get yours. 150 postings (and counting) on the Badie blog. Roughly 30 e-mails. A dozen phone calls. And most folk responded civilly.
With a few exceptions. Conversation can turn sour quickly when you identify yourself as”Madd Black Man” or “Angry White Man.” The only place to go from there is the gutter. Then, when someone (actually, several) threw Cynthia McKinney into the mix, online chatter became deeply mired in peripheral issues about slavery’s origins, the race card, victimization, white guilt. What Richard Pryor said decades ago applies today: We can sit in a room together, all warm and fuzzy, yet not know squat about each other. In fact, we can come across as incensed with each other.
Too many, though a minority, are defensive. And bold. Thanks to the Internet. Online, we can say anything. Anonymously. We can be inflammatory and insensitive. Call someone a dummy or worse. Pontificate with half-truths and nonsense. All under the auspices of a nickname.
“I think this blog should be specifically for African-Americans,” wrote Madd Black Man in the Badie blog. “No other opinion matters.”
“Fuzzy” took the bait.
“I am a MADD White Man or should I say ‘sick’ white man,” he wrote. “I am sick of people like you and your ilk who want to have your cake and eat it, too. You scream racism on every issue. You talk about slavery and being oppressed. When were you ever a slave and oppressed? Never!”
The good news, though, is that most of you were cordial. You stuck to the subject. Thanks. And in your comments, one theme dominated, regardless of color or ethnicity: Hyphenated terms may be an option, but they aren’t a necessity. Ricky Saxton, while acknowledging his African descent, prefers to think of himself as a Southerner. “To this day, it makes other blacks angry for me to say and think that way,” he wrote in an e-mail.
Dotty Bailey joked that she was a “European-Germanic-Native American-American.” “I’m white, too,” she wrote in an e-mail. “Frankly, I prefer to identify myself just as a proud American, the mom of two kids who are both serving their country.”
You may ask: What’s the lesson here? What do we take away from this? We don’t talk enough or ask enough questions about things or people we don’t understand.We shrug our shoulders. Move on. But eventually that which we don’t understand becomes an issue. Out of ignorance and frustration, we attack. And now America faces another racially tinged issue: illegal — and legal — immigration.
We are nowhere near ready.
Why must we hyphenate ourselves to be American?
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Jesse started it.
Way back in 1988. He and other prominent blacks said members of their race prefer to be called African-Americans. The New York Times carried the story on Dec. 21, 1988.
“Just as we were called colored, but were not that, and then Negro, but not that, to be called black is just as baseless,” said Mr. Jackson, who held court at a news conference in support of the term.
“To be called African-Americans has cultural integrity,” he continued. “It puts us in our proper historical context. Every ethnic group in this country has a reference to some land base, some historical cultural base.
“African-Americans have hit that level of cultural maturity.”
The term was said to be a psychological lift.
Hmm. I’m 42. Still waiting. I expect to be raked over the coals from some readers when I say this, but I don’t identify with Africa. Of course, I’m of African descent. We all know how I got here.
I’d love to go to Africa some day,just like I want to revisit Italy, Jamaica and Costa Rica. But to equate my existence to the continent of Africa, and to think that doing so further legitimizes my life in these United States seems to be a mighty long stretch.
With all due respect to Mr. Jackson or anybody else, I don’t want anybody telling me what I should be called. For them, the term, “black” may be passé. Cool. But I prefer it. It’s just neater, simpler and demands fewer syllables. Say African-American. Seven syllables. Of course, it should be uppercased, but does it require a hyphen?
Here we are two decades after the despotic shift to the term African-American, and we’re still dealing with semantics.
Not only are we using hyphenated terms to refer to people who look like me, we’re doing it — and had been doing so before the term African-American became standard — with other ethnic groups, too. Irish-Americans. Italian-Americans. Mexican-Americans. Cuban-Americans. The list goes on.
This subject came to mind after I read several responses to my Sunday column. I wrote that immigrants sent the wrong message when they waved their ancestral flags in protests against proposed federal and state legislation that targets illegals. That they hindered, rather than helped, the cause.
Osvaldo Ordonez said immigrants, particularly Mexicans, shouldn’t have to choose one flag over the other. That they can embrace their native flag and Old Glory, too.
“My kids will never be considered ‘full-blooded Americans,’ ” he wrote. “This is what someone told my sister-in-law, who was born in New York. Oh no. They will first be Hispanics, Latinos, refugees, first-generation Americans, Cuban-Americans, but never ‘Americans.’
“We are always something else first, then we are called Americans.” Maybe Ordonez is right.
What do you think?
If you belong to a particular ethnic group, what term do you prefer? A hyphenated one that combines your ethnicity with your mother country? And really, now, how much does it truly matter? Is it a struggle to balance your foreign heritage and culture with your Americanism?
Drop me a line via e-mail. Call me. Or post a comment on the Badie blog (ajc.com/gwinnett).
Protesters’ flags send mixed signal
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
In America, protests are a way of life.
We can march, chant and sing songs about overcoming whatever ails us. Last month, an example of the freedom to express ourselves was on full display.
Thousands of demonstrators in numerous cities took to the streets to protest proposed federal and state legislation that would crack down on the 11 million to 12 million illegal immigrants in the country. Expect more protests as controversial measures concerning immigration move forward.
Something struck me as odd when I watched the TV news and read articles about protests two weeks ago in Los Angeles and other cities. Many participants waved and wrapped themselves in their ancestral flags. Mexican flags were prominent, as were those of other Latin countries.
Protest organizers had implored demonstrators to show up with Old Glory. And yes, U.S. flag carriers could be seen. There just wasn’t a preponderance of them, and that’s a shame, as well as a turnoff.
It sends the wrong message to everyone. To folk like me sympathetic to the plight of illegal immigrants, and who take issue with their being made political scapegoats. To those, especially, who want to blame them for low wages, crowded schools and the changing cultural cadence in their neighborhoods. And to those straddlers who haven’t formed much of an opinion, one way or the other.
When Latinos embrace their ancestral flag, it suggests that they’re willing to come here for a piece of the American dream. They just don’t invest in it hook, line and sinker. It hints that there’s more love for the social, economic and political turmoil left behind than the opportunity afforded them here. It makes people think that, perhaps, there’s no willingness like immigrants of past eras to learn English and study civics. To assimilate. That maybe all they are interested in are the dollars they can send back to Mexico.
It’s one thing to stand up and speak out. When you wave or wrap yourself in the flag of another country, then march down an American street, you don’t appear aggrieved. You seem arrogant. Pompous maybe. And if you’re a student protester, misguided, perhaps.
In December, a poll conducted for The Atlanta Journal-Constitution showed more than 80 percent of respondents thought it was important for the Georgia Legislature to deal with illegal immigration. The General Assembly has done just that.
Senate Bill 529 would require state and local government agencies to verify the immigration status of adults applying for taxpayer-provided benefits. It also requires companies doing business with the state to check the legal status of new employees. Illegal immigrants arrested for felonies or DUI would have to be reported to federal immigration authorities. The legislation awaits the governor’s signature.
A “National Day of Action” is being organized by labor, immigration, civil rights and religious groups to take place on April 10. Julian Herrera, a Norcross pastor and spokesman for a local alliance, has told AJC Gwinnett News that a local protest march will be held; the location hasn’t been determined.
An immigration overhaul has just about reached the boiling point. Symbols are significant. They can either help or hinder the cause of the protesters.
American dreams and foreign flags don’t mesh. Decide which one is the most important.
• Rick Badie’s column appears on Sunday, Tuesday, and Thursday. Contact him at 770-263-3875. Or e-mail: rbadie@ajc.com.
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