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e-mail:chronicle4@aol.com August 25-31, 2010 JACKIE BERG Chief Marketing Officer


BANKOLE THOMPSON Senior Editor


CORNELIUS A. FORTUNE Managing Editor


JOHN H. SENGSTACKE


Chairman-Emeritus 1912-1997 LONGWORTH M. QUINN


Publisher-Emeritus 1909-1989 Page A-6


Budget cuts must be accepted by all in Wayne County


According to Wayne County Executive


Robert Ficano, if the county has to pay the $44 million difference needed to allow retirees to continue to receive a 13th bonus check, 400 current employees would have to be laid off.


However, county commissioners seem un-


willing to change the ordinance — passed in good economic times — that allows for the extra check.


Ficano also argues that with the exception


of the probate court, the various courts in the county are excluding themselves from budget cuts, and that the 3rd Circuit Court is $24 mil- lion over its budget.


And it seems that because of a decision


made by Gov. Engler regarding court reorgani- zation, the local municipalities have begun re- sponsiblility for the obligations of the courts.


Ficano compared it to a neighbor continuing to spend your credit card.


This is disturbing on many levels. First, it


is unconscionable that these extra pension checks are continuing to be paid, given that they could very likely lead to job losses for so many current employees.


And again, these are extra checks. That’s


what the word “bonus” means. Millions of in- dividuals and businesses have had to tighten their belts in recent years. The Wayne County


Commissioners should change the law so that county retirees no longer get extra money when the county can’t afford to pay it.


Again we stress: extra money — funds over


and above their pensions. Second, the court must learn to live within


its means. Ficano said the county is currently paying for 54 additional court employees above the set number the court’s budget allows for.


Deputy County Executive Azzam Elder said


the county is spending $100 million per year on the 3rd Circuit Court, money he feels could be spent on prevention programs.


Engler’s decision paradoxically put respon-


sibility for the court in the hands of local mu- nicipalities, yet — in the case of Wayne County at least — tied the municipality’s hands be- cause of the separation of powers.


While litigation drags on, temporary re-


straining orders force the county to continue to pay for additional court employees.


If everyone else is making cuts that are some-


times painful, the 3rd Circuit Court should do the same. If it won’t adhere to the requirements of its budget, then it should be forced to do so, either by a decision of the state supreme court or by legislation passed by the state legislature, whichever would have the greater impact.


We’re determined to not let a crisis go to waste


By Steve Bartlett and John Hope Bryant In June of 2009, the Financial Services


Roundtable (Roundtable), a trade organiza- tion representing 100 of the largest financial services companies in America, and Operation HOPE (HOPE), the nation’s leading economic empowerment nonprofit organization that has successfully educated and served more than 1.2 million Americans in the area of econom- ic empowerment, came together to focus on a topic that effects all of us: financial literacy.


With the support of the Roundtable, Opera-


tion HOPE has made a permanent expansion to Atlanta to serve the Southeastern Region. HOPE has opened a regional office there and ground has been broken to build a HOPE Center as part of the Martin Luther King, Sr. Community Resource Facility, housed at the historic Ebenezer Baptist Church – birthplace of the Civil Rights Movement.


The Center will offer personalized service


through adult financial literacy workshops, credit management, home and foreclosure prevention counseling, home buyer down pay- ment matching grants and small business as- sistance.


Roundtable member companies SunTrust, Wells Fargo, and State Farm Insurance have al-


By Robert Scheer Are the Republicans terminally stupid or


ready joined forces to make the HOPE Center in Atlanta a reality.


The financial collapse of 2008 made it perfectly clear that there is a need for financial literacy and economic education. Millions of Ameri- cans continue to suffer from unemployment; families are struggling to keep their homes and pay their bills.


In good times, we tend to overlook the foun-


dational flaws in our lifestyles and ignore our sometimes lacking levels of economic under- standing.


However, when the economy turned, those


with a lack of financial literacy and a lack of resources were the most vulnerable.


Financial literacy isn’t just about numbers,


it’s about tapping into the emotional reasons why and how we spend money. This said, we also all participated in this crisis, in many cases by asking the wrong question; “what’s the payment” when buying a house, and not “what’s the interest rate.”


By understanding the “language of money”


people can consciously make choices that can empower their future. Financial literacy also recognizes that we don’t just have to find ways to make more money; we need to find ways to do more with the money we make.


Ground zero for tolerance


are they just playing the dangerous fool? In either case, the irrational attack on Muslims everywhere by the GOP’s leadership is not only deeply subversive with regard to the American ideal of religious tolerance, but also poses a profound threat to our national security. Nor does it help that some top Democrats, like Harry Reid, are willing to demean Muslims even as we fight two wars in which victory depends on our ability to convey a respect for their reli- gion.


Just ask Gen. David Petraeus, who is lead-


ing the war without end to win the hearts and minds of Muslims in Afghanistan, how helpful it is to the Taliban for American politicians to identify all Muslims with terrorism. Or to the theocratic leaders of Iran who justify their hard line with the insistence that the U.S. is obses- sively anti-Muslim.


