Frederick Douglass used words as firework with this speech in 1852 in Rochester, New York. Copied from History is a Weapon.
Mr. President, Friends and Fellow Citizens:
He who could address this audience without a quailing sensation, has stronger nerves than I have. I do not remember ever to have appeared as a speaker before any assembly more shrinkingly, nor with greater distrust of my ability, than I do this day. A feeling has crept over me quite unfavorable to the exercise of my limited powers of speech. The task before me is one which requires much previous thought and study for its proper performance. I know that apologies of this sort are generally considered flat and unmeaning. I trust, however, that mine will not be so considered. Should I seem at ease, my appearance would much misrepresent me. The little experience I have had in addressing public meetings, in country school houses, avails me nothing on the present occasion.
The papers and placards say that I am to deliver a Fourth of July Oration. This certainly sounds large, and out of the common way, for me. It is true that I have often had the privilege to speak in this beautiful Hall, and to address many who now honor me with their presence. But neither their familiar faces, nor the perfect gage I think I have of Corinthian Hall seems to free me from embarrassment.
The fact is, ladies and gentlemen, the distance between this platform and the slave plantation, from which I escaped, is considerable-and the difficulties to he overcome in getting from the latter to the former are by no means slight. That I am here to-day is, to me, a matter of astonishment as well as of gratitude. You will not, therefore, be surprised, if in what I have to say I evince no elaborate preparation, nor grace my speech with any high sounding exordium. With little experience and with less learning, I have been able to throw my thoughts hastily and imperfectly together; and trusting to your patient and generous indulgence I will proceed to lay them before you.
This, for the purpose of this celebration, is the Fourth of July. It is the birth day of your National Independence, and of your political freedom. This, to you, as what the Passover was to the emancipated people of God. It carries your minds back to the day, and to the act of your great deliverance; and to the signs, and to the wonders, associated with that act, and that day. This celebration also marks the beginning of another year of your national life; and reminds you that the Republic of America is now 76 years old. l am glad, fellow-citizens, that your nation is so young. Seventy-six years, though a good old age for a man, is but a mere speck in the life of a nation. Three score years and ten is the allotted time for individual men; but nations number their years by thousands. According to this fact, you are, even now, only in the beginning of your national career, still lingering in the period of childhood. I repeat, I am glad this is so. There is hope in the thought, and hope is much needed, under the dark clouds which lower above the horizon. The eye of the reformer is met with angry flashes, portending disastrous times; but his heart may well beat lighter at the thought that America is young, and that she is still in the impressible stage of her existence. May he not hope that high lessons of wisdom, of justice and of truth, will yet give direction to her destiny? Were the nation older, the patriot's heart might be sadder, and the reformer's brow heavier. Its future might be shrouded in gloom, and the hope of its prophets go out in sorrow. There is consolation in the thought that America is young.-Great streams are not easily turned from channels, worn deep in the course of ages. They may sometimes rise in quiet and stately majesty, and inundate the land, refreshing and fertilizing the earth with their mysterious properties. They may also rise in wrath and fury, and bear away, on their angry waves, the accumulated wealth of years of toil and hardship. They, however, gradually flow back to the same old channel, and flow on as serenely as ever. But, while the river may not be turned aside, it may dry up, and leave nothing behind but the withered branch, and the unsightly rock, to howl in the abyss-sweeping wind, the sad tale of departed glory. As with rivers so with nations.
Fellow-citizens, I shall not presume to dwell at length on the associations that cluster about this day. The simple story of it is, that, 76 years ago, the people of this country were British subjects. The style and title of your "sovereign people" (in which you now glory) was not then born. You were under the British Crown. Your fathers esteemed the English Government as the home government; and England as the fatherland. This home government, you know, although a considerable distance from your home, did, in the exercise of its parental prerogatives, impose upon its colonial children, such restraints, burdens and limitations, as, in its mature judgment, it deemed wise, right and proper.
But your fathers, who had not adopted the fashionable idea of this day, of the infallibility of government, and the absolute character of its acts, presumed to differ from the home government in respect to the wisdom and the justice of some of those burdens and restraints. They went so far in their excitement as to pronounce the measures of government unjust, unreasonable, and oppressive, and altogether such as ought not to be quietly submitted to. I scarcely need say, fellow-citizens, that my opinion of those measures fully accords with that of your fathers. Such a declaration of agreement on my part would not be worth much to anybody. It would certainly prove nothing as to what part I might have taken had I lived during the great controversy of 1776. To say now that America was right, and England wrong, is exceedingly easy. Everybody can say it; the dastard, not less than the noble brave, can flippantly discant on the tyranny of England towards the American Colonies. It is fashionable to do so; but there was a time when, to pronounce against England, and in favor of the cause of the colonies, tried men's souls. They who did so were accounted in their day plotters of mischief, agitators and rebels, dangerous men. To side with the right against the wrong, with the weak against the strong, and with the oppressed against the oppressor! here lies the merit, and the one which, of all others, seems unfashionable in our day. The cause of liberty may be stabbed by the men who glory in the deeds of your fathers. But, to proceed.
Feeling themselves harshly and unjustly treated, by the home government, your fathers, like men of honesty, and men of spirit, earnestly sought redress. They petitioned and remonstrated; they did so in a decorous, respectful, and loyal manner. Their conduct was wholly unexceptionable. This, however, did not answer the purpose. They saw themselves treated with sovereign indifference, coldness and scorn. Yet they persevered. They were not the men to look back.
As the sheet anchor takes a firmer hold, when the ship is tossed by the storm, so did the cause of your fathers grow stronger as it breasted the chilling blasts of kingly displeasure. The greatest and best of British statesmen admitted its justice, and the loftiest eloquence of the British Senate came to its support. But, with that blindness which seems to be the unvarying characteristic of tyrants, since Pharaoh and his hosts were drowned in the Red Sea, the British Government persisted in the exactions complained of.
The madness of this course, we believe, is admitted now, even by England; but we fear the lesson is wholly lost on our present rulers.
Oppression makes a wise man mad. Your fathers were wise men, and if they did not go mad, they became restive under this treatment. They felt themselves the victims of grievous wrongs, wholly incurable in their colonial capacity. With brave men there is always a remedy for oppression. Just here, the idea of a total separation of the colonies from the crown was born! It was a startling idea, much more so than we, at this distance of time, regard it. The timid and the prudent (as has been intimated) of that day were, of course, shocked and alarmed by it.
Such people lived then, had lived before, and will, probably, ever have a place on this planet; and their course, in respect to any great change (no matter how great the good to be attained, or the wrong to be redressed by it), may be calculated with as much precision as can be the course of the stars. They hate all changes, but silver, gold and copper change! Of this sort of change they are always strongly in favor.
These people were called Tories in the days of your fathers; and the appellation, probably, conveyed the same idea that is meant by a more modern, though a somewhat less euphonious term, which we often find in our papers, applied to some of our old politicians.
Their opposition to the then dangerous thought was earnest and powerful; but, amid all their terror and affrighted vociferations against it, the alarming and revolutionary idea moved on, and the country with it.
On the 2nd of July, 1776, the old Continental Congress, to the dismay of the lovers of ease, and the worshipers of property, clothed that dreadful idea with all the authority of national sanction. They did so in the form of a resolution; and as we seldom hit upon resolutions, drawn up in our day, whose transparency is at all equal to this, it may refresh your minds and help my story if I read it.
"Resolved, That these united colonies are, and of right, ought to be free and Independent States; that they are absolved from all allegiance to the British Crown; and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain is, and ought to be, dissolved."
Citizens, your fathers made good that resolution. They succeeded; and to-day you reap the fruits of their success. The freedom gained is yours; and you, there fore, may properly celebrate this anniversary. The 4th of July is the first great fact in your nation's history-the very ringbolt in the chain of your yet undeveloped destiny.
Pride and patriotism, not less than gratitude, prompt you to celebrate and to hold it in perpetual remembrance. I have said that the Declaration of Independence is the ringbolt to the chain of your nation's destiny; so, indeed, I regard it. The principles contained in that instrument are saving principles. Stand by those principles, be true to them on all occasions, in all places, against all foes, and at whatever cost.
From the round top of your ship of state, dark and threatening clouds may be seen. Heavy billows, like mountains in the distance, disclose to the leeward huge forms of flinty rocks! That bolt drawn, that chain broken, and all is lost. Cling to this day-cling to it, and to its principles, with the grasp of a storm-tossed mariner to a spar at midnight.
The coming into being of a nation, in any circumstances, is an interesting event. But, besides general considerations, there were peculiar circumstances which make the advent of this republic an event of special attractiveness. The whole scene, as I look back to it, was simple, dignified and sublime. The population of the country, at the time, stood at the insignificant number of three millions. The country was poor in the munitions of war. The population was weak and scattered, and the country a wilderness unsubdued. There were then no means of concert and combination, such as exist now. Neither steam nor lightning had then been reduced to order and discipline. From the Potomac to the Delaware was a journey of many days. Under these, and innumerable other disadvantages, your fathers declared for liberty and independence and triumphed.
Fellow Citizens, I am not wanting in respect for the fathers of this republic. The signers of the Declaration of Independence were brave men. They were great men, too-great enough to give frame to a great age. It does not often happen to a nation to raise, at one time, such a number of truly great men. The point from which I am compelled to view them is not, certainly, the most favorable; and yet I cannot contemplate their great deeds with less than admiration. They were statesmen, patriots and heroes, and for the good they did, and the principles they contended for, I will unite with you to honor their memory.
They loved their country better than their own private interests; and, though this is not the highest form of human excellence, all will concede that it is a rare virtue, and that when it is exhibited it ought to command respect. He who will, intelligently, lay down his life for his country is a man whom it is not in human nature to despise. Your fathers staked their lives, their fortunes, and their sacred honor, on the cause of their country. In their admiration of liberty, they lost sight of all other interests.
They were peace men; but they preferred revolution to peaceful submission to bondage. They were quiet men; but they did not shrink from agitating against oppression. They showed forbearance; but that they knew its limits. They believed in order; but not in the order of tyranny. With them, nothing was "settIed" that was not right. With them, justice, liberty and humanity were "final"; not slavery and oppression. You may well cherish the memory of such men. They were great in their day and generation. Their solid manhood stands out the more as we contrast it with these degenerate times.
How circumspect, exact and proportionate were all their movements! How unlike the politicians of an hour! Their statesmanship looked beyond the passing moment, and stretched away in strength into the distant future. They seized upon eternal principles, and set a glorious example in their defence. Mark them! Fully appreciating the hardships to be encountered, firmly believing in the right of their cause, honorably inviting the scrutiny of an on-looking world, reverently appealing to heaven to attest their sincerity, soundly comprehending the solemn responsibility they were about to assume, wisely measuring the terrible odds against them, your fathers, the fathers of this republic, did, most deliberately, under the inspiration of a glorious patriotism, and with a sublime faith in the great principles of justice and freedom, lay deep, the corner-stone of the national super-structure, which has risen and still rises in grandeur around you.
Of this fundamental work, this day is the anniversary. Our eyes are met with demonstrations of joyous enthusiasm. Banners and pennants wave exultingly on the breeze. The din of business, too, is hushed. Even mammon seems to have quitted his grasp on this day. The ear-piercing fife and the stirring drum unite their accents with the ascending peal of a thousand church bells. Prayers are made, hymns are sung, and sermons are preached in honor of this day; while the quick martial tramp of a great and multitudinous nation, echoed back by all the hills, valleys and mountains of a vast continent, bespeak the occasion one of thrilling and universal interest-nation's jubilee.
Friends and citizens, I need not enter further into the causes which led to this anniversary. Many of you understand them better than I do. You could instruct me in regard to them. That is a branch of knowledge in which you feel, perhaps, a much deeper interest than your speaker. The causes which led to the separation of the colonies from the British crown have never lacked for a tongue. They have all been taught in your common schools, narrated at your firesides, un folded from your pulpits, and thundered from your legislative halls, and are as familiar to you as household words. They form the staple of your national po etry and eloquence.
I remember, also, that, as a people, Americans are remarkably familiar with all facts which make in their own favor. This is esteemed by some as a national trait-perhaps a national weakness. It is a fact, that whatever makes for the wealth or for the reputation of Americans and can be had cheap! will be found by Americans. I shall not be charged with slandering Americans if I say I think the American side of any question may be safely left in American hands.
I leave, therefore, the great deeds of your fathers to other gentlemen whose claim to have been regularly descended will be less likely to be disputed than mine!
My business, if I have any here to-day, is with the present. The accepted time with God and His cause is the ever-living now.
Trust no future, however pleasant,
Let the dead past bury its dead;
Act, act in the living present,
Heart within, and God overhead.
We have to do with the past only as we can make it useful to the present and to the future. To all inspiring motives, to noble deeds which can be gained from the past, we are welcome. But now is the time, the important time. Your fathers have lived, died, and have done their work, and have done much of it well. You live and must die, and you must do your work. You have no right to enjoy a child's share in the labor of your fathers, unless your children are to be blest by your labors. You have no right to wear out and waste the hard-earned fame of your fathers to cover your indolence. Sydney Smith tells us that men seldom eulogize the wisdom and virtues of their fathers, but to excuse some folly or wickedness of their own. This truth is not a doubtful one. There are illustrations of it near and remote, ancient and modern. It was fashionable, hundreds of years ago, for the children of Jacob to boast, we have "Abraham to our father," when they had long lost Abraham's faith and spirit. That people contented themselves under the shadow of Abraham's great name, while they repudiated the deeds which made his name great. Need I remind you that a similar thing is being done all over this country to-day? Need I tell you that the Jews are not the only people who built the tombs of the prophets, and garnished the sepulchers of the righteous? Washington could not die till he had broken the chains of his slaves. Yet his monument is built up by the price of human blood, and the traders in the bodies and souls of men shout-"We have Washington to our father."-Alas! that it should be so; yet it is.
The evil, that men do, lives after them,
The good is oft interred with their bones.
Fellow-citizens, pardon me, allow me to ask, why am I called upon to speak here to-day? What have I, or those I represent, to do with your national independence? Are the great principles of political freedom and of natural justice, embodied in that Declaration of Independence, extended to us? and am I, therefore, called upon to bring our humble offering to the national altar, and to confess the benefits and express devout gratitude for the blessings resulting from your independence to us?
Would to God, both for your sakes and ours, that an affirmative answer could be truthfully returned to these questions! Then would my task be light, and my burden easy and delightful. For who is there so cold, that a nation's sympathy could not warm him? Who so obdurate and dead to the claims of gratitude, that would not thankfully acknowledge such priceless benefits? Who so stolid and selfish, that would not give his voice to swell the hallelujahs of a nation's jubilee, when the chains of servitude had been torn from his limbs? I am not that man. In a case like that, the dumb might eloquently speak, and the "lame man leap as an hart."
But such is not the state of the case. I say it with a sad sense of the disparity between us. I am not included within the pale of this glorious anniversary! Your high independence only reveals the immeasurable distance between us. The blessings in which you, this day, rejoice, are not enjoyed in common.-The rich inheritance of justice, liberty, prosperity and independence, bequeathed by your fa thers, is shared by you, not by me. The sunlight that brought light and healing to you, has brought stripes and death to me. This Fourth July is yours, not mine. You may rejoice, I must mourn. To drag a man in fetters into the grand illuminated temple of liberty, and call upon him to join you in joyous anthems, were inhuman mockery and sacrilegious irony. Do you mean, citizens, to mock me, by asking me to speak to-day? If so, there is a parallel to your conduct. And let me warn you that it is dangerous to copy the example of a nation whose crimes, towering up to heaven, were thrown down by the breath of the Almighty, burying that nation in irrevocable ruin! I can to-day take up the plaintive lament of a peeled and woe-smitten people!
"By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down. Yea! we wept when we remembered Zion. We hanged our harps upon the willows in the midst thereof. For there, they that carried us away captive, required of us a song; and they who wasted us required of us mirth, saying, Sing us one of the songs of Zion. How can we sing the Lord's song in a strange land? If I forget thee, O Jerusalem, let my right hand forget her cunning. If I do not remember thee, let my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth."
Fellow-citizens, above your national, tumultuous joy, I hear the mournful wail of millions! whose chains, heavy and grievous yesterday, are, to-day, rendered more intolerable by the jubilee shouts that reach them. If I do forget, if I do not faithfully remember those bleeding children of sorrow this day, "may my right hand forget her cunning, and may my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth!" To forget them, to pass lightly over their wrongs, and to chime in with the popular theme, would be treason most scandalous and shocking, and would make me a reproach before God and the world. My subject, then, fellow-citizens, is American slavery. I shall see this day and its popular characteristics from the slave's point of view. Standing there identified with the American bondman, making his wrongs mine, I do not hesitate to declare, with all my soul, that the character and conduct of this nation never looked blacker to me than on this 4th of July! Whether we turn to the declarations of the past, or to the professions of the present, the conduct of the nation seems equally hideous and revolting. America is false to the past, false to the present, and solemnly binds herself to be false to the future. Standing with God and the crushed and bleeding slave on this occasion, I will, in the name of humanity which is outraged, in the name of liberty which is fettered, in the name of the constitution and the Bible which are disregarded and trampled upon, dare to call in question and to denounce, with all the emphasis I can command, everything that serves to perpetuate slavery-the great sin and shame of America! "I will not equivocate; I will not excuse"; I will use the severest language I can command; and yet not one word shall escape me that any man, whose judgment is not blinded by prejudice, or who is not at heart a slaveholder, shall not confess to be right and just.
