T
Editorial
on he- 12-
%
382.2
See CRIME RATE, P.5
COMMENTARY
See 40 YEARS. P. 5
THE BURNING BUSH
Hardman
FROM THE EDITOR
i
Psalms. 58:1-2
Bill Vaugh
■i ' -J -
Total Number of Pets Owned in the U.S. (millions)
e-maik news@theoklahomaeagle.net
lift
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•Birds
•Cats
•Dogs
•Equines
•Freshwater Fish
•Saltwater Fish
•Reptiles
•Other Small Animals
Edward L. Goodwin, II, and James O. Goodwin
Co-Publishers
Eddie L. Madison, Jr.
Editor Emeritus
16
88.3
74.8
13.8
142
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“WITHOUT PERSISTENT EFFORT time itself becomes an ally
of the insurgent and primitive forces of irrational emotionalism
and social destruction. This is no time for apathy or
complacency. This is a time for vigorous and positive action."
- Martin Luther King, Jr.
Dan Hardman is author of
"Essays from Church - Vol. 1"
published by Penknife Press
(penkmfepress.com), and an
independent filmmaker and
freelance videographer here in
Tulsa. He can be reached at
918.814.3153 or by e-mail:
danielhardman1@cox.net
STRIDE
TO WARH
FREE DOR.
HISTORY
1917 - Leo Pinckney, a black man, was the first draftee
of World War I
J frwfcr <>f hlN fH’oplc trlli
The .RontyoMrry Story
QUOTE
“America is a land where citizens will cross the ocean
to fight for democracy - and won't cross the street to vote
in a national election "
The Total:
“Source: National Pet Owners Survey-2007 &. American
Pet Producers Manufactures Association Inc. at:
www.appma.org / press_industrytrends.asp
P~4 THE OKLAHOMA EAGLE • THURSDAY. AUGUST 2. 2007
OPINION
sex
son."
If you're wondering why
the traditional gaggle of
black misleaders didn't dash
before the nearest television
cameras to condemn what
on the outskirts of
Chicago. NAACP board
chairman Julian Bond has
been doing what he does
months at Jena High School
are not typical, but J fear they
are happening in high
schools across the land.
Cagle In what's possibly the worst black-on-black crime
In decades, why are Al and Jesse so silent?
Act in 1964, we have proudly heart of Louisiana,
declared that the law of the
land does not and will not
tolerate discrimination on the
basis of race.
The law of the land says school. 1 want to believe that
that all citizens have the right the events of the last few
to equal protection regard-
less of their racial back-
ground. The law of the land
says that the courts will not
that 40 years later - not much
has changed.
Jena, Louisiana is a
racially fractured commu-
nity. Jena I ligh School can do
nothing but characterize its
surroundings Incident after
incident followed with stu-
dents engaging in fights and
veiling matches, exposing the
racial division.
On December 4. 2lX)6 a
white student was injured in
a fight with black students.
The resulting charge against
threy bjack students is con-
spiracy to commit second de-
gree murder. There is no
question that the students
should be disciplined for
their actions that caused this
injury. But, if hanging nooses
on a shade tree is dismissed
as a youthful prank, how can
the court assign a murder
conspiracy to a fight among
teenagers?
Over forty years ago,
The opinions of our guest columnists do not
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Please send comments to: Letters to the Editor,
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I AW ” W’A”.1 ” ’' J hi h h h       h h * .• ? ?
BIBLE VERSE
"Justice? You high and mighty politicians don't know
the meaning of the Word! Fairness? Which of you has any
left? Not one! All your dealings are crooked: you give 'Jus-
tice' in exchange for bribes."
Congress, Doctors
Benefit from High
Cost of Medicine
"We may never see the U.S. Congress or other politicians take
forceful action against the powerful pharmaceutical companies in
our lifetime."
You might think that this remark came from someone outside
of the health profession. Wrong! This utterance came from a li-
censed physician and surgeon. We cannot divulge the doctor's
name for obvious reasons.
Suffice it to say, we trust his point of view after delving further
into the subject of over-priced medications, and -to be sure—how
the guys who make the pharmaceutical drugs contribute to the
folks on work on Capitol Hill in Washington. Presidential candi-
dates, too, probably get their fair share of the contents of the cookie
jar.
There is enough blame to go around on both sides of the aisle.
Both Republicans and Democrats get goodies from the people who,
as some people believe, make us better when we are sick. Cer-
tainly, there are many good medicines on the market. The lifespan
has jumped by leaps and bounds. The pharmaceutical companies
do, in fart, spend a lot of money researching new drugs. But, hold
still for a moment.
But there is another side to the coin. Our system of medical
care is largely based on cure - not prevention. Rarely will a doctor
tell you how, for example, if you exercise regularly, watch what you
eat, give up smoking, get proper rest, you will be healthier.
izing repetitions of "I Have A
Dream," today's black child
knows almost nothing of
Frederick, Malcolm, Martin,
Marcus, WEB, Fanny, Mary
McCloud, or Sojourner.
Today, our champions
are either Crip or Blood, East
Coast or West Coast, Spurs or
Sixers, Cowboys or Dolphins,
• Vick’s Sentence
This paper believes that there are far too many people in
jails and U.S. federal corrections facilities. Oklahoma is espe-
cially high on the list of U.S. states that over-incarcerate.
