14 The Hampton Roads Messenger


The Hampton Roads Committee of 200+ Men Black History Month Event


The Hampton Roads Committee


of 200+ Men will host a program to recognize Black History Month with a presentation entitled "Civil Rights in America and the Military" given by Rear Admiral Sinclair M. Harris, USN, Commander United States FOURTH Fleet. The program will consist of a short video that depicts noteworthy examples of Blacks who have worn the cloth of our nation, followed by a presentation of where the country is today in terms of the participation of minority groups and women in the military. The discussion will also include a look at the admiral’s personal professional history in the Navy that he says “should keep most of them laughing as my whole career is proof that God and the Navy do have a sense of humor”. There will be a question and answer session at the end and an opportunity to meet the first African- American Navy SEAL, Master Chief (Retired) William “Bill” Goines.


The program will take place


Saturday, February 8th at 9:00 AM at St. Patrick Catholic School, 1000 Bolling Ave, Norfolk, VA 23508. The public is cordially invited to attend and the dress is casual or business casual. Active duty service members are requested to wear Service Dress Blue Uniform or service equivalent.


Rear Admiral Harris is a native


of Washington D.C. and is a 1981 graduate of James Madison University in Harrisonburg, VA where he received


a Bachelor of Science degree in Economics. His early sea assignments include tours in USS Long Beach (CGN 9), USS Vincennes (CG 49), USS Jarrett (FFG 33), USS Coronado (AGF 11), and as commissioning executive officer in USS Benfold (DDG 65). He commanded USS Comstock (LSD 45) during Operation Enduring Freedom and Amphibious Squadron 4/Iwo Jima Strike Group during humanitarian assistance and disaster relief - Hurricanes Katrina/Rita in 2005 and non-combative evacuation operation of Lebanon in 2006.


The Hampton Roads Committee


of 200+ Men Inc. is an aggregate of African American men in Hampton Roads Virginia who joined forces to develop and present coordinated approaches to addressing community issues and problems. Since its inception in 1997, The 200+ Men Inc. has been engaged in a number of activities designed to inform, educate and honor as well as advocate for issues that help strengthen the community. The organization works singularly and in tandem with individuals, groups and governmental units on shared-goal efforts. The National Naval Officers Association, The Tuskegee Airmen, The Rocks and The Montford Point Marine Association have been invited to participate in this noteworthy program.


Any questions should be addressed to 200plusmen@cox.net.


Our Faith


By Rev. Dr. Gregory Headen It is important


for the Church to do her part in im- proving the quality of people’s lives. We will continue to pray for those civic leaders at every level of gov-


ernment who make decisions every day that affect our lives. We will con- tinue to pray for judges in the courts, sheriffs, and police officers that we call when we are confronted with crime, tragedy, and violence. All of these assume vital responsibilities on behalf of citizens. Yet, one way to re- duce crime, tragedy, and violence is to prepare people to live life and to participate in community. Despera- tion, frustration, stress, and unfulfilled dreams push more people than we care to count into bad behavior. The average church member does not get a chance to see the intensity of min- istry from Monday through Friday. The church staff can testify that we get calls regularly from people mak- ing statements like: “My gas is going to be turned off, and I need help”; “I am about to be evicted, and have five days to come up with $XXX.00; “I did not get my food stamps and need some food”; “Can you help me get


my medicine because I ran out and had to use my money to take my sick son to the Doctor.” These are recur- ring concerns that we hear over and over from different people. We hear things like “The shelters are full, and I am out in the cold.” Many people are in these situations by no fault of their own. Decisions have been made for them by powerful people sitting around tables in board rooms and leg- islative chambers. It is frustrating in a society with so much wealth. There are others who are in these situations due to bad decisions on their part, failure to take advantage of oppor- tunities and just not being prepared to face the world on its terms. As a church, we want to address some of the root causes of our dilemmas. For examples, some of us live beyond our means; our credit scores are too low; we buy too much with high interest arrangements; we sometimes put our wants ahead of our necessities; we fail to save for the rainy day; we do a poor job of maintaining what we do have; We spend too much in late fees and penalties because we fail to handle business, and we live life in too much isolation from those who have the gifts and talents to help us. It is holy work to address these, and requires God-inspired ministry.