But I fancy I hear some one of my audience say, "It is just in this circumstance that you and your brother abolitionists fail to make a favorable impression on the public mind. Would you argue more, and denounce less; would you persuade more, and rebuke less; your cause would be much more likely to succeed." But, I submit, where all is plain there is nothing to be argued. What point in the anti slavery creed would you have me argue? On what branch of the subject do the people of this country need light? Must I undertake to prove that the slave is a man? That point is conceded already. Nobody doubts it. The slaveholders themselves acknowledge it in the enactment of laws for their government. They ac knowledge it when they punish disobedience on the part of the slave. There are seventy-two crimes in the State of Virginia which, if committed by a black man (no matter how ignorant he be), subject him to the punishment of death; while only two of the same crimes will subject a white man to the like punishment. What is this but the acknowledgment that the slave is a moral, intellectual, and responsible being? The manhood of the slave is conceded. It is admitted in the fact that Southern statute books are covered with enactments forbidding, under severe fines and penalties, the teaching of the slave to read or to write. When you can point to any such laws in reference to the beasts of the field, then I may con sent to argue the manhood of the slave. When the dogs in your streets, when the fowls of the air, when the cattle on your hills, when the fish of the sea, and the reptiles that crawl, shall be unable to distinguish the slave from a brute, then will I argue with you that the slave is a man!
For the present, it is enough to affirm the equal manhood of the Negro race. Is it not astonishing that, while we are ploughing, planting, and reaping, using all kinds of mechanical tools, erecting houses, constructing bridges, building ships, working in metals of brass, iron, copper, silver and gold; that, while we are reading, writing and ciphering, acting as clerks, merchants and secretaries, having among us lawyers, doctors, ministers, poets, authors, editors, orators and teachers; that, while we are engaged in all manner of enterprises common to other men, digging gold in California, capturing the whale in the Pacific, feeding sheep and cattle on the hill-side, living, moving, acting, thinking, planning, living in families as husbands, wives and children, and, above all, confessing and worshipping the Christian's God, and looking hopefully for life and immortality beyond the grave, we are called upon to prove that we are men!
Would you have me argue that man is entitled to liberty? that he is the rightful owner of his own body? You have already declared it. Must I argue the wrongfulness of slavery? Is that a question for Republicans? Is it to be settled by the rules of logic and argumentation, as a matter beset with great difficulty, involving a doubtful application of the principle of justice, hard to be understood? How should I look to-day, in the presence of Americans, dividing, and subdividing a discourse, to show that men have a natural right to freedom? speaking of it relatively and positively, negatively and affirmatively. To do so, would be to make myself ridiculous, and to offer an insult to your understanding.-There is not a man beneath the canopy of heaven that does not know that slavery is wrong for him.
What, am I to argue that it is wrong to make men brutes, to rob them of their liberty, to work them without wages, to keep them ignorant of their relations to their fellow men, to beat them with sticks, to flay their flesh with the lash, to load their limbs with irons, to hunt them with dogs, to sell them at auction, to sunder their families, to knock out their teeth, to burn their flesh, to starve them into obedience and submission to their masters? Must I argue that a system thus marked with blood, and stained with pollution, is wrong? No! I will not. I have better employment for my time and strength than such arguments would imply.
What, then, remains to be argued? Is it that slavery is not divine; that God did not establish it; that our doctors of divinity are mistaken? There is blasphemy in the thought. That which is inhuman, cannot be divine! Who can reason on such a proposition? They that can, may; I cannot. The time for such argument is passed.
At a time like this, scorching irony, not convincing argument, is needed. O! had I the ability, and could reach the nation's ear, I would, to-day, pour out a fiery stream of biting ridicule, blasting reproach, withering sarcasm, and stern rebuke. For it is not light that is needed, but fire; it is not the gentle shower, but thunder. We need the storm, the whirlwind, and the earthquake. The feeling of the nation must be quickened; the conscience of the nation must be roused; the propriety of the nation must be startled; the hypocrisy of the nation must be exposed; and its crimes against God and man must be proclaimed and denounced.
What, to the American slave, is your 4th of July? I answer; a day that reveals to him, more than all other days in the year, the gross injustice and cruelty to which he is the constant victim. To him, your celebration is a sham; your boasted liberty, an unholy license; your national greatness, swelling vanity; your sounds of rejoicing are empty and heartless; your denunciation of tyrants, brass fronted impudence; your shouts of liberty and equality, hollow mockery; your prayers and hymns, your sermons and thanksgivings, with all your religious parade and solemnity, are, to Him, mere bombast, fraud, deception, impiety, and hypocrisy-a thin veil to cover up crimes which would disgrace a nation of savages. There is not a nation on the earth guilty of practices more shocking and bloody than are the people of the United States, at this very hour.
Go where you may, search where you will, roam through all the monarchies and despotisms of the Old World, travel through South America, search out every abuse, and when you have found the last, lay your facts by the side of the everyday practices of this nation, and you will say with me, that, for revolting barbarity and shameless hypocrisy, America reigns without a rival.
Take the American slave-trade, which we are told by the papers, is especially prosperous just now. Ex-Senator Benton tells us that the price of men was never higher than now. He mentions the fact to show that slavery is in no danger. This trade is one of the peculiarities of American institutions. It is carried on in all the large towns and cities in one-half of this confederacy; and millions are pocketed every year by dealers in this horrid traffic. In several states this trade is a chief source of wealth. It is called (in contradistinction to the foreign slave-trade) "the internal slave-trade." It is, probably, called so, too, in order to divert from it the horror with which the foreign slave-trade is contemplated. That trade has long since been denounced by this government as piracy. It has been denounced with burning words from the high places of the nation as an execrable traffic. To arrest it, to put an end to it, this nation keeps a squadron, at immense cost, on the coast of Africa. Everywhere, in this country, it is safe to speak of this foreign slave-trade as a most inhuman traffic, opposed alike to the Jaws of God and of man. The duty to extirpate and destroy it, is admitted even by our doctors of divinity. In order to put an end to it, some of these last have consented that their colored brethren (nominally free) should leave this country, and establish them selves on the western coast of Africa! It is, however, a notable fact that, while so much execration is poured out by Americans upon all those engaged in the foreign slave-trade, the men engaged in the slave-trade between the states pass with out condemnation, and their business is deemed honorable.
Behold the practical operation of this internal slave-trade, the American slave-trade, sustained by American politics and American religion. Here you will see men and women reared like swine for the market. You know what is a swine-drover? I will show you a man-drover. They inhabit all our Southern States. They perambulate the country, and crowd the highways of the nation, with droves of human stock. You will see one of these human flesh jobbers, armed with pistol, whip, and bowie-knife, driving a company of a hundred men, women, and children, from the Potomac to the slave market at New Orleans. These wretched people are to be sold singly, or in lots, to suit purchasers. They are food for the cotton-field and the deadly sugar-mill. Mark the sad procession, as it moves wearily along, and the inhuman wretch who drives them. Hear his savage yells and his blood-curdling oaths, as he hurries on his affrighted captives! There, see the old man with locks thinned and gray. Cast one glance, if you please, upon that young mother, whose shoulders are bare to the scorching sun, her briny tears falling on the brow of the babe in her arms. See, too, that girl of thirteen, weeping, yes! weeping, as she thinks of the mother from whom she has been torn! The drove moves tardily. Heat and sorrow have nearly consumed their strength; suddenly you hear a quick snap, like the discharge of a rifle; the fetters clank, and the chain rattles simultaneously; your ears are saluted with a scream, that seems to have torn its way to the centre of your soul The crack you heard was the sound of the slave-whip; the scream you heard was from the woman you saw with the babe. Her speed had faltered under the weight of her child and her chains! that gash on her shoulder tells her to move on. Follow this drove to New Orleans. Attend the auction; see men examined like horses; see the forms of women rudely and brutally exposed to the shock ing gaze of American slave-buyers. See this drove sold and separated forever; and never forget the deep, sad sobs that arose from that scattered multitude. Tell me, citizens, where, under the sun, you can witness a spectacle more fiendish and shocking. Yet this is but a glance at the American slave-trade, as it exists, at this moment, in the ruling part of the United States.
I was born amid such sights and scenes. To me the American slave-trade is a terrible reality. When a child, my soul was often pierced with a sense of its horrors. I lived on Philpot Street, Fell's Point, Baltimore, and have watched from the wharves the slave ships in the Basin, anchored from the shore, with their cargoes of human flesh, waiting for favorable winds to waft them down the Chesapeake. There was, at that time, a grand slave mart kept at the head of Pratt Street, by Austin Woldfolk. His agents were sent into every town and county in Maryland, announcing their arrival, through the papers, and on flaming "hand-bills," headed cash for Negroes. These men were generally well dressed men, and very captivating in their manners; ever ready to drink, to treat, and to gamble. The fate of many a slave has depended upon the turn of a single card; and many a child has been snatched from the arms of its mother by bargains arranged in a state of brutal drunkenness.
The flesh-mongers gather up their victims by dozens, and drive them, chained, to the general depot at Baltimore. When a sufficient number has been collected here, a ship is chartered for the purpose of conveying the forlorn crew to Mobile, or to New Orleans. From the slave prison to the ship, they are usually driven in the darkness of night; for since the antislavery agitation, a certain caution is observed.
In the deep, still darkness of midnight, I have been often aroused by the dead, heavy footsteps, and the piteous cries of the chained gangs that passed our door. The anguish of my boyish heart was intense; and I was often consoled, when speaking to my mistress in the morning, to hear her say that the custom was very wicked; that she hated to hear the rattle of the chains and the heart-rending cries. I was glad to find one who sympathized with me in my horror.
Fellow-citizens, this murderous traffic is, to-day, in active operation in this boasted republic. In the solitude of my spirit I see clouds of dust raised on the highways of the South; I see the bleeding footsteps; I hear the doleful wail of fettered humanity on the way to the slave-markets, where the victims are to be sold like horses, sheep, and swine, knocked off to the highest bidder. There I see the tenderest ties ruthlessly broken, to gratify the lust, caprice and rapacity of the buyers and sellers of men. My soul sickens at the sight.
Is this the land your Fathers loved,
The freedom which they toiled to win?
Is this the earth whereon they moved?
Are these the graves they slumber in?
But a still more inhuman, disgraceful, and scandalous state of things remains to be presented. By an act of the American Congress, not yet two years old, slavery has been nationalized in its most horrible and revolting form. By that act, Mason and Dixon's line has been obliterated; New York has become as Virginia; and the power to hold, hunt, and sell men, women and children, as slaves, remains no longer a mere state institution, but is now an institution of the whole United States. The power is co-extensive with the star-spangled banner, and American Christianity. Where these go, may also go the merciless slave-hunter. Where these are, man is not sacred. He is a bird for the sportsman's gun. By that most foul and fiendish of all human decrees, the liberty and person of every man are put in peril. Your broad republican domain is hunting ground for men. Not for thieves and robbers, enemies of society, merely, but for men guilty of no crime. Your law-makers have commanded all good citizens to engage in this hellish sport. Your President, your Secretary of State, your lords, nobles, and ecclesiastics enforce, as a duty you owe to your free and glorious country, and to your God, that you do this accursed thing. Not fewer than forty Americans have, within the past two years, been hunted down and, without a moment's warning, hurried away in chains, and consigned to slavery and excruciating torture. Some of these have had wives and children, dependent on them for bread; but of this, no account was made. The right of the hunter to his prey stands superior to the right of marriage, and to all rights in this republic, the rights of God included! For black men there is neither law nor justice, humanity nor religion. The Fugitive Slave Law makes mercy to them a crime; and bribes the judge who tries them. An American judge gets ten dollars for every victim he consigns to slavery, and five, when he fails to do so. The oath of any two villains is sufficient, under this hell-black enactment, to send the most pious and exemplary black man into the remorseless jaws of slavery! His own testimony is nothing. He can bring no witnesses for himself. The minister of American justice is bound by the law to hear but one side; and that side is the side of the oppressor. Let this damning fact be perpetually told. Let it be thundered around the world that in tyrant-killing, king-hating, people-loving, democratic, Christian America the seats of justice are filled with judges who hold their offices under an open and palpable bribe, and are bound, in deciding the case of a man's liberty, to hear only his accusers!
In glaring violation of justice, in shameless disregard of the forms of administering law, in cunning arrangement to entrap the defenceless, and in diabolical intent this Fugitive Slave Law stands alone in the annals of tyrannical legislation. I doubt if there be another nation on the globe having the brass and the baseness to put such a law on the statute-book. If any man in this assembly thinks differently from me in this matter, and feels able to disprove my statements, I will gladly confront him at any suitable time and place he may select.
I take this law to be one of the grossest infringements of Christian Liberty, and, if the churches and ministers of our country were nor stupidly blind, or most wickedly indifferent, they, too, would so regard it.
At the very moment that they are thanking God for the enjoyment of civil and religious liberty, and for the right to worship God according to the dictates of their own consciences, they are utterly silent in respect to a law which robs religion of its chief significance and makes it utterly worthless to a world lying in wickedness. Did this law concern the "mint, anise, and cummin"-abridge the right to sing psalms, to partake of the sacrament, or to engage in any of the ceremonies of religion, it would be smitten by the thunder of a thousand pulpits. A general shout would go up from the church demanding repeal, repeal, instant repeal!-And it would go hard with that politician who presumed to so licit the votes of the people without inscribing this motto on his banner. Further, if this demand were not complied with, another Scotland would be added to the history of religious liberty, and the stern old covenanters would be thrown into the shade. A John Knox would be seen at every church door and heard from every pulpit, and Fillmore would have no more quarter than was shown by Knox to the beautiful, but treacherous, Queen Mary of Scotland. The fact that the church of our country (with fractional exceptions) does not esteem "the Fugitive Slave Law" as a declaration of war against religious liberty, im plies that that church regards religion simply as a form of worship, an empty ceremony, and not a vital principle, requiring active benevolence, justice, love, and good will towards man. It esteems sacrifice above mercy; psalm-singing above right doing; solemn meetings above practical righteousness. A worship that can be conducted by persons who refuse to give shelter to the houseless, to give bread to the hungry, clothing to the naked, and who enjoin obedience to a law forbidding these acts of mercy is a curse, not a blessing to mankind. The Bible addresses all such persons as "scribes, pharisees, hypocrites, who pay tithe ofÝ mint, anise, and cummin, and have omitted the weightier matters of the law, judgment, mercy, and faith."
But the church of this country is not only indifferent to the wrongs of the slave, it actually takes sides with the oppressors. It has made itself the bulwark of American slavery, and the shield of American slave-hunters. Many of its most eloquent Divines, who stand as the very lights of the church, have shamelessly given the sanction of religion and the Bible to the whole slave system. They have taught that man may, properly, be a slave; that the relation of master and slave is ordained of God; that to send back an escaped bondman to his master is clearly the duty of all the followers of the Lord Jesus Christ; and this horrible blasphemy is palmed off upon the world for Christianity.
For my part, I would say, welcome infidelity! welcome atheism! welcome anything! in preference to the gospel, as preached by those Divines! They convert the very name of religion into an engine of tyranny and barbarous cruelty, and serve to confirm more infidels, in this age, than all the infidel writings of Thomas Paine, Voltaire, and Bolingbroke put together have done! These ministers make religion a cold and flinty-hearted thing, having neither principles of right action nor bowels of compassion. They strip the love of God of its beauty and leave the throne of religion a huge, horrible, repulsive form. It is a religion for oppressors, tyrants, man-stealers, and thugs. It is not that "pure and undefiled religion" which is from above, and which is "first pure, then peaceable, easy to be entreated, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality, and with out hypocrisy." But a religion which favors the rich against the poor; which exalts the proud above the humble; which divides mankind into two classes, tyrants and slaves; which says to the man in chains, stay there; and to the oppressor, oppress on; it is a religion which may be professed and enjoyed by all the robbers and enslavers of mankind; it makes God a respecter of persons, denies his fatherhood of the race, and tramples in the dust the great truth of the brotherhood of man. All this we affirm to be true of the popular church, and the popular worship of our land and nation-a religion, a church, and a worship which, on the authority of inspired wisdom, we pronounce to be an abomination in the sight of God. In the language of Isaiah, the American church might be well addressed, "Bring no more vain oblations; incense is an abomination unto me: the new moons and Sabbaths, the calling of assemblies, I cannot away with; it is iniquity, even the solemn meeting. Your new moons, and your appointed feasts my soul hateth. They are a trouble to me; I am weary to bear them; and when ye spread forth your hands I will hide mine eyes from you. Yea' when ye make many prayers, I will not hear. Your hands are full of blood; cease to do evil, learn to do well; seek judgment; relieve the oppressed; judge for the fatherless; plead for the widow."