Demonization of the Muslim religion is what


this brouhaha is all about. Talk of the sensitivi- ty of the victims of Sept. 11, ignoring those who were Muslim, is just camouflage. It is as absurd as it would be to blame all religious Jews for the assassination of Israeli Prime Minister Yit- zhak Rabin, killed by one gunman from a fa- natical Jewish fringe group, or to ban the erec- tion of an Orthodox synagogue anywhere near Rabin’s grave. As irrational an act of scapegoat- ing as blaming all ethnic Germans for the acts of Nazis, many of whom claimed to be God-fear- ing Christians.


Yet that is the logical implication of the


comparison that Newt Gingrich made when he likened the proposed erection of a Muslim community center two blocks from the World Trade Center site to putting a Nazi sign next to the Holocaust Museum. On his website, he goes further in identifying all Muslims with terrorism: “There should be no mosque near Ground Zero in New York so long as there are no churches or synagogues in Saudi Arabia. The time for double standards that allow Is- lamists to behave aggressively toward us while they demand our weakness and submission is over.”


Consider the full implication of that call for


an international cold war against Islam by the former GOP House speaker. Someone should remind Gingrich that both Republican and Democratic presidents have regarded Saudi Arabia as an ally in the war against terrorism and toward that end sanctioned the sale of very sophisticated weaponry to the kingdom and


the sharing of intelligence with its military. So, too, with the Muslim-dominated government of Pakistan with which we have been allied for a half-century, not to mention our current Muslim allies in power in Iraq and Afghani- stan.


As a leader in Congress, Gingrich support-


ed those policies, but now in his zeal to mis- represent President Barack Obama’s perfectly sensible stand that we are not at war with the Muslim world, he abandons not only his record but also any pretense of logic.


But even if one accepts that the Wahhabi ver-


sion of Islam dominant in Saudi Arabia helps fuel violent spin-offs of the Osama bin Laden variety (although bin Laden would be sum- marily executed in his native land), what does this have to do with a Sufi Muslim community center proposed for lower Manhattan?


As the highly regarded religion writer William


Dalrymple pointed out in a New York Times Op- Ed piece, Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf, the leader of the group hoping to build the New York center, is a moderate Sufi, and he and his movement’s espousal of universal brotherhood have been a target of violence. The Taliban was so threat- ened by the Sufi message of universal love that it attacked a Pakistani shrine to the great 17th century Sufi poet-saint Rahman Baba.


“I am a lover and I deal in love,” Dalrymple


writes in citing Baba’s revered Sufi verse, which continues, “Sow flowers, so your surroundings become a garden. Don’t sow thorns, for they will prick your feet. We are all one body. Who- ever tortures another, wounds himself.”


Just the message most relevant to adorn


a building near the site of the World Trade Center, leveled by those who sow thorns. But sadly, the thorns of religious bigotry are not a monopoly of any one religion or easily resisted by the demagogic politicians who exploit our ignorance of the other. The premise of our con- stitutional protection of religious diversity is that ignorance is the enemy of freedom.


Our founders were keenly aware, from the


lessons of Europe and the early American col- onies, of the dangers posed by false prophets from within their own churches. They knew well from deep personal experience, as is re- vealed clearly in the writings of George Wash- ington and Thomas Jefferson, that religious and political liberty was most effectively threat- ened by the zealotry of one’s own kin.


Stick to music, Wyclef, don’t play politics


By Michael Cottman Wyclef Jean should do


what’s best for the people of Haiti: Come out of hiding, stop playing politics, and get back to making music. Jean, the popular recording artist who is running for presi- dent of Haiti, is campaigning from an undisclosed location because he claims death threats against him have forced him into hiding somewhere in Hai- ti’s foothills. Jean said he was told to get out of Haiti, so he scrambled quickly to a secret sanctuary.


The whole thing sounds sus-


picious, like a Hollywood movie. Back in the real world, per- haps it’s time for Jean to abandon his presiden- tial bid, especially if he really thinks he’ll be assassinated if he presses ahead. “Wyclef cannot be president. He is an artist,”


Wyclef Jean Dorvelus Gerald, a painter in Port-au-Prince,


told The Washington Post. “His thoughts should be with his art.”


Jean announced his candidacy two weeks


ago, and he’s already gone underground. He’s been campaigning by e-mailing and tweeting reporters about his hopes for governing Haiti. Here’s what Haiti doesn’t need: A self-pro- claimed leader people can’t find who is stumping for support in seclusion through social media. If Jean doesn’t feel safe walking the streets of Haiti talking to Haitians about his ideas of re- storing order, safety and provisions to a country in chaos, then he how does he expect to earn the trust and respect of the Haitian people? And what if Jean becomes president and re- ceives another death threat? Does he go into hiding again and leave Haitians wondering where he is and who is running the country? He may not get the chance. Jean is waiting for the Haitian electoral commission to rule on wheth- er or not he will be eligible to run for president. Haitian law requires that a candidate for office


reside in the country for at least five consecutive years before Election Day. Jean said his ap- pointment as a roving ambassa- dor by President René Préval in 2007 exempted him from resi- dency requirements.