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Volume 8 Number 6 Your Opinion Matters


President Obama Casts Ugly Glare on Race Tainted Drug War


BY EARL OFARI HUTCHINSON President Obama


again cast an ugly glare on the race tainted drug laws in a recent interview and in reports from the White House. He specifically finger pointed marijuana. Virtually all medical professionals have repeatedly said that marijuana use is no more damaging than alcohol, and so did Obama. If anything, judging from the thousands of family break ups, the mountainous carnage from alcohol related accidents and physical deaths from liquor addiction, marijuana use is far safer than alcohol. But marijuana, as with the wildly disparate racial hammering of minorities with cocaine drug busts, has also been yet another weapon in the ruthless, relentless and naked drug war on minorities, especially African Americans. The difference is that the gaping racial disparities in crack cocaine prosecutions and sentencing have gotten massive public attention, White House and legislative action to close the legal gap. Marijuana, by contrast, has flown far under the public and lawmaker’s radar scope.


But the racial war that has


been blatantly evident in the drug war is just as, if not more blatant, in who’s arrested, tried, convicted, and sentenced for marijuana use and sale. Take two states, Minnesota and Iowa. Minorities and especially blacks make up a relatively tiny overall percentage of residents of these two states. Yet blacks were eight times more likely to be arrested than whites. An ACLU study released last June found that in nearly every county in the nation the arrest rate for marijuana possession among blacks was at least four times higher than that for whites. Even worse the big gaping disparities in arrest numbers for blacks and whites come at a time when public attitudes have radically softened on both personal and medicinal marijuana use. Many states and locales have drastically decriminalized marijuana possession, and two states have legalized its use, and other states are poised to vote on legalization. Even worse, the huge race tinged arrest numbers come at a time when the incidences of nearly every other type of crime has plummeted.


The reasons aren’t hard to find.


The near institution of open and covert stop and frisk laws that target minorities, incentives to pad arrest numbers to insure greater federal funding and to bolster the perceived crime fighting stature of police agencies, and the ease and cheapness of focusing on low level crimes are major reasons for the continued war on minorities for marijuana use.


Then there are the public attitudes


toward black and white drug offenders. The top-heavy drug use by young whites has never stirred any public outcry for mass arrests, prosecutions, and tough prison sentences for them, many of whom deal drugs that are directly linked to serious crime and violence.


Whites unlucky enough to get


popped for drug possession are treated with compassion, prayer sessions,


February 2014


expensive psychiatric counseling, treatment and rehab programs, and drug diversion programs. And they should be. But so should those blacks and other non-whites victimized by discriminatory drug laws.


A frank admission that the laws


are biased and unfair, and have not done much to combat the drug plague, would be an admission of failure. It could ignite a real soul-searching over whether all the billions of dollars that have been squandered in the failed and flawed drug war -- the lives ruined by it, and the families torn apart by the rigid and unequal enforcement of the laws -- has really accomplished anything.


This might call into question


why people use and abuse drugs in the first place -- and if it is really the government's business to turn the legal screws on some drug users while turning a blind eye to others?


The greatest fallout from the


nation's failed drug policy and that certainly includes racially skewed marijuana arrests is that it is a double-edged sword. On the one hand it further embeds the widespread notion that the drug problem is exclusively a black problem. This makes it easy for on-the-make politicians to grab votes, garner press attention, and balloon state prison budgets to jail more black offenders, while continuing to feed the illusion that we are winning the drug war. On the other, the easing up of marijuana arrests and prosecutions of whites permits much of the public and lawmakers to delude themselves that the nation has become much more prudent and enlightened in how it views the drug fight.


In his interview Obama was blunt,


"We should not be locking up kids or individuals for long stretches of jail time when those writing the laws have probably done the same thing.” Obama certainly could testify to that since he has frankly admitted his use of drugs in his youthful days. This frank admission and the realization that more prisons, the hiring and maintaining of waves of corrections officers, and the bloating state budgets in the process, not to mention political pandering is a lose-lose for the nation. The biggest loser of all with the nation’s disastrously failed and flawed drug war, is minorities and especially blacks. Marijuana is no different.


Earl Ofari Hutchinson is an


author and political analyst. He is a frequent MSNBC contributor. He is an associate editor of New America Media. He is a weekly co-host of the Al Sharpton Show on American Urban Radio Network. He is the host of the weekly Hutchinson Report on KTYM 1460 AM Radio Los Angeles and KPFK-Radio and the Pacifica Network.


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