The American church is guilty, when viewed in connection with what it is doing to uphold slavery; but it is superlatively guilty when viewed in its connection with its ability to abolish slavery.
The sin of which it is guilty is one of omission as well as of commission. Albert Barnes but uttered what the common sense of every man at all observant of the actual state of the case will receive as truth, when he declared that "There is no power out of the church that could sustain slavery an hour, if it were not sustained in it."
Let the religious press, the pulpit, the Sunday School, the conference meeting, the great ecclesiastical, missionary, Bible and tract associations of the land array their immense powers against slavery, and slave-holding; and the whole system of crime and blood would be scattered to the winds, and that they do not do this involves them in the most awful responsibility of which the mind can conceive.
In prosecuting the anti-slavery enterprise, we have been asked to spare the church, to spare the ministry; but how, we ask, could such a thing be done? We are met on the threshold of our efforts for the redemption of the slave, by the church and ministry of the country, in battle arrayed against us; and we are compelled to fight or flee. From what quarter, I beg to know, has proceeded a fire so deadly upon our ranks, during the last two years, as from the Northern pulpit? As the champions of oppressors, the chosen men of American theology have appeared-men honored for their so-called piety, and their real learning. The Lords of Buffalo, the Springs of New York, the Lathrops of Auburn, the Coxes and Spencers of Brooklyn, the Gannets and Sharps of Boston, the Deweys of Washington, and other great religious lights of the land have, in utter denial of the authority of Him by whom they professed to be called to the ministry, deliberately taught us, against the example of the Hebrews, and against the remonstrance of the Apostles, that we ought to obey man's law before the law of God.2
My spirit wearies of such blasphemy; and how such men can be supported, as the "standing types and representatives of Jesus Christ," is a mystery which I leave others to penetrate. In speaking of the American church, however, let it be distinctly understood that I mean the great mass of the religious organizations of our land. There are exceptions, and I thank God that there are. Noble men may be found, scattered all over these Northern States, of whom Henry Ward Beecher, of Brooklyn; Samuel J. May, of Syracuse; and my esteemed friend (Rev. R. R. Raymond) on the platform, are shining examples; and let me say further, that, upon these men lies the duty to inspire our ranks with high religious faith and zeal, and to cheer us on in the great mission of the slave's redemption from his chains.
One is struck with the difference between the attitude of the American church towards the anti-slavery movement, and that occupied by the churches in Eng land towards a similar movement in that country. There, the church, true to its mission of ameliorating, elevating and improving the condition of mankind, came forward promptly, bound up the wounds of the West Indian slave, and re stored him to his liberty. There, the question of emancipation was a high religious question. It was demanded in the name of humanity, and according to the law of the living God. The Sharps, the Clarksons, the Wilberforces, the Buxtons, the Burchells, and the Knibbs were alike famous for their piety and for their philanthropy. The anti-slavery movement there was not an anti-church movement, for the reason that the church took its full share in prosecuting that movement: and the anti-slavery movement in this country will cease to be an anti-church movement, when the church of this country shall assume a favorable instead of a hostile position towards that movement.
Americans! your republican politics, not less than your republican religion, are flagrantly inconsistent. You boast of your love of liberty, your superior civilization, and your pure Christianity, while the whole political power of the nation (as embodied in the two great political parties) is solemnly pledged to support and perpetuate the enslavement of three millions of your countrymen. You hurl your anathemas at the crowned headed tyrants of Russia and Austria and pride yourselves on your Democratic institutions, while you yourselves consent to be the mere tools and body-guards of the tyrants of Virginia and Carolina. You invite to your shores fugitives of oppression from abroad, honor them with banquets, greet them with ovations, cheer them, toast them, salute them, protect them, and pour out your money to them like water; but the fugitives from oppression in your own land you advertise, hunt, arrest, shoot, and kill. You glory in your refinement and your universal education; yet you maintain a system as barbarous and dreadful as ever stained the character of a nation-a system begun in avarice, supported in pride, and perpetuated in cruelty. You shed tears over fallen Hungary, and make the sad story of her wrongs the theme of your poets, statesmen, and orators, till your gallant sons are ready to fly to arms to vindicate her cause against the oppressor; but, in regard to the ten thousand wrongs of the American slave, you would enforce the strictest silence, and would hail him as an enemy of the nation who dares to make those wrongs the subject of public discourse! You are all on fire at the mention of liberty for France or for Ireland; but are as cold as an iceberg at the thought of liberty for the enslaved of America. You discourse eloquently on the dignity of labor; yet, you sustain a system which, in its very essence, casts a stigma upon labor. You can bare your bosom to the storm of British artillery to throw off a three-penny tax on tea; and yet wring the last hard earned farthing from the grasp of the black laborers of your country. You profess to believe "that, of one blood, God made all nations of men to dwell on the face of all the earth," and hath commanded all men, everywhere, to love one another; yet you notoriously hate (and glory in your hatred) all men whose skins are not colored like your own. You declare before the world, and are understood by the world to declare that you "hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal; and are endowed by their Creator with certain in alienable rights; and that among these are, life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness; and yet, you hold securely, in a bondage which, according to your own Thomas Jefferson, "is worse than ages of that which your fathers rose in rebellion to oppose," a seventh part of the inhabitants of your country.
Fellow-citizens, I will not enlarge further on your national inconsistencies. The existence of slavery in this country brands your republicanism as a sham, your humanity as a base pretense, and your Christianity as a lie. It destroys your moral power abroad: it corrupts your politicians at home. It saps the foundation of religion; it makes your name a hissing and a bye-word to a mocking earth. It is the antagonistic force in your government, the only thing that seriously disturbs and endangers your Union. it fetters your progress; it is the enemy of improvement; the deadly foe of education; it fosters pride; it breeds insolence; it promotes vice; it shelters crime; it is a curse to the earth that supports it; and yet you cling to it as if it were the sheet anchor of all your hopes. Oh! be warned! be warned! a horrible reptile is coiled up in your nation's bosom; the venomous creature is nursing at the tender breast of your youthful republic; for the love of God, tear away, and fling from you the hideous monster, and let the weight of twenty millions crush and destroy it forever!
But it is answered in reply to all this, that precisely what I have now denounced is, in fact, guaranteed and sanctioned by the Constitution of the United States; that, the right to hold, and to hunt slaves is a part of that Constitution framed by the illustrious Fathers of this Republic.
Then, I dare to affirm, notwithstanding all I have said before, your fathers stooped, basely stooped
To palter with us in a double sense:
And keep the word of promise to the ear,
But break it to the heart.
And instead of being the honest men I have before declared them to be, they were the veriest impostors that ever practised on mankind. This is the inevitable conclusion, and from it there is no escape; but I differ from those who charge this baseness on the framers of the Constitution of the United States. It is a slander upon their memory, at least, so I believe. There is not time now to argue the constitutional question at length; nor have I the ability to discuss it as it ought to be discussed. The subject has been handled with masterly power by Lysander Spooner, Esq. by William Goodell, by Samuel E. Sewall, Esq., and last, though not least, by Gerrit Smith, Esq. These gentlemen have, as I think, fully and clearly vindicated the Constitution from any design to support slavery for an hour.
Fellow-citizens! there is no matter in respect to which the people of the North have allowed themselves to be so ruinously imposed upon as that of the pro-slavery character of the Constitution. In that instrument I hold there is neither warrant, license, nor sanction of the hateful thing; but interpreted, as it ought to be interpreted, the Constitution is a glorious liberty document. Read its preamble, consider its purposes. Is slavery among them? Is it at the gate way? or is it in the temple? it is neither. While I do not intend to argue this question on the present occasion, let me ask, if it be not somewhat singular that, if the Constitution were intended to be, by its framers and adopters, a slaveholding instrument, why neither slavery, slaveholding, nor slave can any where be found in it. What would be thought of an instrument, drawn up, legally drawn up, for the purpose of entitling the city of Rochester to a tract of land, in which no mention of land was made? Now, there are certain rules of interpretation for the proper understanding of all legal instruments. These rules are well established. They are plain, commonsense rules, such as you and I, and all of us, can understand and apply, without having passed years in the study of law. I scout the idea that the question of the constitutionality, or unconstitutionality of slavery, is not a question for the people. I hold that every American citizen has a right to form an opinion of the constitution, and to propagate that opinion, and to use all honorable means to make his opinion the prevailing one. Without this right, the liberty of an American citizen would be as insecure as that of a Frenchman. Ex-Vice-President Dallas tells us that the constitution is an object to which no American mind can be too attentive, and no American heart too devoted. He further says, the Constitution, in its words, is plain and intelligible, and is meant for the home-bred, unsophisticated understandings of our fellow-citizens. Senator Berrien tells us that the Constitution is the fundamental law, that which controls all others. The charter of our liberties, which every citizen has a personal interest in understanding thoroughly. The testimony of Senator Breese, Lewis Cass, and many others that might be named, who are everywhere esteemed as sound lawyers, so regard the constitution. I take it, therefore, that it is not presumption in a private citizen to form an opinion of that instrument.
Now, take the Constitution according to its plain reading, and I defy the presentation of a single pro-slavery clause in it. On the other hand, it will be found to contain principles and purposes, entirely hostile to the existence of slavery.
I have detained my audience entirely too long already. At some future period I will gladly avail myself of an opportunity to give this subject a full and fair discussion.
Allow me to say, in conclusion, notwithstanding the dark picture I have this day presented, of the state of the nation, I do not despair of this country. There are forces in operation which must inevitably work the downfall of slavery.
"The arm of the Lord is not shortened," and the doom of slavery is certain. I, therefore, leave off where I began, with hope. While drawing encouragement from "the Declaration of Independence," the great principles it contains, and the genius of American Institutions, my spirit is also cheered by the obvious tendencies of the age. Nations do not now stand in the same relation to each other that they did ages ago. No nation can now shut itself up from the surrounding world and trot round in the same old path of its fathers without interference. The time was when such could be done. Long established customs of hurtful character could formerly fence themselves in, and do their evil work with social impunity. Knowledge was then confined and enjoyed by the privileged few, and the multitude walked on in mental darkness. But a change has now come over the affairs of mankind. Walled cities and empires have become unfashionable. The arm of commerce has borne away the gates of the strong city. Intelligence is penetrating the darkest corners of the globe. It makes its pathway over and under the sea, as well as on the earth. Wind, steam, and lightning are its chartered agents. Oceans no longer divide, but link nations together. From Boston to London is now a holiday excursion. Space is comparatively annihilated.-Thoughts expressed on one side of the Atlantic are distinctly heard on the other.
The far off and almost fabulous Pacific rolls in grandeur at our feet. The Celestial Empire, the mystery of ages, is being solved. The fiat of the Almighty, "Let there be Light," has not yet spent its force. No abuse, no outrage whether in taste, sport or avarice, can now hide itself from the all-pervading light. The iron shoe, and crippled foot of China must be seen in contrast with nature. Africa must rise and put on her yet unwoven garment. "Ethiopia shall stretch out her hand unto God." In the fervent aspirations of William Lloyd Garrison, I say, and let every heart join in saying it:
God speed the year of jubilee
The wide world o'er!
When from their galling chains set free,
Th' oppress'd shall vilely bend the knee,
And wear the yoke of tyranny
Like brutes no more.
That year will come, and freedom's reign.
To man his plundered rights again
Restore.
God speed the day when human blood
Shall cease to flow!
In every clime be understood,
The claims of human brotherhood,
And each return for evil, good,
Not blow for blow;
That day will come all feuds to end,
And change into a faithful friend
Each foe.
Tuesday, July 03, 2007
Justice Clarence Thomas Let's Colleagues know he's Black Enough
United State Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas used his opinion in the Seattle District and the Jefferson County School Board of Education majority’s opinion to take on the dissenting voices of the Court. Included in Justice Thomas's opinion is his response to those who are questioning whether or not he is black enough. Justice Thomas answers "the black enough question" quickly with a reference to his strict constructionist view of the Constitution being a colorblind Constitution taken from Plessy, as a similar view expressed by Brown vs. Board of Education, very own Justice Thurgood Marshall. As if his attack on Justice Stephen Breyers was not enough, Justice Thomas dismantles the argument of Justice Breyers' argument for allowing school boards plans to go unquestioned by the Court.
Justice Thomas expressed concerns about allowing school board that has designed a diversity plan without oversight of their own program. Justice Thomas does not agree that the school board is in the best positive to determine if the plan is marshalling in a state compelling interest a role more suited for the Court.
Justice Thomas suggest that allowing school boards this power would be returning to the role that segregatists played in circumventing the Constitution in allowing domination by one group over another group quoting from Dred Scott v Sandford., “[T]hey [members of the “negro African race”] had o rights which the white man was bound to respect”). Going so far as to suggest that school board spouting social theories that African-American students do better in school by attending integrated school may be on the same level with those in Plessy that argued to the Court to take into consideration the practicalities of the harm of upholding the meaning of the fourteen amendment. In other words, the school board knows what is best for its African-Americans students a similar argument that was used when the segregatist argued for deference to local authorities. Including the argument that the previous court did in upholding the societal practices, local expectations, and practical consequences by looking to the established usages, customs, and traditions of the people, and with a view to the promotion of their comfort and the preservation of the public peace and good order. The Court in deferring to such argument agreed that it was reasonable to separate the races.
Justice Thomas does not believe that what is occurring in Seattle or Jefferson County is segregation but simply racial imbalance in schools. Justice Thomas defines de jure segregation, “In the context of public schooling, segregation is the deliberate operation of a school system to ‘carry out a governmental policy to separate pupils in schools solely on the basis off race.’” Moreover, evidence of this would be a dual system, one black and one white. In addition, Brown II dismantled this dual system. What is occurring in schools today is a racial imbalance. “Racial imbalance is the failure of a school district’s individual schools to match or approximate the demographic makeup of the student population at large”, Washington v Seattle School Dist. No1. Justice Thomas argues that, other factors could contribute to racial imbalance besides past de jure segregation. Nevertheless, racial imbalance is not the same as re-segregation.
Seattle and Jefferson County is not experiencing a dual system, of black and white only segregation in its school system which is to the contrary of the evidence that shows that that various diverse groups are represented in the school system.
Justice Thomas expressed concerns about allowing school board that has designed a diversity plan without oversight of their own program. Justice Thomas does not agree that the school board is in the best positive to determine if the plan is marshalling in a state compelling interest a role more suited for the Court.
Justice Thomas suggest that allowing school boards this power would be returning to the role that segregatists played in circumventing the Constitution in allowing domination by one group over another group quoting from Dred Scott v Sandford., “[T]hey [members of the “negro African race”] had o rights which the white man was bound to respect”). Going so far as to suggest that school board spouting social theories that African-American students do better in school by attending integrated school may be on the same level with those in Plessy that argued to the Court to take into consideration the practicalities of the harm of upholding the meaning of the fourteen amendment. In other words, the school board knows what is best for its African-Americans students a similar argument that was used when the segregatist argued for deference to local authorities. Including the argument that the previous court did in upholding the societal practices, local expectations, and practical consequences by looking to the established usages, customs, and traditions of the people, and with a view to the promotion of their comfort and the preservation of the public peace and good order. The Court in deferring to such argument agreed that it was reasonable to separate the races.
Justice Thomas does not believe that what is occurring in Seattle or Jefferson County is segregation but simply racial imbalance in schools. Justice Thomas defines de jure segregation, “In the context of public schooling, segregation is the deliberate operation of a school system to ‘carry out a governmental policy to separate pupils in schools solely on the basis off race.’” Moreover, evidence of this would be a dual system, one black and one white. In addition, Brown II dismantled this dual system. What is occurring in schools today is a racial imbalance. “Racial imbalance is the failure of a school district’s individual schools to match or approximate the demographic makeup of the student population at large”, Washington v Seattle School Dist. No1. Justice Thomas argues that, other factors could contribute to racial imbalance besides past de jure segregation. Nevertheless, racial imbalance is not the same as re-segregation.
Seattle and Jefferson County is not experiencing a dual system, of black and white only segregation in its school system which is to the contrary of the evidence that shows that that various diverse groups are represented in the school system.
Monday, July 02, 2007
U.S. Supreme Court Revisit Brown vs Board of Education
The fact that schools are experiencing a re-segregation and it is not out right because of a direct state law, the U.S. Supreme Court in a majority vote of 5-4 remanded diversity plans from SeattleSchool District and Jefferson County School Board to be revised. Seattle and Jefferson County used only two categories of race for determining how they would implement their diversity programs. And because of the small number of students who were impacted the majority suggested other alternatives should have been considered beyond solely using race to create a diverse student body,especially when the schools already have a diverse student body from other groups of students.
