Philadelphia Tribune - Index

Philadelphia Tribune - Friday, September 18, 2009 - Index

Page 2-B Friday, September 18, 2009
Black Clergy group rallies
to demand respect for Obama
Robert Hightower
Tribune Staff Writer
The out-of-order remark that U.S. Rep.
Joe Wilson screamed to President Barack
Obama last week served as the last straw
for the Black Clergy of Philadelphia and
Vicinity.
The BCPV held a press conference earlier
this week to address the harsh treatment
that they felt Obama was receiving
due to his race. During Obama’s healthcare
speech last week, Wilson screamed
the now infamous words “You lie!” when
Obama spoke about immigrants not being
eligible to receive health care.
According to president of the BCPV
Audrey Bronson, this act capped off a
litany of occurrences with racial undertones
directed at Obama.
“It is time to make some noise about the
recent developments concerning our
President Barack Obama,” Bronson said.
“There have been too many perfect
instances of unprecedented disrespect
directed towards President Barack
Obama.”
To Bronson, Wilson demonstrated a blatant
lack of respect.
“All service personnel know that they do
not disrespect their commanding officer,”
she said. “President Obama is not only one
commanding officer — he is the commander-in-chief
of all armed forces.”
In an act of solidarity to Obama, the
BCPV stated plans to initiate rallies across
the country to support Obama.
“The Black Clergy is calling for citizens
of good will in every city, town, and borough
to stage a rally in support of our
president and to contradict this negative,
deadly influence from proliferating in our
country,” Bronson said.
Wilson has since apologized for his comment,
but Bronson said he should show
more remorse.
“His half-hearted apology was pathetic,”
she said. “We call for him to not only apologize
to the president, but to House and
the Senate, and to the citizens of this
country, but also to be censured and if
necessary, expelled from Congress. His
own party was embarrassed by his behavior
and insisted that he apologize to the
president.”
Even with Obama’s recent “Back to
School Address” issued last week, racism
reared its ugly head, according to
Bronson.
“It’s appalling the number of school districts
in America presenting feeble nonsensical
excuses not permitting the
school children to hear the speech simply
encouraging them to stay in school and
do the very best they can and to work
hard,” Bronson said. “There was no political
agenda in the speech as he was
accused of. “
With so many media outlets readily
available at users’ fingertips, Bronson
stated the potential to spread hate is
heightened.
“The number of death threats is
unprecedented and appalling. At last
report, there were at least 400 death
threats,” Bronson said. “The straw that
broke the proverbial camel’s back was the
outburst by Sen. Joe Wilson from South
Carolina interrupting the president’s
speech and in essence calling him a liar.
This is the kind of talk that went on before
John Kennedy and Bobby Kennedy and
Martin Luther King Jr. were assassinated.”
Terrence D. Griffith, the BCPV’s first
vice president, said the organization would
continue to fight racism.
“When we allow little people, people with
small minds to the forefront and make
noise while good people keep quiet, I think
we allow racism to raise itself again.
“These folks are simply saying, ‘et’s
make (Obama) fail,’” he said. “’We are
going to pressure him so he can fail so
another Black man wouldn’t get in the
White House.’ They don’t want another
African-American to be in the White
House and they are in the minority. We
are in the majority and we’re going to prevail.”
Violence
From Page 1B
the shooter missed the target
and stray bullets struck 30year-old
Terry Evans and her
3-year-old nephew, who was
struck by flying glass in the
eyes.
If Mayor Michael Nutter had
been forced to implement the
layoffs of 3,000 city workers,
close libraries, recreation centers
and lose 800 police officers,
community leaders
warned that the problem was
going to get worse.
Meanwhile, seemingly
impervious to calls for peace,
candlelight vigils, anti-violence
messages and rallies, young
Black males continue to murder
and shoot at one another
almost daily.
What, if anything, can be
done that’s going to be effective
in stemming the seemingly
senseless bloodshed?
Experts have different
answers to that question, but
perhaps a recent court case
involving a teenager accused of
attempted murder best illustrates
the depth of the problem.
At about 10 p.m. on Feb. 17,
2008, PHA police officer Craig
Kelley was inside the front
security booth of the high-rise
apartment building on Queen
Lane near Pulaski Street.