But here’s what we know


so far: Jean doesn’t seem equipped, trained or prepared to lead a nation in crisis. Before Jean went into hiding, he was still answering questions about financial


mismanagement


within his charity, Yele Haiti. And more recently, Euro RSCG Worldwide PR said that it had resigned from all public rela- tions work for Yéle and Jean’s campaign. That’s a serious red flag. What do they know that’s


prohibiting the firm from work- ing with Jean?


Two weeks ago, CNN gave Jean a rare hour on


live television to talk about his candidacy, and after 60 minutes, viewers still didn’t have a clue about what specifically Jean stands for, other than that he’s being drafted by a youth movement. Meanwhile, more than 30 people have filed to run for president of Haiti, a nation struggling to recover from the Jan. 12 earthquake that killed an estimated 300,000 people and de- stroyed thousands of buildings. And strangely, one of the candidates running against Jean is his uncle, Raymond Joseph, who doesn’t feel Jean is the right choice for president. Haiti needs leadership and real solutions, not more drama and empty promises. It’s a shame that so many former presidents have allowed corruption to interfere with the welfare of Hai- tian people, who need immediate resources.


And sadly, Jean has not demonstrated that


he has the vision or the knowledge to rebuild Haiti and address the many economic, social and political challenges that Haiti is facing. Whatever the Haitian electoral commission decides, Jean should emerge from his secret hiding place, call CNN, and end his presidential bid — for the sake of the Haitian people.


Michael Steele, a Republican figurehead no longer needed?


By Tonyaa Weathersbee Ed Rollins is right. Michael


Steele has been a disaster. Rollins, a Republican Party


strategist who managed Ronald Reagan’s 1984 re-election cam- paign, recently just came right out and said on “Face the Nation” that Steele, the first Black chair- man of the Republican National Committee, had failed to raise money and articulate a mes- sage, and that whatever he does between now and November will be largely irrelevant.


But even though Steele hasn’t


quite worked out as a Black first for a party whose policies have, at least for the past three de- cades, conspired to keep most Blacks last, it’s kind of hard to blame him for not being able to articulate a message when that message continues to be hijacked and honed by extremists in the party.


marginalization reinforces a deeper, painful reality for Blacks who believe that their power to reshape a party or a movement is going to be stronger than the pull of tradition.


The reality is that it won’t be.


And, in the case of the Republi- can Party, if they can’t fire some- one like Steele, what they’ll do is make them invisible.


It’s happened before — and to


a Black first far more competent and more respected than Steele. That person was Colin Powell.


Powell, a four-star general,


made history when former Pres- ident George W. Bush tapped him as the first Black secretary of state. He was even lauded as being a potential GOP presiden- tial candidate.


Michael Steele We saw this happen early on when Steele.


who still clings to the belief that the GOP wants to become the party of Lincoln again, was forced to apologize to Rush Limbaugh after describing the right wing talk show host as an entertainer who makes “ugly” and “incendiary” remarks.


Steele told the truth, but he wound up having


to cower to a racist rather than stand up for what was real.


We saw it again when Steele couldn’t manage


to bring himself to call out the Tea Party for its tolerance of the bigots and epithet-hurlers in its ranks, lest he alienate an important part of the GOP base.


So now, the Black head of the Republican


Party’s major fundraising arm is now a hostage — hostage to a faction that includes people who aren’t so sure Blacks ought to be voting in the first place.


That’s got to be uncomfortable. Sure, Steele’s tenure as GOP chair has been


marred by a strip club scandal and abandon- ment by big-money donors — something that has happened, in part, because he slipped up and spoke his anti-neoconservative mind on abortion and the Afghanistan war.


But the fact that someone like Rollins had no compunction in publicly announcing Steele’s


But even he ran into trouble when he disagreed with his


boss on affirmative action. And he ran into deeper trouble when he disagreed with Bush’s chicken hawk vice president, Dick Cheney, over attacking Iraq.


It was Powell who advised Bush to give


the weapons inspections and the sanctions a chance to work. It was Cheney who was fever- ish for war. In the end, Bush listened to Cheney and relegated Powell to invisibility.


It was about that time when Powell realized


that he wasn’t about to make any real differ- ence in that Republican administration. So he didn’t stick around for Bush’s second term.


Steele, however, is no Powell. He’s spent


much of his life being a professional Black Re- publican, so chances are he’ll keep doing that if the money keeps coming.


As critical as I am of Black Republicans, I


confess that I felt a tinge of optimism for the party when Steele won the chairmanship. But now it seems he was handed a job by a party that needed his color more than his ideas, that needed him to be a token, not a trailblazer.


Steele’s predicament ought to give him


some insight into the invisibility that so many average Black people have to grapple with, and how even if you cave in and do what those who would marginalize you want, you can wind up being invisible anyway.


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