Yes races of other students.
The majority opinioned that schools using race only or using a certain percentage of a racial classification appears to be a form of racial balancing. The Court suggested that racial balancing is in violation of the U.S. Constitution. Furthermore, the Court expressed the concern that using the race of an individual to assign or transfer to a particular school violated what Brown vs. Board of Education was attempting to remedy, the badge of inferiority. Surprising is the fact that the Court only lifted language, of the badge of inferiority from Brown. The Court missed what child was being discussed in Brown. According to Brown,
It was an African-American child who was excluded by state law from attending any schools with other children who were raced white only. The Court thought it was wise to look backward to Brown in justifying its ruling. Yet, at the same time the same Court admonishes schools today that they should not look backward at the old percentage used in earlier plans. The reason is that the old percentages included only two categories during Brown-Negro or Caucasian. The schools today are made up of groups of Latinos, Asians, African-Americans and Raced Whites. Therefore this Court linguistically overlooked the ruling in Swann by denying schools facing re-segregation to simply change their percentages to increase the number of raced whites in to the school in order to reduce the number of African-Americans in these re-segregated schools
There is a reason, because under Swann, percentages were allowed to integrate schools.
Nevertheless, the Court recognize that it not state a law that is causing a re-segregation of the schools when it suggests housing patterns are the cause of re-segregation of students. And even though housing patterns may cause racial isolation preventing racial isolation is not a state compelling interest. Nevertheless, the objective of diversity was to create an educational benefit for students by creating a diverse student body. Moreover, to ignore the fact that racial isolation does not create a diverse student body nullify the state interest in achieving it objective. African-American students were oppressed under Brown because there was no such thing as diversity in the student body during that time period. Joshua who was raced white was not being denied the opportunity to attend schools with other African-American students, therefore Joshua had no badge of inferiority when he was assigned to another school because of his race.
Yes races of other students.
The majority opinioned that schools using race only or using a certain percentage of a racial classification appears to be a form of racial balancing. The Court suggested that racial balancing is in violation of the U.S. Constitution. Furthermore, the Court expressed the concern that using the race of an individual to assign or transfer to a particular school violated what Brown vs. Board of Education was attempting to remedy, the badge of inferiority. Surprising is the fact that the Court only lifted language, of the badge of inferiority from Brown. The Court missed what child was being discussed in Brown. According to Brown,
Segregation of white and colored children in public schools has a detrimental effect upon the colored children. The impact is greater when it has the sanction of the law; for the policy of separating the races is usually interpreted as denoting the inferiority of the negro group. A sense of inferiority affects the motivation of a child to learn. Segregation with the sanction of law, therefore, has a tendency to [retard] the educational and mental development of negro children and to deprive them of some of the benefits they would receive in a racial[ly] integrated school system. Brown, 347 U.S. at 494.
To separate [Black children] from others of similar age and qualifications solely because of their race generates a feeling of inferiority as to their status in the community that may affect their hearts and minds in a way unlikely ever to be undone. The effect of this separation on their educational opportunities was well stated by a finding in the Kansas case . . . . Brown, 347 U.S. at 494.
It was an African-American child who was excluded by state law from attending any schools with other children who were raced white only. The Court thought it was wise to look backward to Brown in justifying its ruling. Yet, at the same time the same Court admonishes schools today that they should not look backward at the old percentage used in earlier plans. The reason is that the old percentages included only two categories during Brown-Negro or Caucasian. The schools today are made up of groups of Latinos, Asians, African-Americans and Raced Whites. Therefore this Court linguistically overlooked the ruling in Swann by denying schools facing re-segregation to simply change their percentages to increase the number of raced whites in to the school in order to reduce the number of African-Americans in these re-segregated schools
There is a reason, because under Swann, percentages were allowed to integrate schools.
Nevertheless, the Court recognize that it not state a law that is causing a re-segregation of the schools when it suggests housing patterns are the cause of re-segregation of students. And even though housing patterns may cause racial isolation preventing racial isolation is not a state compelling interest. Nevertheless, the objective of diversity was to create an educational benefit for students by creating a diverse student body. Moreover, to ignore the fact that racial isolation does not create a diverse student body nullify the state interest in achieving it objective. African-American students were oppressed under Brown because there was no such thing as diversity in the student body during that time period. Joshua who was raced white was not being denied the opportunity to attend schools with other African-American students, therefore Joshua had no badge of inferiority when he was assigned to another school because of his race.
Fort Wayne Property Tax debacle will an increase in income tax save them?
The auditor, treasurer, and assessors have been bugging since 2002. By bugging I mean increasing their take of homeowners’ disposable income. Trending is the new friend of the auditor, treasurer and assessors. Trending is a yearly adjustment to properties showing increases in value to prevent the sticker shock. Trending was used by assessor to increase homes value to the market value even if these homes were not selling in certain neighborhoods. Because the state would no longer cover up for local government by increasing property tax replacement credit, local government had to either cut their budget or increase the amount of funds they collected from property owners. Local government decided to increase the burden on residential property owners.
Local government eliminated inventories tax on businesses, the state limited property replacement relief, homestead credit was reduced, homestead deduction increased to reduced the assessed value for tax purpose, and trending of property to capture early market value of certain property that were not selling during the reassessment.
Trending was applied for the first time in 2007, impacting city residents. Aboite’s residents saw an increase of 57%. But, Allen County resident were blinded to their own sticker shock by Aboite’s increase, failed to see their own increase of between 12%-14% as a doubling their own tax burden.. The increase of 12% -14% for Fort Wayne residents occurred after Indiana General Assembly pledged over $550 million for tax relief. The first $300 million would be available in a tax rebate check in 2007 and the second $250 would be available in 2008.
With the first $300 million, the General Assembly purpose was to reduce the estimated increase of 24% of homeowner tax bill down into the range of 7.7%. Fort Wayne local government added on assessed value through trending to receive a windfall between 4.3% to 6.3 % . Fort Wayne residents’ bills were doubled just like their new neighbors in Aboite even after they receive a rebate check averaging only $235 later in the year from these increases. The $235 rebate check is a symbolic gesture from the State of Indiana to local residents on saving that the state has been providing relief while local government kept all the increases. However, the State does not have the money but will receive fund from the sale of slot machine licenses to two race tracks called racinos.
Local government hid the state tax relief to stack on top of the projected increases that will occur in 2008. In 2008, the homestead credit will remain at $45,000, but will be reduced at $1000 a year for 5 years in hopes of stabilizing the homeowner tax bill As long as local government can get the state to provide property tax relief to homeowners, it starves off local government from shift some of the tax burden on increases businesses.
Local government will have to go to local income taxes without the state offering the $45,000 after 2009. Three new local income tax options to fund the annual increase in civil government property tax operating levies. The first is to increase local income tax, the department of local government finance would determine the income tax rate required to operate the government with fund a levy increase. Second, COIT Council can adopt an income tax to reduce property taxes. The maximum rate is one percent. It can be used to increase the property tax replacement credit. It can be used to increase the homestead credit, for homeowners only. Or it can be used to provide a credit to homestead and residential rental property.
Third the council can adopt an added income tax to raise new revenue for public safety. Public safety , meaning police and fire, emergency medical services, correction and juvenile services and includes current operating costs, debt service and pension obligation. The maximum rate is 0.25% and counties must adopt the two property tax relief income taxes to be allowed to adopt the public safety rate. The deadline is August 1 for tax year 2008 payable in 2009.
Because local government is aware that they will have to use one of the three they are using trending to increase the value of property at this time. How much taxpayer benefit from going to an increase in income tax depends on how much property Is owned, what residents earn, where residents live and how their county decides to distribute tax relief. You better believe that the public safety component will be a big incentive for those seeking reelection.
The taxable income and property assessed value of a taxpayer with determine how hard high income earners will be hit with the income tax increase. If a taxpayer with more income and less property will tend to pay more income taxes. People who will pay more will include renters, teenagers, right along side employed homeowners. Unless the employed homeowners assessed property value is more than their taxable income. These lucky individuals will pay less with will include farmers, retired homeowners and property owners who live outside the county.
Local government eliminated inventories tax on businesses, the state limited property replacement relief, homestead credit was reduced, homestead deduction increased to reduced the assessed value for tax purpose, and trending of property to capture early market value of certain property that were not selling during the reassessment.
Trending was applied for the first time in 2007, impacting city residents. Aboite’s residents saw an increase of 57%. But, Allen County resident were blinded to their own sticker shock by Aboite’s increase, failed to see their own increase of between 12%-14% as a doubling their own tax burden.. The increase of 12% -14% for Fort Wayne residents occurred after Indiana General Assembly pledged over $550 million for tax relief. The first $300 million would be available in a tax rebate check in 2007 and the second $250 would be available in 2008.
With the first $300 million, the General Assembly purpose was to reduce the estimated increase of 24% of homeowner tax bill down into the range of 7.7%. Fort Wayne local government added on assessed value through trending to receive a windfall between 4.3% to 6.3 % . Fort Wayne residents’ bills were doubled just like their new neighbors in Aboite even after they receive a rebate check averaging only $235 later in the year from these increases. The $235 rebate check is a symbolic gesture from the State of Indiana to local residents on saving that the state has been providing relief while local government kept all the increases. However, the State does not have the money but will receive fund from the sale of slot machine licenses to two race tracks called racinos.
Local government hid the state tax relief to stack on top of the projected increases that will occur in 2008. In 2008, the homestead credit will remain at $45,000, but will be reduced at $1000 a year for 5 years in hopes of stabilizing the homeowner tax bill As long as local government can get the state to provide property tax relief to homeowners, it starves off local government from shift some of the tax burden on increases businesses.
Local government will have to go to local income taxes without the state offering the $45,000 after 2009. Three new local income tax options to fund the annual increase in civil government property tax operating levies. The first is to increase local income tax, the department of local government finance would determine the income tax rate required to operate the government with fund a levy increase. Second, COIT Council can adopt an income tax to reduce property taxes. The maximum rate is one percent. It can be used to increase the property tax replacement credit. It can be used to increase the homestead credit, for homeowners only. Or it can be used to provide a credit to homestead and residential rental property.
Third the council can adopt an added income tax to raise new revenue for public safety. Public safety , meaning police and fire, emergency medical services, correction and juvenile services and includes current operating costs, debt service and pension obligation. The maximum rate is 0.25% and counties must adopt the two property tax relief income taxes to be allowed to adopt the public safety rate. The deadline is August 1 for tax year 2008 payable in 2009.
Because local government is aware that they will have to use one of the three they are using trending to increase the value of property at this time. How much taxpayer benefit from going to an increase in income tax depends on how much property Is owned, what residents earn, where residents live and how their county decides to distribute tax relief. You better believe that the public safety component will be a big incentive for those seeking reelection.
The taxable income and property assessed value of a taxpayer with determine how hard high income earners will be hit with the income tax increase. If a taxpayer with more income and less property will tend to pay more income taxes. People who will pay more will include renters, teenagers, right along side employed homeowners. Unless the employed homeowners assessed property value is more than their taxable income. These lucky individuals will pay less with will include farmers, retired homeowners and property owners who live outside the county.
Bamboozled by the auditor and the media
The headline read first time newly annexed Aboite residents hit with a 57% tax bill hike. Disbelief was the initial response to the increase for the Aboite’s residents and a sigh of relief for low property tax increase of 12% and 14% for Fort Wayne and other Allen County residents. But in the back of mind, the low percentage appeared to be hiding something. The something was the increase in the homestead credit that was to reduce the tax increase to around 7.7%. The headline was only telling only half the story, Fort Wayne and other Allen County were being hit with doubling of their tax increases.
What happened?
The Indiana Department of Local Government Finance realized that local community were increasing property value through the new tool of trending. Trending allowed local government to assess property at a market rate annually to insure a more orderly and timely process before the major required reassessessment. Trending yearly would alert the state to any trends in fraudently home assessment.
After reviewing early trending number from various counties, the IDLGF projected highs of at least 24% increase in homeowners property taxes. Indiana General Assembly alarmed by the high increase by local government decided to offer property tax relief to homeowners. The General Assembly decided to keep the $45,000 temporary homestead deduction for homeowner. In doing so, the deduction would limit homeowner tax bill increase in the range of 7.7% instead of the projected 24%. However, the saving would not go to the local government it would go directly to the homeowners in a tax rebate check.
Therefore, what happened?
Local government was outraged that homeowner would benefit rather than a windfall for local government. Furthermore, the General Assembly had placed a cap on how much local government could tax high-end homeowner to 2% of the gross amount of these homeowners property assessed value. Local government would no longer be able to blame the state for any increases to homeowner’s bill based on state spending.
That’s what happened.
Local government for the first time since 2002 could not predict how much they would collect from the high-end homeowner and had to tax these homes at the market rate and to tax them at the maximum 2% cap. In doing so, the tax relief provided by the General Assembly to reduce homeowners’ tax bill was erased by the greed of local government under trending for Aboite residents, as well as Fort Wayne and other Allen County residents.
It's time for the taxpayers to kick out the auditor, Blosser the auditor assistant, the treasurer,Lee and the treasure assistant, the County assessors.
That's what needs to happen.
What happened?
The Indiana Department of Local Government Finance realized that local community were increasing property value through the new tool of trending. Trending allowed local government to assess property at a market rate annually to insure a more orderly and timely process before the major required reassessessment. Trending yearly would alert the state to any trends in fraudently home assessment.
After reviewing early trending number from various counties, the IDLGF projected highs of at least 24% increase in homeowners property taxes. Indiana General Assembly alarmed by the high increase by local government decided to offer property tax relief to homeowners. The General Assembly decided to keep the $45,000 temporary homestead deduction for homeowner. In doing so, the deduction would limit homeowner tax bill increase in the range of 7.7% instead of the projected 24%. However, the saving would not go to the local government it would go directly to the homeowners in a tax rebate check.
Therefore, what happened?
Local government was outraged that homeowner would benefit rather than a windfall for local government. Furthermore, the General Assembly had placed a cap on how much local government could tax high-end homeowner to 2% of the gross amount of these homeowners property assessed value. Local government would no longer be able to blame the state for any increases to homeowner’s bill based on state spending.
That’s what happened.
Local government for the first time since 2002 could not predict how much they would collect from the high-end homeowner and had to tax these homes at the market rate and to tax them at the maximum 2% cap. In doing so, the tax relief provided by the General Assembly to reduce homeowners’ tax bill was erased by the greed of local government under trending for Aboite residents, as well as Fort Wayne and other Allen County residents.
It's time for the taxpayers to kick out the auditor, Blosser the auditor assistant, the treasurer,Lee and the treasure assistant, the County assessors.
That's what needs to happen.
Foreclosure crisis in the works
Crisis
States are experiencing an increase in foreclosures. Foreclosure of homes purchased under terms that were less than favorable to certain home buyers. Many of these home buyers were young first time buyers or low income buyers. Some of these homeowners’ incomes were inflated by a mortgage broker to insure that an overpriced home would sell. How the deal worked was a mortgage brokers would freeze out appraisers who would not appraise the value of a home higher than the actual worth of a home. Second, the unsuspecting buyer would not be aware of the coercive relationship between appraiser and mortgage broker, who both benefited from the buyer’s lack of knowledge.
Example: A home valued by the appraiser at $100,000 but the lender only loaned $72,000. However the original value on the sale disclosure was listed at only $59,000. The mortgage broker does not want the buyer to know the value of the home is only $59,000. At the end of 30 years the new buyer will have purchased a $59,000 for a total a little less than $200,000.* numbers have been changed to protect the identity of the purchaser.
It appears that subprime lenders have not learned from their mistakes or are willing players in getting the upfront money from homebuyers. Appraisers feeling the heat from mortgage brokers working to collect a hefty commission are pushing for real estate fraud rules.
This year it is predicted that these egregious loans with explosive adjustable rate mortgages will push many of these homeowners into foreclosure. So worried about the number of homes impacted by suprime hybrid ARM, that there is a group, Leadership Conference on Civil Rights calling for a foreclosure moratorium. And those borrowers who can afford these subprime deals could find that their lender may have filed for bankruptcy and the buyer will find themselves trying to find the new holders of the loan to prevent their homes from going into foreclosures from nonpayment. The crisis has even hit Wall Street, the stock market.
States are experiencing an increase in foreclosures. Foreclosure of homes purchased under terms that were less than favorable to certain home buyers. Many of these home buyers were young first time buyers or low income buyers. Some of these homeowners’ incomes were inflated by a mortgage broker to insure that an overpriced home would sell. How the deal worked was a mortgage brokers would freeze out appraisers who would not appraise the value of a home higher than the actual worth of a home. Second, the unsuspecting buyer would not be aware of the coercive relationship between appraiser and mortgage broker, who both benefited from the buyer’s lack of knowledge.