Zahir Boddy-Johnson, who
was 17 at the time, knocked on
the booth’s door and when
Kelley opened it, Boddy-
Johnson allegedly shot the
officer once in the left side of
his abdomen with an AK47
assault rifle.
Fortunately Kelley survived
the shooting. During his trial,
Boddy-Johnson, who had been
charged with attempted murder,
assault and weapons
offenses, spoke to the court
before being sentenced to state
prison for a term of 23 1/2 to
47 years.
“I take full responsibility for
what I did,” he told the court.
“I shouldn’t have done it and it
wasn’t how I was raised. I was
following what everybody
around me was doing seeing
what they were doing, trying to
be like everybody else.”
As it turns out, Boddy-
Johnson was raised in a loving
and supportive family, according
to Assistant District
Attorney Deborah Cooper-
Nixon.
Boddy-Johnson is just one
of the thousands of young
Black males heading to prison
or worse for having made the
wrong choice, according to
community leaders.
“Some of our youth have
made a decision to not comply
with the rules and regulations
of society,” said Malik Aziz,
chairman of the National
Exhoodus Council. “They have
decided not to struggle and try
to be successful and to overcome
the setbacks that were
given to them through no fault
of their own. They are angry
and want revenge, but against
who? Lately, as each newscast
and reports of violence seems
to involve our young people, a
complex situation exists, how
do we address the anger and
the mis-education of the
youth?”
Aziz said part of the answer
is to engage young people
where they are and to listen to
them.
“I believe that given a chance
to do things differently and
with genuine instructions and
love and compassion and a
constant mentor, our young
people will rise to the challenge
and not hurt one another, but
embrace and empower each
other,” he said. “But what happens
in prison doesn’t stay in
prison. It gets brought home
when inmates get released.
What you see displayed in the
streets — the violence where
someone gets killed for petty
reasons, the whole idea of not
snitching, even the young men
walking around with baggy
pants pulled down — all of that
is the result of the prison culture
being brought to the
streets.”
Anti-violence activists, social
and judicial reformers say
these young criminals are the
by-products of failed social
programs, dysfunctional parents,
a disinterested political
will and a popular media that
glorifies the violence that energizes
the criminal subculture
of the streets.
“What does it mean to a
community to know that three
out of 10 boys growing up will
spend time in prison?” asks
Marc Mauer, executive director
of The Sentencing Project, a
nonprofit agency that seeks to
reform sentencing policies in
America.
In his book, “Race to
Incarcerate,” Mauer writes of
the impact on the Black community
of having so many of
its men, especially young men
in prison.
“What does it do to the fabric
of the family and community to
have such a substantial proportion
of its young men
enmeshed in the criminal justice
system?” Mauer asks.
“What images and values are
communicated to young people
who see the prisoner as the
most prominent, pervasive role
model in the community?
What is the effect on a community’s
political influence when
one quarter of the Black men
in some states cannot vote as a
result of a felony conviction?”
Former Philadelphia Mayor
Wilson Goode, director of
Amachi, a program that mentors
the children of incarcerated
parents said in a previous
interview with Tribune
reporters that one of the factors
he sees that drives juveniles
into prison is that children
emulate what they see.
Goode said that many children
have parents or other relatives
either in prison or on
probation and these children
see no other future for themselves.
“I’ve seen entire families in
prison,” he said. “Kids emulate
their parents and often they
come from the same environment.
If children grow up in an
environment where they see
fighting, drug selling, drug
using and criminal activity,
they grow up doing what they
see. I was in Oklahoma and I
was speaking with a 6-year-old
boy whose father was in
prison. I asked him what he
wanted to do when he grew up.
He said he wanted to go to
prison like his father. I know of
cases where a father and son
meet each other for the first
time in prison and often either
share the same cell or cell
block.”
Philadelphia Family Court
Judge Lori A. Dumas Brooks
said one of the best ways to
stop teen violence is to intervene
as early as possible in the
lives of at-risk youth.
“We’ve got to get involved
very early in the lives of young
people who are at risk of committing
deadly acts of violence,”
said Dumas-Brooks.
“We can’t wait until they’re in
high school to introduce programs
and intervention. As we
all know, this starts in the
home. We have to start in
grade school and service their
issues in some way. That
might mean mental health
treatment or mentoring programs.
But we have to stop
reacting and become more
proactive in dealing with the
Violence – Page 3B