Example: A home valued by the appraiser at $100,000 but the lender only loaned $72,000. However the original value on the sale disclosure was listed at only $59,000. The mortgage broker does not want the buyer to know the value of the home is only $59,000. At the end of 30 years the new buyer will have purchased a $59,000 for a total a little less than $200,000.* numbers have been changed to protect the identity of the purchaser.
It appears that subprime lenders have not learned from their mistakes or are willing players in getting the upfront money from homebuyers. Appraisers feeling the heat from mortgage brokers working to collect a hefty commission are pushing for real estate fraud rules.
This year it is predicted that these egregious loans with explosive adjustable rate mortgages will push many of these homeowners into foreclosure. So worried about the number of homes impacted by suprime hybrid ARM, that there is a group, Leadership Conference on Civil Rights calling for a foreclosure moratorium. And those borrowers who can afford these subprime deals could find that their lender may have filed for bankruptcy and the buyer will find themselves trying to find the new holders of the loan to prevent their homes from going into foreclosures from nonpayment. The crisis has even hit Wall Street, the stock market.
Saturday, June 30, 2007
1st District County Council Member Maye Johnson
Maye Johnson was hired by Mayor Graham Richard as a consultant for the Synergy Program that would later become Renaissance Pointe Project.
Friday, June 29, 2007
Announcement of Renaissance Pointe HomeBuyer
Contrary to the hype about bringing young urban raced whites into Renaissance Pointe Project, the first potential homeowner in the project is an African-American family.
According to City of Fort Wayne website:
Special financing will be the lure for African-American families, especially single mothers with limited income. The churches in the surrounding area may be the lurk for African-American married couples and families.
However, it will take active promoting of the area to sell 400 homes to young folks seeking a place to raise a family.
According to City of Fort Wayne website:
National City Bank is financing $900,000 of investment in Renaissance Pointe, including the six model homes that will showcase some of the builders’ designs. The model homes are scheduled to be completed by October.
Renaissance Pointe is part of a national trend toward near-downtown living. The targeted housing market includes existing neighborhood residents, young professionals, newcomers to the region, and individuals and families anxious to live close to downtown amenities including dining, shopping, culture, and entertainment
Special financing will be the lure for African-American families, especially single mothers with limited income. The churches in the surrounding area may be the lurk for African-American married couples and families.
However, it will take active promoting of the area to sell 400 homes to young folks seeking a place to raise a family.
3rd District and Immigration Laws
FWOB reported that U.S. 3rd District Congressional Representative Mark Souder was to address the defeated immigration bill that went before the senate. Souder will be challenged by Michael Montagano for the congressional seat.
Montagano a Democrat is not being warmly received by some of his Democratic members. Some of these members are yelling Montagano is too young or is inexperienced. Sounds like some of the same arguments used against Senator Barack Obama because of his race. Could the same thing be said about Montagano?
Tavis Smiley's Democratic Love Fest
I rushed home to watch the Democratic debate that Eddie Griffin mentioned on his blog. What a line up! But, it did not take long for me to figure out nothing new was coming from the mouths of most of the candidates.
The winner of the debate was Gov. Bill Richardson. Of course I adore Obama and he has my vote. But Richardson had something to say, that made me want to hear what he had to say. The old guy had nothing to lose and told the truth that the candidates were playing to the audience.
Tavis Smiley wins for getting more sponsors for enlightening the African-American Community. I know for a fact that many members of the Afrospear could have created a more informative discussion from the such a debate.
Does anyone take the African-American vote serious! And Hillary Clinton saying no flying over Darfur instead of making that happens does nothing for me. So I don't understand the sista standing and giving you any type of applauses. Obama you were right on about doing more for Africa than coming in during a crisis.
Debate? No more pandering to the voters.
The winner of the debate was Gov. Bill Richardson. Of course I adore Obama and he has my vote. But Richardson had something to say, that made me want to hear what he had to say. The old guy had nothing to lose and told the truth that the candidates were playing to the audience.
Tavis Smiley wins for getting more sponsors for enlightening the African-American Community. I know for a fact that many members of the Afrospear could have created a more informative discussion from the such a debate.
Does anyone take the African-American vote serious! And Hillary Clinton saying no flying over Darfur instead of making that happens does nothing for me. So I don't understand the sista standing and giving you any type of applauses. Obama you were right on about doing more for Africa than coming in during a crisis.
Debate? No more pandering to the voters.
Police Officer Joyner at Ready Alert-Act of Intimidation
This is a simple Mayor's press conference. But the Mayor must be scared, notice the police officer hand position? Sad. Hell, I've been in arena with over 300 officers posed to pulled their weapons. But you have to understand the City Workers who are a majority of raced whites were in the African-American community and Joyner had to play like he would shoot to kill.
This is sad, especially when the next day the police were unable to apprehend the suspect of a shooting that happen less than a block a way from the police department.
This is sad, especially when the next day the police were unable to apprehend the suspect of a shooting that happen less than a block a way from the police department.
Mr. DeLagrange, I can't believe Mayor Dick Lied to me Again!!!
Thanks Mr. Delagrange, for being so forthright and honest in explaining your role in the Renaissance Project. Honesty is something that is lacking in a lot of folks characters! It was a pleaure speaking with you!
Thursday, June 28, 2007
I told you Fort Wayne Mayor Dick Lied on the State
From the Indystar:
The legislature, which ended its annual session on April 29, provided some $550 million in property tax relief over the next two years, including $300 million that will be returned to homeowners in the form of rebate checks later this year. (bold and italic added for emphasis.
But guess what? The rebate checks are for those who pay up front. Meaning the folks in the Aboite area more than likely have mortgages on their homes. So, the mortgage companies will disperse the tax amount throughout their yearly mortgage payment. But the rebate check require a payment within a certain time period.
So does this mean, the folks will have to pay their taxes and the increase in their mortgage payment to get the state rebate?
Is that double taxation without representation?
Here the link to calculate your tax bill.
The legislature, which ended its annual session on April 29, provided some $550 million in property tax relief over the next two years, including $300 million that will be returned to homeowners in the form of rebate checks later this year. (bold and italic added for emphasis.
But guess what? The rebate checks are for those who pay up front. Meaning the folks in the Aboite area more than likely have mortgages on their homes. So, the mortgage companies will disperse the tax amount throughout their yearly mortgage payment. But the rebate check require a payment within a certain time period.
So does this mean, the folks will have to pay their taxes and the increase in their mortgage payment to get the state rebate?
Is that double taxation without representation?
Here the link to calculate your tax bill.
Fort Wayne.com new look
Well maybe it's just me. But it looks like our Fort Wayne newspapers are taking a page from Indystar. The new looks reminds me a lot of Indy's online newspaper.
Indiana fastest growing suburb-Fisher, Indiana
Fort Wayne, Indiana officials are excited at Fort Wayne's population increase as reported in the Journal-Gazette. The U.S. Census Bureau conducted an estimation of cities populations in 2006 placing Fort Wayne as the 70th largest city in the nation.
During the 1950 Fort Wayne, Indiana began to lose it's population. Brown vs. Board of Education of Topeka required communities to integration its schools. Fort Wayne began to see an exodus of raced white (rw) flight to the suburb during the 1960's while at the same time African-American (aa) population saw a steady increase in its urban core. By the 1970, Fort Wayne began to artificially grow its population through annexation. In 1970, Fort Wayne annexed an incorporated area containing 14,000 raced whites into the city, but the overall raced white population increased only by 8, 206.
By 1980, the raced white population in Fort Wayne saw a loss of over 14,000 raced whites. By 2000, Fort Wayne knew it was in serious problem in competing with the suburbs when it saw the raced white population grow only by 4, 100 as its African -Americans and Latino population increased.
source: dowdellresearch,llc
So where did they go? It would be to the suburbs.
So what can we in Fort Wayne learn from Fishers? That the fight over dollars to rehab schools go beyond yellow and blue and really about black and white.
The state's three largest cities in population - Indianapolis (785,597), Fort Wayne (249,637) and Evansville (115,738) - each gained residents over the past year, but the latter two both lag behind their 2000 estimates. Indianapolis' gains- have been marginal, gaining just 3,760 residents in an up-and-down pattern of growth and decline over the six years.
During the 1950 Fort Wayne, Indiana began to lose it's population. Brown vs. Board of Education of Topeka required communities to integration its schools. Fort Wayne began to see an exodus of raced white (rw) flight to the suburb during the 1960's while at the same time African-American (aa) population saw a steady increase in its urban core. By the 1970, Fort Wayne began to artificially grow its population through annexation. In 1970, Fort Wayne annexed an incorporated area containing 14,000 raced whites into the city, but the overall raced white population increased only by 8, 206.
Source: dowdellresearch, llc
By 1980, the raced white population in Fort Wayne saw a loss of over 14,000 raced whites. By 2000, Fort Wayne knew it was in serious problem in competing with the suburbs when it saw the raced white population grow only by 4, 100 as its African -Americans and Latino population increased.
source: dowdellresearch,llcSo where did they go? It would be to the suburbs.
According to Associated Press, as reported in the West Lafayette Journal and Courier, the big news is the growth of the suburbs. The suburbs have learn the lesson from the bit cities that were facing a decline in population by annexing unincorporated areas.
Annexation helped Fort Wayne stop five years of declining population. Indiana's second largest city (and the 70th largest in the nation) swallowed a large portion of suburban Aboite Township on Jan. 1, 2006, bringing about 25,000 new residents into the city. Not all of them showed up on the latest estimates.The population of Fishers, once a sleepy little community along Interstate 69 between Indianapolis and Anderson, has grown by 59 percent over the past six years to 61,840, the Census Bureau said.
Fishers in one of the fastest growing suburbs in Indiana.
So what can we in Fort Wayne learn from Fishers? That the fight over dollars to rehab schools go beyond yellow and blue and really about black and white.
Fort Wayne, Indiana 1st African-American Fire Chief will Retire in August
Fire Chief Tim Davie leaves his position as Fort Wayne Fire Department's fire chief. The Journal Gazette reports that Davie will be retiring from the fire department but will take on a new job in the private sector. Fire Chief Davie served as the first African-American in that position beginning in 2000 under Mayor Graham Richard's Democratic administration.
Renaissance Pointe-Can we pull your Credit Report?
Alan Dunlap, from the Community College Foundation, is the driver of the fifth third bank Home ownership Ebus traveling to at least ten different states:
Ohio, Florida, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Michigan, Missouri, Pennsylvania, Tennessee and West Virginia.
Fifth Third Bank Community Development Director Vice-President Beverly Mukes-Gaither is working with a variety of nonprofit organizations here in the City of Fort Wayne pertaining to housing.
One such nonprofit is Fort Wayne-Allen County Health Department that is responsible for detecting lead poisoned children. FWAC has been ineffective in the central city where a large number of lead base homes are located as well as a large African-Americans and Latino population. The Fort Wayne Allen County Health Department has been ineffective because the organization is understaffed as well as culturally insensitive to the African-American community. The Allen County Lead Poisoning program is partially federal funded.
Ohio, Florida, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Michigan, Missouri, Pennsylvania, Tennessee and West Virginia.
Fifth Third Bank Community Development Director Vice-President Beverly Mukes-Gaither is working with a variety of nonprofit organizations here in the City of Fort Wayne pertaining to housing.
One such nonprofit is Fort Wayne-Allen County Health Department that is responsible for detecting lead poisoned children. FWAC has been ineffective in the central city where a large number of lead base homes are located as well as a large African-Americans and Latino population. The Fort Wayne Allen County Health Department has been ineffective because the organization is understaffed as well as culturally insensitive to the African-American community. The Allen County Lead Poisoning program is partially federal funded.
Mayor Graham Richard Lies to Citizens on Tax Bill increases
The City of Fort Wayne 2007 Tax Rates for its various townships compared to other 2007 certified tax rates in various townships throughout the State of Indiana.
The City of Fort Wayne townships and various others townships 2006 certified tax rates throughout the State of Indiana.
The City of Fort Wayne townships and various others townships 2006 certified tax rates throughout the State of Indiana.
Wednesday, June 27, 2007
Patriots
Indiana Senator Richard Lugar has changed his position on the war in Iraq. Below is picture of Anthony Lewis and his group support of those in the military:
http://www.fortwaynepatriots.net
http://fortwaynehomepage.net/content/community/event?event_id=2166&month=04&date=7&year=2007
http://www.fortwayne.com/mld/fortwayne/news/local/15499719.htm
http://www.fortwaynereader.com/story.php?uid=727
http://www.fortwayne.com/mld/fortwayne/news/local/16939788.htm
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cr-alSvEs7M
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ij9v7rGXF8U
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PwZUG2iuV-E
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bzs-yIE4ba0
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/PanamaVets/message/26821
http://www.worldvoicenews.com/BUSINESS/Article.cfm?ID=5397&CID=9&T=This%20War's%20Slap%20in%20the%20Face
http://www.glenbrooksquare.com/html/EventDetail.asp?ecd=117470
http://www.fwdailynews.com/articles/2007/06/08/greater_fort_wayne/news/today/6-8story3.prt
The Fort Wayne Patriots, are a group of people with different backgrounds, opinions and beliefs that have come together, to rally and provide morale support for our soldiers and veterans of the United States military. To work with the community, to contribute and promote awareness of the needs of our soldiers and veterans and to enlighten the public to the positive impact they have in our lives.
http://www.fortwaynepatriots.net
http://fortwaynehomepage.net/content/community/event?event_id=2166&month=04&date=7&year=2007
http://www.fortwayne.com/mld/fortwayne/news/local/15499719.htm
http://www.fortwaynereader.com/story.php?uid=727
http://www.fortwayne.com/mld/fortwayne/news/local/16939788.htm
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cr-alSvEs7M
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ij9v7rGXF8U
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PwZUG2iuV-E
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bzs-yIE4ba0
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/PanamaVets/message/26821
http://www.worldvoicenews.com/BUSINESS/Article.cfm?ID=5397&CID=9&T=This%20War's%20Slap%20in%20the%20Face
http://www.glenbrooksquare.com/html/EventDetail.asp?ecd=117470
http://www.fwdailynews.com/articles/2007/06/08/greater_fort_wayne/news/today/6-8story3.prt
The Elders remaining in the Renaissance Pointe Neighborhood
I grew up in the Hanna-Creighton Neighborhood. I went to Hanna School, James H. Smart and Weisser Park. By the time, I reached high school, Central High School was no longer an option for me, I ended up at South Side. Throughout the years of my adulthood, I tried to get away from the neighborhood.
Until, one day a program brought me back to the neighborhood. I can tell you I was surprised by some of the changes. And that these changes were acceptable to some of those who had remained behind in the old neighborhood. But, because the neighborhood had changed did not mean everyone agreed with the changes.
So today while out in the old neighborhood, I was glad to run into one of the elder. The elder felt that he or she had grown old. The elder felt that the over assessment of his or her home, the amount of work to maintain the home, and the rising cost of gas and light meant it was time to move on. Moving on meant going into a senior apartment complex, the program could offer six months of rental assistance and the cost of his or her home. The elder felt they did not want his or her home, they were more interested in his or her lot.
How you doing, he or she said. When you heard these words from the elder, you know they really want to know. But, more important it meant you needed to stop and spend a moment to listen to the wisdom that the elder was willing to share. To remind them that we are never too old to listen to the elder.
Until, one day a program brought me back to the neighborhood. I can tell you I was surprised by some of the changes. And that these changes were acceptable to some of those who had remained behind in the old neighborhood. But, because the neighborhood had changed did not mean everyone agreed with the changes.
So today while out in the old neighborhood, I was glad to run into one of the elder. The elder felt that he or she had grown old. The elder felt that the over assessment of his or her home, the amount of work to maintain the home, and the rising cost of gas and light meant it was time to move on. Moving on meant going into a senior apartment complex, the program could offer six months of rental assistance and the cost of his or her home. The elder felt they did not want his or her home, they were more interested in his or her lot.
How you doing, he or she said. When you heard these words from the elder, you know they really want to know. But, more important it meant you needed to stop and spend a moment to listen to the wisdom that the elder was willing to share. To remind them that we are never too old to listen to the elder.
Police Chief Rusty York
Police Chief Rusty York was at the groundbreaking for Renaissance Pointe at 2401 John Street. I teased Police Chief York, with the police officer standing by him, I told Police Chief York, I thought he was the fire chief with his white shirt on.
Well, was I surprised to go to FWOB and see that the actual Fire Chief Tim Davie was announcing his retirement. I asked Police Chief York, about leaving office and was told he would be willing to stay. However, the Police Chief York conceded the decision would be up to the new mayor on whether or not he would remain as Police Chief of the City of Fort Wayne.
Well, was I surprised to go to FWOB and see that the actual Fire Chief Tim Davie was announcing his retirement. I asked Police Chief York, about leaving office and was told he would be willing to stay. However, the Police Chief York conceded the decision would be up to the new mayor on whether or not he would remain as Police Chief of the City of Fort Wayne.
The Democratic Mayor Graham Richards and Renaissance Pointe
Yes, the Mayor made an appearance on John Street. The Mayor was there will various groups of promoters of the Renaissance Point vision. Of course, I asked the Mayor a couple of questions in which he gave me misinformation and passed me off to Herb Delagrange.
Delagrange is secretary/treasurer of Delagrange Homes. I wanted to know how soon would a home be ready for occupancy. The answer was the six model homes will be just that model homes. Those interested in a home in the area can select a lot and have their home built to their specifications.
It was a great photo op for the outgoing Mayor. Many of the folks had probably not been in the central city in their entire life. But all the folks did were make little speeches to their groupies and talked about the past as if it was not part of the present for the promises of the future. Yes pretend, boys and girls, that the downtown skylight that could be seen from the John Street location would somehow attract young raced white males to the heart of the city.
And if the skylight did not work, maybe Zion church and and it school would be an option to young raced white families who hate Fort Wayne Community School.
Delagrange is secretary/treasurer of Delagrange Homes. I wanted to know how soon would a home be ready for occupancy. The answer was the six model homes will be just that model homes. Those interested in a home in the area can select a lot and have their home built to their specifications.
It was a great photo op for the outgoing Mayor. Many of the folks had probably not been in the central city in their entire life. But all the folks did were make little speeches to their groupies and talked about the past as if it was not part of the present for the promises of the future. Yes pretend, boys and girls, that the downtown skylight that could be seen from the John Street location would somehow attract young raced white males to the heart of the city.
And if the skylight did not work, maybe Zion church and and it school would be an option to young raced white families who hate Fort Wayne Community School.
Aboite Tax Burden comes straight from the Auditor Office
Amanda Iacone from the Journal-Gazette writes :
Wrong it is not the state that is the chief culprit. It is the slate of hands of the auditor office and the political leaders..local greed.
The state told the locals to do their own assessment. And what did the local do? They overassessed the voters home. The local stated that the voters were too dumb to figure it out. But the state was outraged and intervened and placed a circuit breaker on how much local could collect. And what did local do? They cried and blamed the state and then increased the tax rate beyond what was needed. So what did the state do? The state capped the circuit breaker at 5% so that the local could not extract a certain amount from high end taxpayer. And what did local do? Locals implemented trending to once again overassess homes in the central city? And what did the state do?
The state said enough and passed House Bill 1478 turning over the collection of funds for their budget to the locals. And what has happened? The locals are getting nervous about voters going to the ballot box and voting them out. But they want to try one more time to collect a windfall. Locals will gouge the newly annexed residents as well as the local residents pretending that the new option of income tax is too complex and at the same time blame the state for the mess which is really just local greed. That's right local greed.
Sure you played games with the auditor's office as they smiled and reduced your overassessed values down as you requested. It saved you a few hundred dollars. The auditor and the assesors knew you didn't get it. The point was to lock in your overassessment at any amount along with the countless others. Together it would still add up to a lot of money, because the trick is in the tax rate. The tax rate would create the windfall that was needed. Taking a few thousand dollars off your home value did not stop the long term impact. You were happy and believed that if your neighbor had to bite the bullet, it was your neighbors' fault for sleeping on his right and not doing the same thing.
The auditor, the assessors played you, and when you get your new bill, they not only got your neighbor but they got you again.
The aditor and the assessors team twitched the numbers to see how much they can collect as tax collectors. Next, they negotation with departments to make sure the amount needed is within the estimated total. At that point they begin to distribute the amounts to various townships. At all the twitching, every homeowners will have to bite the bullet, except for those who have deep pocket and enter the tax court with the overassessment of homes in the area.
Because the taxpayer are so easily bamboozled by their elected official. If taypayers are having problem with the finance reporting by Matt Kelty, than voters should be outraged by what the auditor's and assessors are doing to homeowners.
And the auditors and assessors in Marion understand what they are doing is wrong with this headline.
Auditor Lisa Blosser gets it as she suggest to Ben Lanka to give credit in his article to Chief Deputy Auditor Tera Klutz outside the city council meeting. In other words, Blosser does not want her name associated with this debacle. So much so that it was Commissioner Nelson Peters who agrued before city council to not implement the income tax option offered by the state. Because they have this one chance to raided the pockets of the newly annexed residents. Some serious money from the annexed residente is why they were annexed in the first place.
And Council Member at Large John Crawford, appears to believe this is a good thing, as he asked Chief Deputy Auditor Klutz which would she suggested between the new income tax compared to the old way of collecting property tax. Crawford, is not a dumb man, he understands that his doctor salary will be taxed more under the income tax, rather which they will not be able to hid due to the federal government.
Which explains the delay. Because there are more workers than homeowners, renters do not have to pay property taxes. But if the local was to go to income tax, everybody that has a job will have to pay into the budget.
So what's the hold up. Crawford and friends have to twitch the numbers to make should that they do not have to pay their fair share. Crawford is hiding again, remember the Harrison Square Project?
And isn't there a term limit on how long a person can serve as auditor?
Auditor Lisa Blosser on Tuesday provided the 2007 tax rates to The Journal Gazette. Property owners will receive less property tax relief from the state this year, which was the chief culprit behind the higher tax bills for most residents, she said.
Wrong it is not the state that is the chief culprit. It is the slate of hands of the auditor office and the political leaders..local greed.
The state told the locals to do their own assessment. And what did the local do? They overassessed the voters home. The local stated that the voters were too dumb to figure it out. But the state was outraged and intervened and placed a circuit breaker on how much local could collect. And what did local do? They cried and blamed the state and then increased the tax rate beyond what was needed. So what did the state do? The state capped the circuit breaker at 5% so that the local could not extract a certain amount from high end taxpayer. And what did local do? Locals implemented trending to once again overassess homes in the central city? And what did the state do?
The state said enough and passed House Bill 1478 turning over the collection of funds for their budget to the locals. And what has happened? The locals are getting nervous about voters going to the ballot box and voting them out. But they want to try one more time to collect a windfall. Locals will gouge the newly annexed residents as well as the local residents pretending that the new option of income tax is too complex and at the same time blame the state for the mess which is really just local greed. That's right local greed.
Sure you played games with the auditor's office as they smiled and reduced your overassessed values down as you requested. It saved you a few hundred dollars. The auditor and the assesors knew you didn't get it. The point was to lock in your overassessment at any amount along with the countless others. Together it would still add up to a lot of money, because the trick is in the tax rate. The tax rate would create the windfall that was needed. Taking a few thousand dollars off your home value did not stop the long term impact. You were happy and believed that if your neighbor had to bite the bullet, it was your neighbors' fault for sleeping on his right and not doing the same thing.
The auditor, the assessors played you, and when you get your new bill, they not only got your neighbor but they got you again.
The aditor and the assessors team twitched the numbers to see how much they can collect as tax collectors. Next, they negotation with departments to make sure the amount needed is within the estimated total. At that point they begin to distribute the amounts to various townships. At all the twitching, every homeowners will have to bite the bullet, except for those who have deep pocket and enter the tax court with the overassessment of homes in the area.
Because the taxpayer are so easily bamboozled by their elected official. If taypayers are having problem with the finance reporting by Matt Kelty, than voters should be outraged by what the auditor's and assessors are doing to homeowners.
And the auditors and assessors in Marion understand what they are doing is wrong with this headline.
Auditor Lisa Blosser gets it as she suggest to Ben Lanka to give credit in his article to Chief Deputy Auditor Tera Klutz outside the city council meeting. In other words, Blosser does not want her name associated with this debacle. So much so that it was Commissioner Nelson Peters who agrued before city council to not implement the income tax option offered by the state. Because they have this one chance to raided the pockets of the newly annexed residents. Some serious money from the annexed residente is why they were annexed in the first place.
And Council Member at Large John Crawford, appears to believe this is a good thing, as he asked Chief Deputy Auditor Klutz which would she suggested between the new income tax compared to the old way of collecting property tax. Crawford, is not a dumb man, he understands that his doctor salary will be taxed more under the income tax, rather which they will not be able to hid due to the federal government.
Which explains the delay. Because there are more workers than homeowners, renters do not have to pay property taxes. But if the local was to go to income tax, everybody that has a job will have to pay into the budget.
So what's the hold up. Crawford and friends have to twitch the numbers to make should that they do not have to pay their fair share. Crawford is hiding again, remember the Harrison Square Project?
And isn't there a term limit on how long a person can serve as auditor?
Tuesday, June 26, 2007
Nelson Peters Request a Tax Relief Delay for Homeowners
Local government wants home rule but when given the opportunity to act, Fort Wayne and Allen County officials refuses to take responsibility. I am talking about House Bill 1478. HB1478 gives local government three local government options on how to reduce the property tax burden imposed on homeowners through over assessment and value trending. The three options are new levy growth income tax with a levy freeze, property tax relief income tax and the circuit breaker. A fourth option is available to fund public safety, a public safety income tax which requires both the levy growth income tax and income tax for property tax relief.
Not much explaining of the options at this time because, the bottom line is this: If income tax is used to fund the budget who do you think will bear the burden of taxes? You got it if you said those who live in the county. So Nelson Peters and John Crawford believes that requiring those with the most income to bear the burden of taxes is unfair. Crawford suggest that unincorporated areas would be paying taxes without representation in local government.
So more time is needed to shift the burden more on city dweller rather than the rural dwellers. Because the more money you make the more income tax you will have to pay. Whereas if local government takes a hands off approach, the burden that now fall on city dweller will only mean those city dwellers who fail to pay their taxes will lose their home.
And although a circuit breaker has been imposed, local government are not sure how much the circuit breaker will reduce what is being collected under value trending. So let the taxpayers paid a large sum one more time before elected officials do anything. Overhearing, one commissioner telling two fellas that if you live in Aboite the taxes will rise to as much as 50%.
Most of my information came from a presentation on Funding and Financing with HEA 1478 by Matthew Greller, IACT Executive Director, Gary Malone, Umbaugh, and Ann Cottongim, IACT. I requested a presentation from Pat Roller from a talk she gave to the Northeast Neighborhood Association Meeting but have yet to receive the information. However, Ben Lanka has most of the information here.
Folks are realizing the property value of their home is not necessarily the actual value. The fact is trending of other homes in the communities are determining the value of their homes. The purpose of the trending of the values makes it easier to project a value on homes in neighborhoods where homes have not sold for years. The goal of trending is to increase the homes to increase property tax. This is why you see a renovated house in the central city raised to outrageous amount like $130,000. All the other houses around it will increase in value through value trending. The city will take homes in the area through a tax sales for those who can not pay the new taxes rather than take the home through eminent domain.
Local budget used property taxes to pay for certain services which a lot of funding going toward public safety. With the increase in the budget local government were able to increase the tax rate to collect needed funds from property taxes. Unwilling to properly assess property after many years of defrauding the public, local government implemented the trending method to continue to defraud the public in assessing property. However, because of the abuse of local government in using the tax rate, the state has placed a circuit breaker on local government. Local government is saying the circuit breaker is going to hurt public safety, so the general assembly provided local government with options. But now local government is saying the general assembly rushed the options through as to why they are going to do nothing!
The circuit breaker goes into effect on July 1, 2007. Those with homestead credit is limited to the two percent circuit breaker and a three percent circuit breaker to all other real and personal property payable in 2010. Those who are locked into the two percent circuit breaker are viewed as a distressed political subdivision. As a distressed political subdivision these locals may petition the state circuit breaker board from applying the circuit breaker. But our local government does not want that because that would mean oversight, with a financial plan agreement.
In applying for relief from the circuit breaker , the local must create a financial plan for the appeal board. If the appeal board authorize to decrease the circuit breaker credit or increase the assessed value.
But Nelson Peters, says HB 1478 needs more study as a matter of fact, the general assembly may need to make some changes because the Republicans can not take another blow to there political base.
Not much explaining of the options at this time because, the bottom line is this: If income tax is used to fund the budget who do you think will bear the burden of taxes? You got it if you said those who live in the county. So Nelson Peters and John Crawford believes that requiring those with the most income to bear the burden of taxes is unfair. Crawford suggest that unincorporated areas would be paying taxes without representation in local government.
So more time is needed to shift the burden more on city dweller rather than the rural dwellers. Because the more money you make the more income tax you will have to pay. Whereas if local government takes a hands off approach, the burden that now fall on city dweller will only mean those city dwellers who fail to pay their taxes will lose their home.
And although a circuit breaker has been imposed, local government are not sure how much the circuit breaker will reduce what is being collected under value trending. So let the taxpayers paid a large sum one more time before elected officials do anything. Overhearing, one commissioner telling two fellas that if you live in Aboite the taxes will rise to as much as 50%.
Most of my information came from a presentation on Funding and Financing with HEA 1478 by Matthew Greller, IACT Executive Director, Gary Malone, Umbaugh, and Ann Cottongim, IACT. I requested a presentation from Pat Roller from a talk she gave to the Northeast Neighborhood Association Meeting but have yet to receive the information. However, Ben Lanka has most of the information here.
Folks are realizing the property value of their home is not necessarily the actual value. The fact is trending of other homes in the communities are determining the value of their homes. The purpose of the trending of the values makes it easier to project a value on homes in neighborhoods where homes have not sold for years. The goal of trending is to increase the homes to increase property tax. This is why you see a renovated house in the central city raised to outrageous amount like $130,000. All the other houses around it will increase in value through value trending. The city will take homes in the area through a tax sales for those who can not pay the new taxes rather than take the home through eminent domain.
Local budget used property taxes to pay for certain services which a lot of funding going toward public safety. With the increase in the budget local government were able to increase the tax rate to collect needed funds from property taxes. Unwilling to properly assess property after many years of defrauding the public, local government implemented the trending method to continue to defraud the public in assessing property. However, because of the abuse of local government in using the tax rate, the state has placed a circuit breaker on local government. Local government is saying the circuit breaker is going to hurt public safety, so the general assembly provided local government with options. But now local government is saying the general assembly rushed the options through as to why they are going to do nothing!
The circuit breaker goes into effect on July 1, 2007. Those with homestead credit is limited to the two percent circuit breaker and a three percent circuit breaker to all other real and personal property payable in 2010. Those who are locked into the two percent circuit breaker are viewed as a distressed political subdivision. As a distressed political subdivision these locals may petition the state circuit breaker board from applying the circuit breaker. But our local government does not want that because that would mean oversight, with a financial plan agreement.
In applying for relief from the circuit breaker , the local must create a financial plan for the appeal board. If the appeal board authorize to decrease the circuit breaker credit or increase the assessed value.
But Nelson Peters, says HB 1478 needs more study as a matter of fact, the general assembly may need to make some changes because the Republicans can not take another blow to there political base.
Copyscape
Yeah, I know I did some research on my story about the ripoff of African-American families on the Renaissance Pointe story, but I did not expect to see copyscape checking it out.
Monday, June 25, 2007
Cart for CellPhone lack a certain ring-profit
Sam Bolinger jumped on the ban wagon to create a place to store cellphones and other noisy electronic devices. But, discovered that the business was not ringing off the hook.
All American Scott Wims Wins the 200 Meter Dash
From the Nebraska Track and Field:
Indianapolis – Nebraska freshman Scott Wims ran away with the title in the 200-meter dash at the 2007 USA Junior Outdoor Track and Field Championships on Friday in Indianapolis. Wims clocked a time of 20.86 for the win, which also qualifies the Fort Wayne, Ind., native in the 200-meter dash for the 2007 Pan American games in Brazil.
Wims will now represent the United States in both the 100-meter and 200-meter dash in the Pan Am games, July 6-8 in Sao Paolo, Brazil. He marked a time of 10.24 in Thursday’s 100-meter dash finale to finish second, trailing the leader by just one one-hundredth of a second. Wims’ time met the qualifying standards for the Pan Am games.
Wims sailed through the preliminary round of the 200-meter dash early Friday, posting a time of 21.09 to lead the round. Wims kicked into the next gear during the finals, topping the nearest competitor (21.02) by almost two-tenths of a second.
The Husker freshman’s incredible postseason success comes just weeks after Wims tallied the second All-America finish of his young career by finishing seventh overall in the 200-meter dash at the NCAA Outdoor Track and Field Championships in Sacramento, Calif. Wims’ other All-America award came at the 2007 indoor championships as a part of the eighth-place NU 4x400 men’s relay team.
Renaissance Pointe-Poverty Pimp #3
The government wanted to do something about the housing stock in Fort Wayne specifically in the Hanna-Creighton area. It provided the city with $5.5 million dollars for improvements. The city used the money instead to disperse a large African-American population into other declining neighbors. The city bulldozed 112 acres of land located in the Hanna-Creighton Ave, and distributed the land to various entities. The cost to the city was a little less than $300,000 in 1964. The area saw little housing built, but did see apartments for low-income families pop up in the area.
Another grandiose scheme costing more than $1.5 million was hatched to disperse African-Americans into other declining neighborhoods occurred in 1997, according to www.epa/gov/brownfields. The catalyst to the Bowser and Creighton Brownfield development was a fire that broke out near the Hanna-Creighton area. The Bowser location was the site of a fire where over 600,000 tires burned for three days during a Labor Day weekend. The area was deemed a Brownfield, which required some clean up and protection from liability to the owners for any environmental hazard that could have been discovered on the property.
The city obtained a loan of $500,000 that was to be paid back by the residents who lived and worked in the county for the cleanup and redevelopment. An Environment Protection Agency Brownfield Assessment Pilot grant of $200,000 was used for assessing the property and another $27,500 was used for the Bowser Pump Site. $350,000 was used to demolish the remaining charred and unsafe buildings. A $300,000 grants from, the Housing and Urban Development’s Economic Development Initiative was to finance installation of a new public infrastructure for the 20 new homes. The land 12.5 acres was given to the Greater Progressive Housing Community Development Corporation for housing development. The site was divided into three parcels. Ten homes were to be built on one parcel, parcel C as a symbolic revitalization of the area. Ten years later, no signs of the $5 million, 40,000 square foot neighborhood commercial retail center, but rising from the ashes rose a senior citizen apartment building.
Symbolic.
But ten year later Hanna-Creighton area will have another chance at a do over. This time the city government commitment is much more than the thousands it is used to throwing at a neighborhood, mistreated and neglected, and considered the Negro problem. Under the Strengthening American’s Communities Grant Program, cities must prove they are willing to invest dollars into improving their own cities. Therefore, this go round, the city is to invest over $4, 100,000 a year for 5 years, totally $20,500,000, to attract additional investment from private investors by targeting result-oriented projects in economically distressed communities.
In the second year of the plan, the city came up with a marketing strategy for the project calling it a synergy. From that project came a housing project expanding on the Phoenix Place failure to a newer model for changing the appearance of 67 acres covering 37 blocks calleing the model, Renaissance Pointe. According to the City housing plan crafted by the city in 2003,
funds will come from the Community Development Block Grant and Home Investment Partnership to increase homeownership, preserve and improve homes of existing homeowners, create a model revitalization project to be implemented in two other areas of the city, and encourage rental development for low-income senior citizens and people with special needs.
In the plan a total of 400 homes were to be built by 2009. In its fourth year, not one model home but several model homes in the Renaissance Pointe model revitalization project are to be built. A groundbreaking at 2401 John Street is to produce a cluster of six model homes for the Renaissance Pointe project, with Mayor Graham Richards in attendance. At another location within the Renaissance Pointe project is a home on Smith Street was renovated with equipment totaling over $130,000. This is well short of the 400 homes. But this is not the first time that promises were made for homes in this area. On June 29, 2007, a celebration of some sort will be held for the community at 2323 Bowser, at the site of where thousands of tires stored in a warehouse burned for three days.
Eat, drink and be merry as they wait on the new empty promise of 400 new homes.
Phil Marx
Early this morning, looked like a good day to go fishing. Phil Marx decided to run for a Fort Wayne City Council member at large seat. Marx is no stranger to political races, in 1996 he ran as a Republican nominee against fellow Republican Congressman Mark Souder. Souder won the nomination.
Phil Marx will have to collect 1200 signatures by July 2, 2007 to appear on the ballot.. After collecting the signatures, the signatures will have to be certified to insure that only eligible registered voters have sign the petition for candidacy.
Souder will again be challenged again for this Congressional seat, this time by a Democratic member.
Phil Marx will have to collect 1200 signatures by July 2, 2007 to appear on the ballot.. After collecting the signatures, the signatures will have to be certified to insure that only eligible registered voters have sign the petition for candidacy.
Souder will again be challenged again for this Congressional seat, this time by a Democratic member.
Friday, June 22, 2007
Lincoln "Link" Chapman
Lincoln Chapman better known as Link to the majority of the Fort Wayne African-American Community, the ultimate businessman is to be buried on June 23, 2007. Mr. Chapman has left his building.
From Fort Wayne Journal-Gazette:
LINCOLN "LINK" N. CHAPMAN, 80, of Fort Wayne, passed away Monday, June 18, 2007, at Bluffton Regional Medical Center. As an entrepreneur, he owned and operated several businesses over the years. Trained as an auto mechanic, he owned and operated a gas station, an auto repair business, a summer portable roller rink, Link's Gay Arena, and for the last 30 years, Link's Wonderland of which he was sole proprietor until the time of his death.
He was also involved in the opening of Ellis Funeral Home. Mr. Chapman served in the United States Air Force and was a member of the Par Tee Golf Club, NAACP, and St. Mary's Lodge #14 P.H.A. Fort Wayne Consistory #66 Saudi Temple #50. In addition, he supported many local community organizations and youth associations.
Surviving are his son, Lincoln N. Chapman Jr. of Cincinnati, Ohio; daughters, Alma Chapman, Alyssa Chapman and Treacy L. Dixie, all of Fort Wayne; siblings, Luellen "Doc" (Lucille), Ollie M. Smith and James (Eualeen) Chapman, all of Fort Wayne, Lucretia Brown, Marion (Delia) Chapman and Jesse Chapman, all of Detroit, Mich.; brother-in-law, Lewis Lapsley of Detroit, Mich.; sister-in- law, Leatrice Chapman of Detroit, Mich.; grandchildren, Kala K. Chapman and Timothy C. Dixie, both of Fort Wayne; and a host of nieces, nephews, other relatives and friends. He was preceded in death by his parents, Luellen and Peggie Chapman; wife, Rosetta Chapman; son, Walter K. Chapman; four brothers; and two sisters. Service is 1 p.m. Saturday at Lighthouse Deliverance Cathedral, 1315 S. Hanna St. Calling is from 3 to 7:30 p.m. Friday at the church, with memorial services from 7:30 to 8 pm.
Memorials to American Red Cross or United Negro College Fund. Burial in Covington Memorial Gardens. Arrangements by Ellis Funeral Home.
Roscoe Scott Letter to the Editor:
My friend, Lincoln “Link” Chapman, who died Monday and whose funeral will be Saturday, influenced both the Fort Wayne black and white communities.
Black leaders held important meetings at Chapman’s business, and during significant community situations, white and black leaders met together.
As a newcomer and community organizer, I paid others to find out who were the influential black leaders in our community. I served as board president of several local organizations, and there was no man whose innate wisdom influenced my decision-making more than Chapman.
He shunned recognition. I tried to give him several community awards, but he preferred to stay out of the spotlight.
He was a true black pioneer and local hero. A small man who fixed cars after moving up from the South, Chapman noticed that black kids had little to do. He opened a black skating rink, and Chapman became the caring father figure for young black boys and girls by the hundreds. He was a role model, disciplinarian, baby sitter, employer and caring, respected adult. Chapman altered many lives for the better.
They don’t make great leaders as wonderful as Chapman anymore.
ROSCOE T. SCOTT
Fishers
Benjamin Lanka of the Journal-Gazette article on Mr. Chapman here.
Terra Brantley conducted an Interview with Mr. Chapman before his passing that can be found in Fort Wayne INK newspaper.
Bi-Partisan New York Bloomberg quit G.O.P.
Michael Bloomberg of New York is a victim of term limit. Bloomberg has served two terms as Mayor, and that's the end of that road. Bloomberg stated he will throw his support behind other candidates from different parties and not be restricted as a republican voter.
Some are hoping that Bloomberg will run for president, since he has the cash to upset Rudolph W. Giuliani, who is seeking the Republican nomination.
See Jack and Jill Politics
Mirror on America
skepticalbrotha
left in aboite
Some are hoping that Bloomberg will run for president, since he has the cash to upset Rudolph W. Giuliani, who is seeking the Republican nomination.
See Jack and Jill Politics
Mirror on America
skepticalbrotha
left in aboite
Scott Wims and Indy
Fort Wayne Scott Wims takes second in USA Junior Track and Field held in Indianapolis junior men 100 meters, who is a freshman at the University of Nebraska.
According to Nebraska Track and Field website:
According to Nebraska Track and Field website:
The 2007 Midwest Regional champion in the 200-meter dash, Wims represented Nebraska in more events at the outdoor nationals than any other Husker, competing in three events total. The freshman began day one of competition with a run into the semifinals in the 100-meter dash, but failed to qualify for the finals.
The following day, Wims set his personal record in the 200-meter dash and advanced to the event finals to open the day before jumping into the men’s 4x400 relay when freshman Lukas Hulett was unable to compete. Although the relay failed to make finals, Wims’ ran a solid leg and cemented his place as one of NU’s top sprinters this season.
This is the second All-America honor of the Fort Wayne, Ind., native’s debut year, after he helped the NU men’s 4x400 relay to an eighth-place finish at the 2007 NCAA Indoor Championships. He ends the season as the third-fastest Husker in school history in the men’s 200-meter dash (20.61) and part of the school-record holding team in the 4x200-meter relay.
Thursday, June 21, 2007
Fred Rost, the REpublican and Democrats are in collusion
Fred Rost did it. That's the killer!!
Well that's a little extreme, but so is all this Bill Clintonism, "it depends on what you call a loan." Did you Fred Rost loan Kelty a loan to loan to Kelty Campaign? No Mr. Rost we did not ask if you contributed to Kelty's campaign by loaning a loan to Kelty to loan to his campaign, we need a simple yes or no.
A simple yes or no will not be good enough for the prosecutor, jury, and judge, who is all rolled up into one body.
Well that's a little extreme, but so is all this Bill Clintonism, "it depends on what you call a loan." Did you Fred Rost loan Kelty a loan to loan to Kelty Campaign? No Mr. Rost we did not ask if you contributed to Kelty's campaign by loaning a loan to Kelty to loan to his campaign, we need a simple yes or no.
A simple yes or no will not be good enough for the prosecutor, jury, and judge, who is all rolled up into one body.
Reclamation Project
If you remember, I wrote about the snail pace work in the neighborhood on the Rialto that is owned by a nonprofit organization. I even posted picture of the building and the cracked window. I received a comment from one of the member, challenging me on my information and was invited to meet with the person. I did not. But I did keep my eye on the building, and I did see the broken pane taken care of, furniture in the building, bags of other stuffs and mail piled up, suggesting some activity would soon break out from the building.
Well today, I received an email with picture from the Reclamation Project, enjoy:
This is Phase I of the small building next door to the Rialto, looks good, right, but not big enough to house folks or programs. Well, this picture was included:
Now hopefully, this is a home for a member of the new foreigner to our city, rather than a rental property, but it is appears to be a sound home. I would loved to have seen pictures of the inside.
Phase II which will involve the Rialto building receive $200,000 from a church. Now that's some serious cash.
So, here's tipping my hat to the Reclamation Project for doing something good and postive in the neighborhood.
Well today, I received an email with picture from the Reclamation Project, enjoy:
This is Phase I of the small building next door to the Rialto, looks good, right, but not big enough to house folks or programs. Well, this picture was included:
Now hopefully, this is a home for a member of the new foreigner to our city, rather than a rental property, but it is appears to be a sound home. I would loved to have seen pictures of the inside.
Phase II which will involve the Rialto building receive $200,000 from a church. Now that's some serious cash.
So, here's tipping my hat to the Reclamation Project for doing something good and postive in the neighborhood.
Part 2: Unofficial Deputy Mayor Andy Downs vs. 2007 Mayorial Candidate 2007 Matt Kelty
I was planning on writing about the Allen County Election Board and the recent hearing on the alleged violations of the Indiana campaign finance laws violations from Matt Kelty.
But I got an interesting phone call that sent me in another direction. I sorta got a heads up on this one yesterday, but because of issue of liability, I figured it was a long shoot and it was not going to happen. I was wrong. It appears that there is an attempt to haul Matt Kelty into criminal court.
But, who I thought would be brave enough to do the filing, was not brave enough. Instead a group called Common Cause was the culprit. Hmmm, I heard the name Common Cause before, and my thought was who are their supporters and who are the members.I tried calling the executive director and the lobbist, to get answers to my questions but no anwsers at either telephone numbers.
But, I was able to find some answers about the organization without talking to members.
Supporters from their website:
I was unable to find names of supporters, but I did find the names of members. And one name stood out, in the nonpartisan group, like FairPlay BeachVolleyball blog member sore thumb. Hold onto your hat, hairpiece, teeth, or other removable objects, the name, is Andy Downs. Yes. Our very own Andy Downs.
Now, I've heard a lot of things about Downs, but nonpartisan is not one of them. But action speaks louder than words. This is a nonpartisan group that Downs is a member! Go figure, the sidekick to Democratic Leader Kevin Knuth belongs to a nonpartisan group. Now I am sure the Democratic members were taken aback by this little bombshell.
Not me. It was his daddy who was a Democrat. This is fun and games for Downs to play with the minds of the Democratic members especially those African-Americans who believe that Andy is so brilliant..now you see where he gets his brilliancy from...Common Cause.
Sorry. But Ben Lanka reports the story here.
From Lanka article:
The email is so broad and no evidence was included, suggesting only for the prosecutor to do an investigation on an unspecified Indiana campaign finance law possible violation?
Oh well. IndianaNewsCenter reports on the goings on. So does Wane 15 television.
Don't we have to say that so and so stole my lawnmower or my lawnmower was stolen but I don't know who did it?
Meaning, what is the violation of the Indiana campaign finance law or do we make it up as we go? What makes them think there is a violation?
Here's a hint from their newsletter:
But according to our Ben Lanka,
Downs stepped down..no pun intended.
But I got an interesting phone call that sent me in another direction. I sorta got a heads up on this one yesterday, but because of issue of liability, I figured it was a long shoot and it was not going to happen. I was wrong. It appears that there is an attempt to haul Matt Kelty into criminal court.
But, who I thought would be brave enough to do the filing, was not brave enough. Instead a group called Common Cause was the culprit. Hmmm, I heard the name Common Cause before, and my thought was who are their supporters and who are the members.I tried calling the executive director and the lobbist, to get answers to my questions but no anwsers at either telephone numbers.
But, I was able to find some answers about the organization without talking to members.
Supporters from their website:
Common Cause is financed, in large part, by the dues and contributions of its individual members. Because it is a 501 (c)(4) lobbying organization, such contributions to Common Cause are not tax deductible. The Common Cause Education Fund, our 501(c)(3) affiliate, conducts research, education, and outreach activities and is supported by foundation grants and tax-deductible contributions from individuals and institutions. The combined annual operating budget of Common Cause and the Common Cause Education Fund is approximately $10 million.
I was unable to find names of supporters, but I did find the names of members. And one name stood out, in the nonpartisan group, like FairPlay BeachVolleyball blog member sore thumb. Hold onto your hat, hairpiece, teeth, or other removable objects, the name, is Andy Downs. Yes. Our very own Andy Downs.
Now, I've heard a lot of things about Downs, but nonpartisan is not one of them. But action speaks louder than words. This is a nonpartisan group that Downs is a member! Go figure, the sidekick to Democratic Leader Kevin Knuth belongs to a nonpartisan group. Now I am sure the Democratic members were taken aback by this little bombshell.
Not me. It was his daddy who was a Democrat. This is fun and games for Downs to play with the minds of the Democratic members especially those African-Americans who believe that Andy is so brilliant..now you see where he gets his brilliancy from...Common Cause.
Sorry. But Ben Lanka reports the story here.
From Lanka article:
Common Cause is a nonpartisan organization formed in 1970 by a nonpartisan group seeking to bring transparency to government and campaigns. The loans to the Kelty for Mayor Campaign in 2006 and 2007 were a breach of the basic principles of transparency. It’s my belief that they also violated Indiana campaign finance laws. Please investigate this matter.Sincerely,
Nick Hess
Chair
Common Cause Indiana
The email is so broad and no evidence was included, suggesting only for the prosecutor to do an investigation on an unspecified Indiana campaign finance law possible violation?
Oh well. IndianaNewsCenter reports on the goings on. So does Wane 15 television.
Don't we have to say that so and so stole my lawnmower or my lawnmower was stolen but I don't know who did it?
Meaning, what is the violation of the Indiana campaign finance law or do we make it up as we go? What makes them think there is a violation?
Here's a hint from their newsletter:
Common Cause/ IndianaRoberta Schonemann
Governing Board Members
Nick Hess, Chair
Lynn Hale, Vice-chair
Patricia Wittberg, Secretary
Barry Levitt
Andrew Downs
But according to our Ben Lanka,
When Downs learned the group’s chairman would be filing a complaint with the prosecutor, he resigned from the board, “so I wouldn’t be accused of driving the investigation.”
Downs stepped down..no pun intended.
Wednesday, June 20, 2007
Demands to the Governor to Release Genarlow Wilsom
Hat Tip to Conversations with Brothers and Sisters
The governor needs your mail:
Governor Sonny Perdue
Website: www.gov.state.ga.us/contact_dom.shtml
(an email can be sent to Governor Purdue from this site)
Wilson Fight To The Legislature
See news video here.
Scott Wims headed to Indy
Scott Wims, All-American, will participate in the United States Track & Field junior meet, which begins today and runs through Sunday in Indianapolis.
Tuesday, June 19, 2007
Advocate for federal inmates
The CURE: America's ailing federal criminal justice system:
FedCURE is the world's leading advocate for America's, ever growing, federal inmate population. We are working to reinstate parole; increase good time allowances; provide for compassionate releases; restore PELL grants; and opportunities for successful reentry into the community, for all federal offenders; and promote a system that incarcerates fewer people and provides humane conditions for those who are incarcerated or under post-incarceration supervision via parole or supervised release. Over 45,000 people were released from federal prison last year.
FedCURE's lifetime member and PBS film producer and Soros Justice Media Fellowship candidate, Allan Mason and BNNreports.com (Broadcast News Network), are documenting FedCURE's activities for inclusion in the production of a one-hour special news documentary film titled, The CURE: America's ailing federal criminal justice system (suitable for Frontline, NOW, or an independent special report for the Public Broadcasting System and their affiliates). The film would examine the ailing federal criminal justice system in the United States and the impact of two pieces of proposed federal legislation that would reduce federal prisons sentences and provide for tax payer relief by enacting smart legislation that would revive the system of parole for federal prisoners; and reduce run-a-way recidivism rates by enacting smart legislation such as "The Second Chance Act," reauthorizing the grant program of the Department of Justice for re-entry of offenders into the community, to establish a task force on Federal programs and activities relating to the re-entry of offenders into the community, and for other purposes. See H.R. 3072, H.R. 1593 and S. 1060, respectively. http://www.fedcure.org/information/Legislation.shtml We desperately need this film and to produce short VNR's for our upcoming legislative campaigns. Time is of the essence.
Federal Parole:
FedCURE co-authored the last two federal parole bills in the 108th and 109th Congress with Rep. Danny Davis (D-ILL). This year FedCURE drafted a new parole bill for Rep. Davis and to float around to other members of Congress who may want introduce the bill in this Congress. The bill is titled as "The Criminal Justice Tax Relief Act of 2007" (CJTRA) (attached as a word.doc). The CJTRA, would, inter alia, reinstate the old parole statutes and would amend certain sections thereof; making all offenders eligible for parole and giving jurisdiction to the United States Parole Commission to set release dates in accordance with applicable parole guidelines or the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines, whichever is lowest. The amendments would also increase good time allowances, provided for reduction in term of imprisonment of elderly offenders and clarify parole procedures. Unresolved at the time of the draft and at this time are issues that deal with inmates serving life without parole (LWOP) and the system of supervision, i.e., parole, or supervised release, or a hybrid. The legislation would be prospective and retroactive. Finally, the life of the Parole Commission would be extended for twenty years.
To gain congressional support for this legislation we have identified four main selling points that would provide safe harbor for politicians to publicly support the bill. First, "It's about the money!" and to famously paraphrase the obvious, "It's the economy stupid!" FedCURE's draft bill suggests a preamble, right up front, emphasizing that the bill is estimated to save the taxpayer 4 to 7 billion dollars annually and 80 to 140 billion dollars over a twenty year period. Second, it is about restoring the constitutional checks and balances in federal criminal sentencing, which has been one sided post 1987. Third, it's about fixing a broken federal criminal justice system-- letting people out of prison who do not need to be incarcerated. Fourth, it's about everyone keeping their jobs in the executive, judiciary and the legislative branches--the courts continue sentencing, the USSC and the USPC stay in business and the USPO expands.
The magnitude of competing interests in the business of federal criminal justice is awesomely huge and complex. Finding compromise to satisfy these interest is paramount. The release of a "Willie Horton" or a "Terrorist" and the "Lin Bias" factors will always be at issue. Regardless. And there is no way to totally guarantee an erroroneous release, or to fully predict human behavior, albeit, state-of-the-art technology such as GPS monitoring and tracking systems provide for 24x7 supervision of certain offenders and go a log way towards satisfying public safety needs. That said, any scheme to reduce prison sentences other then an all-or-none approach is troubling for a myriad of reasons. And it would be unwise to create more then one class of post incarceration supervision, i.e., parole and supervised release, albeit, personally, we favor a system of supervised release over parole, in as much as a supervised release violation is a contempt of court proceeding, heard by a federal district court judge vs. a parole violation that processes as a revocation hearing by the USPC. We would work towards developing a sort of hybrid system of supervision. The CJTRA dose not mandate that the United States Parole Commission will have to set 200,000 release dates all at once. The Act, as drafted, would require a release date to be established early enough to allow for an appeal. Moreover, the setting of release dates will kick the whole system in gear, including re-entry, to get ready to process releases and supervision. Whatever the initial number of releases, be it 50,000 more or less, the number should by portrayed in the most positive light--as a CURE to an ailing federal criminal justice system.
Coming at this from a purely academic prospective is disastrous. That school of thought is responsible for supporting the enactment of The Comprehensive Crime Control Act of 1984 (CCRA), Chapter II, Sentencing Reform Act of 1984 (SRA) (sentencing guidelines and no parole), which academia now readily admit, what we all know, is a dismal failure. Still, the academia protest that it can be fixed without returning to a system of parole and a system of second guessing sentence and release between the judiciary and the executive that was abandon almost thirty years ago. This is based on the mistaken belief that it is best that the judicial branch has exclusive release authority over the sentences of criminal defendants. They believe the Congress failed to build a fix into the SRA, to make corrections, if necessary; and that is why we have the sentencing issues we face today, so they want create a "relief valve" by tinkering with the statutes in such a way as to spill forth piece meal sentence reductions. They want to do this prospectively, not retroactively. They are of the mind set that the moment you mention the word "parole", your dead in the water.
As prison populations swell with non violent offenders trapped by minimum mandatory and long non parolabe sentences, including life, we are bemused by all of this thought and by the lack of knowledge of sentencing law. We would point out here that is was a Democratic Congress that enacted Public Law 98-473. Title II, The Comprehensive Crime Control Act of 1984 (CCCA), Chapter II, The Sentencing Reform Act of 1984. FYI, President Reagan opposed the CCCA and stated that it was a bad bill, but that he had to sign it in order to get continued appropriations for 1985. We would suggest that now is the time for the Democratic Congress to make amends to the people and to the system.
In April 2007 FedCURE met with the point persons for Rep. Danny Davis, in DC, the main sponsor of last year's federal parole bill - H.R. 3072. FedCURE also spent about one half hour with Rep. Davis. We are working on the new parole bill to introduce in the 110th. Davis's people want to take on a different focus then that of which we propose in the CJTRA. The main focus would be on significantly increased good time, which will affect about 70% of all inmates. The other focus will be United States Parole Commission (USPC) review. We do not want to go into details at this time because the bill is still in a state of flux. Davis had planned to be ready for legislative counsel by now and hopes to see introduction before summer recess. However, we suspect that his staff have found the issue much more complex then they had anticipated. There have been a maze of amendments to P.L. 98-473 and other statutory enactments since 1984 that impact sentencing. A mine field to the unlearned. FedCURE's assets cover more then two decades of research, study and experience in this area of law. Having been through the parole process, we know the ins and outs, the pitfalls and what works and what does not. Moreover, what needs to be fixed. FedCURE feels strongly that the CJTRA is the way to go and is strongly urging the Congressman to sponsor the bill and we are floating the proposal to other members of Congress. Any help you can render to get sponsors for the CJTRA would be greatly appreciated.
The Second Chance Act of 2007:
Introduced in the 110th Congress on 20 March 2007 as H.R. 1593. Just a week after the re-introduction of the bill, 28 March 2007, members of the House Judiciary Committee passed H.R. 1593 out of committee. The bill will now be sent to the House floor for consideration, which sponsors say will take place before the summer session ends. During the mark-up of the bill, members voted down several amendments that would have jeopardized the bipartisan support for the bill. Sen. Bidden introduced S. 1060, an identical bill, in the Senate on 29 March 2007. Gene Guerrero, Director of The Open Society Institute/Open Society Policy Center (SOROS) is the lead lobbying effort behind this legislation.
If you would like to support these FedCURE' legislative initiatives, please do not hesitate to contact us.
Mark A. Varca, J.D., CIO,
FedCURE
P.O. Box 15667
Plantation, Florida 33318-5667
USA
Web Site: http://www.FedCURE.org
E-mail: FedCURE@FedCURE.org
E-fax: (408) 549-8935
"Using Technology to Bring About Federal Criminal Justice Reform" tm
WWW.FEDCURE.ORG 2002-2007. All rights reserved.
Please Donate and Join Now: http://www.fedcure.org/join.shtml
Subscribe to our free discussion group e-mail: FedCURE-org-subscribe@yahoogroups.com
FedCURE is the world's leading advocate for America's, ever growing, federal inmate population. We are working to reinstate parole; increase good time allowances; provide for compassionate releases; restore PELL grants; and opportunities for successful reentry into the community, for all federal offenders; and promote a system that incarcerates fewer people and provides humane conditions for those who are incarcerated or under post-incarceration supervision via parole or supervised release. Over 45,000 people were released from federal prison last year.
FedCURE's lifetime member and PBS film producer and Soros Justice Media Fellowship candidate, Allan Mason and BNNreports.com (Broadcast News Network), are documenting FedCURE's activities for inclusion in the production of a one-hour special news documentary film titled, The CURE: America's ailing federal criminal justice system (suitable for Frontline, NOW, or an independent special report for the Public Broadcasting System and their affiliates). The film would examine the ailing federal criminal justice system in the United States and the impact of two pieces of proposed federal legislation that would reduce federal prisons sentences and provide for tax payer relief by enacting smart legislation that would revive the system of parole for federal prisoners; and reduce run-a-way recidivism rates by enacting smart legislation such as "The Second Chance Act," reauthorizing the grant program of the Department of Justice for re-entry of offenders into the community, to establish a task force on Federal programs and activities relating to the re-entry of offenders into the community, and for other purposes. See H.R. 3072, H.R. 1593 and S. 1060, respectively. http://www.fedcure.org/information/Legislation.shtml We desperately need this film and to produce short VNR's for our upcoming legislative campaigns. Time is of the essence.
Federal Parole:
FedCURE co-authored the last two federal parole bills in the 108th and 109th Congress with Rep. Danny Davis (D-ILL). This year FedCURE drafted a new parole bill for Rep. Davis and to float around to other members of Congress who may want introduce the bill in this Congress. The bill is titled as "The Criminal Justice Tax Relief Act of 2007" (CJTRA) (attached as a word.doc). The CJTRA, would, inter alia, reinstate the old parole statutes and would amend certain sections thereof; making all offenders eligible for parole and giving jurisdiction to the United States Parole Commission to set release dates in accordance with applicable parole guidelines or the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines, whichever is lowest. The amendments would also increase good time allowances, provided for reduction in term of imprisonment of elderly offenders and clarify parole procedures. Unresolved at the time of the draft and at this time are issues that deal with inmates serving life without parole (LWOP) and the system of supervision, i.e., parole, or supervised release, or a hybrid. The legislation would be prospective and retroactive. Finally, the life of the Parole Commission would be extended for twenty years.
To gain congressional support for this legislation we have identified four main selling points that would provide safe harbor for politicians to publicly support the bill. First, "It's about the money!" and to famously paraphrase the obvious, "It's the economy stupid!" FedCURE's draft bill suggests a preamble, right up front, emphasizing that the bill is estimated to save the taxpayer 4 to 7 billion dollars annually and 80 to 140 billion dollars over a twenty year period. Second, it is about restoring the constitutional checks and balances in federal criminal sentencing, which has been one sided post 1987. Third, it's about fixing a broken federal criminal justice system-- letting people out of prison who do not need to be incarcerated. Fourth, it's about everyone keeping their jobs in the executive, judiciary and the legislative branches--the courts continue sentencing, the USSC and the USPC stay in business and the USPO expands.
The magnitude of competing interests in the business of federal criminal justice is awesomely huge and complex. Finding compromise to satisfy these interest is paramount. The release of a "Willie Horton" or a "Terrorist" and the "Lin Bias" factors will always be at issue. Regardless. And there is no way to totally guarantee an erroroneous release, or to fully predict human behavior, albeit, state-of-the-art technology such as GPS monitoring and tracking systems provide for 24x7 supervision of certain offenders and go a log way towards satisfying public safety needs. That said, any scheme to reduce prison sentences other then an all-or-none approach is troubling for a myriad of reasons. And it would be unwise to create more then one class of post incarceration supervision, i.e., parole and supervised release, albeit, personally, we favor a system of supervised release over parole, in as much as a supervised release violation is a contempt of court proceeding, heard by a federal district court judge vs. a parole violation that processes as a revocation hearing by the USPC. We would work towards developing a sort of hybrid system of supervision. The CJTRA dose not mandate that the United States Parole Commission will have to set 200,000 release dates all at once. The Act, as drafted, would require a release date to be established early enough to allow for an appeal. Moreover, the setting of release dates will kick the whole system in gear, including re-entry, to get ready to process releases and supervision. Whatever the initial number of releases, be it 50,000 more or less, the number should by portrayed in the most positive light--as a CURE to an ailing federal criminal justice system.
Coming at this from a purely academic prospective is disastrous. That school of thought is responsible for supporting the enactment of The Comprehensive Crime Control Act of 1984 (CCRA), Chapter II, Sentencing Reform Act of 1984 (SRA) (sentencing guidelines and no parole), which academia now readily admit, what we all know, is a dismal failure. Still, the academia protest that it can be fixed without returning to a system of parole and a system of second guessing sentence and release between the judiciary and the executive that was abandon almost thirty years ago. This is based on the mistaken belief that it is best that the judicial branch has exclusive release authority over the sentences of criminal defendants. They believe the Congress failed to build a fix into the SRA, to make corrections, if necessary; and that is why we have the sentencing issues we face today, so they want create a "relief valve" by tinkering with the statutes in such a way as to spill forth piece meal sentence reductions. They want to do this prospectively, not retroactively. They are of the mind set that the moment you mention the word "parole", your dead in the water.
As prison populations swell with non violent offenders trapped by minimum mandatory and long non parolabe sentences, including life, we are bemused by all of this thought and by the lack of knowledge of sentencing law. We would point out here that is was a Democratic Congress that enacted Public Law 98-473. Title II, The Comprehensive Crime Control Act of 1984 (CCCA), Chapter II, The Sentencing Reform Act of 1984. FYI, President Reagan opposed the CCCA and stated that it was a bad bill, but that he had to sign it in order to get continued appropriations for 1985. We would suggest that now is the time for the Democratic Congress to make amends to the people and to the system.
In April 2007 FedCURE met with the point persons for Rep. Danny Davis, in DC, the main sponsor of last year's federal parole bill - H.R. 3072. FedCURE also spent about one half hour with Rep. Davis. We are working on the new parole bill to introduce in the 110th. Davis's people want to take on a different focus then that of which we propose in the CJTRA. The main focus would be on significantly increased good time, which will affect about 70% of all inmates. The other focus will be United States Parole Commission (USPC) review. We do not want to go into details at this time because the bill is still in a state of flux. Davis had planned to be ready for legislative counsel by now and hopes to see introduction before summer recess. However, we suspect that his staff have found the issue much more complex then they had anticipated. There have been a maze of amendments to P.L. 98-473 and other statutory enactments since 1984 that impact sentencing. A mine field to the unlearned. FedCURE's assets cover more then two decades of research, study and experience in this area of law. Having been through the parole process, we know the ins and outs, the pitfalls and what works and what does not. Moreover, what needs to be fixed. FedCURE feels strongly that the CJTRA is the way to go and is strongly urging the Congressman to sponsor the bill and we are floating the proposal to other members of Congress. Any help you can render to get sponsors for the CJTRA would be greatly appreciated.
The Second Chance Act of 2007:
Introduced in the 110th Congress on 20 March 2007 as H.R. 1593. Just a week after the re-introduction of the bill, 28 March 2007, members of the House Judiciary Committee passed H.R. 1593 out of committee. The bill will now be sent to the House floor for consideration, which sponsors say will take place before the summer session ends. During the mark-up of the bill, members voted down several amendments that would have jeopardized the bipartisan support for the bill. Sen. Bidden introduced S. 1060, an identical bill, in the Senate on 29 March 2007. Gene Guerrero, Director of The Open Society Institute/Open Society Policy Center (SOROS) is the lead lobbying effort behind this legislation.
If you would like to support these FedCURE' legislative initiatives, please do not hesitate to contact us.
Mark A. Varca, J.D., CIO,
FedCURE
P.O. Box 15667
Plantation, Florida 33318-5667
USA
Web Site: http://www.FedCURE.org
E-mail: FedCURE@FedCURE.org
E-fax: (408) 549-8935
"Using Technology to Bring About Federal Criminal Justice Reform" tm
WWW.FEDCURE.ORG 2002-2007. All rights reserved.
Please Donate and Join Now: http://www.fedcure.org/join.shtml
Subscribe to our free discussion group e-mail: FedCURE-org-subscribe@yahoogroups.com
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