Oddly, Vick, who is not from Oklahoma, is nick-named
"Okie." If Vick is found guilty of the monstrous offensives he
is accused of, we believe he should be required to do a ten
-year, full time tour, at his expense, of every major city in the
U.S. His tasks would include working side by side with ani-
mal activists across the country to prevent animal abuse. He
should also be required to provide free lectures, using mate-
rials prepared by animal rights and pet lovers associations,
on the evils of abusing, mistreating, neglecting and willful
killing of animals.
Bad Newz Vick
America is a pet crazed country—this is a good thing.
That's why Atlanta Falcons quarterback Michael Vick's
recent indictment on a set of sickening charges related to an
illegal dog fighting operation really outraged us. Most pet
owners and anyone who cares about decent treatment of an-
imals should be thinking hard about our animals, the allega-
tions against Vick and his buddies and the kind of sentence
Vick should get if found guilty.
Too many of the people who profess to live by the Hippocratic
Oath, like some of their old buddies in the US. Congress, get
"goodies" from the people who make the medicine. Some of the
samples that they give patients are useful. However; it bids well
for the manufacturers when you buy your own the next time
around. Huh?
Now, meanwhile back to our doctor who can smell a rat or rec-
ognize when he, too, has been taken to the cleaners, figuratively
speaking. This medic says he paid the equivalent of 75 cents in his
country of birth while traveling abroad after writing a prescription
for himself. The same medicine cost $39.00 back home in the
United States
Have you ever wondered why the US. government does not
want Americans to buv the much cheaper drugs in C anada or Mex-
ico They give us the business that these medicines have not been
approved by the Food & Drug Administration of the US. Depart-
ment of Health and Human Services. However, we hear over and
over again that the US. Department of Veterans Affairs buys med-
icine for less money in thesse countries.
Back to our original premise. Will the drug companies still be
ripping us off with the amval of the next millennium?
Our “Vick” thoughts can be grouped in three blocks:
• The Scope of the Love
We love and dote on our animals. For 2007, the American
Pet Products Manufacturers Association is estimating that
Americans will spend nearly 40 billion dollars on pet care,
foods and related services and products.
Last August, racism once
again openly reared its ugh
head at Jena High School.
A shade tree stands in
the middle of a courtyard - a
shade tree that was for white
students - until last August.
Kenneth Purvis, a black
student, asked for permis-
sion to sit under the tree. I he
school principal told him that
he could sit where ever he
wanted, so he and his friends
did. The next morning when
student*- arrived at school,
they were met yyith a shud-
dering scene of the courtyard
tree with three nooses hang-
ing from its branches In |ena,
many considered it a youth
ful and tasteless prank The
black community disagreed.
Nooses are symbols of
the lynching and beatings
that linger deep and
painfully in the memory of
African American communi-
ties; symbols that should
cause every American to
shudder. It is an example
It is hard to believe that
over 40 years
ago the sin of I
racism was
finally being
addressed by
courageous
leaders seek- I
ing justice for
. Jaramillo
all. During ------------
the last four decades, Ameri- that the punishment must fit
the crime and these young
men are getting what they
deserve. I submit that we
need to hear the rest of the
t stead, we clamor for those
TV & movies, but the Black who make the most money
experience is no longer com- and have the biggest,
the wind as we literally do
our thing to death.
Our heroes and leaders
are no longer
experiences rificed their lives
common struggled to bring
40 years later, not much has changeiL.racism still lingers
By M. LMa Jmalllfl            allow treatment that favors
Guest Conttributor                one race above another. Yet,
in the small town of Jena,
Louisiana, three young black
men who were part of a
teenage fistfight face the pos-
sibility of spending their
lives behind bars primarily
because of their racial back-
ground.
Some will say that justice
is being served in Jena,
Louisiana. Some will claim
cans have been quick to
claim that the "problem" of
racism has been dealt with; it
has been solved. Since the
passage of the Civil Rights story. Jena is situated in the
. ...               .... a co1111 iiu
nity of 3,000 residents, 85
percent white and 15 percent
black. Jena is a typical Amer-
ican town with one high
In decades, why are Al and Jesse so silent?
By 6Pt|iry IM               her apartment complex at
Guest Contributor                 Dunbar Village ... They took
cell phone pictures of their
acts. They burned the
woman's skin and her 12-
year-old son's eyes with
cleaning fluid, forced them to
lie naked together in the
bathtub, hit them with a
broom and a gun and threat-
ened to set them on fire."
As despicable as that
sounds, it wasn't the worst of
it. The worst of it was when
The still Burning Bush - The End of Common Sense
ByBalrtm              mon, so the idea of common
Guest Contributor                  sense is a thing of the past for
Black America. With the ex-
Ever wonder what hap- ception of the annual patron-
pened to common sense? I
know 1 have.
Then I realized
that common
sense comes
from common
experiences,
and my won-
dering ceased.
The critics are
right, black people don't all Sean John or Rockafella...
think alike. Truth is, we don't Our commonality has been
live alike either. Christians diffused amongst these vari-
think Jesus is still to return in ables, thus our common
his second coming; Muslims sense, like so many autumn
believe in Allah and that leaves, has been scattered on
Muhammad is his messen-
ger; almost all Americans be-
lieve America is the greatest
country of all time.            are no longer those who sac-
Common experiences rificed their lives as they
create threads of common struggled to bring us to-
thought and action. Maybe gether in difficult times. In-
you can't tell by looking at U—____*.
• Some Evil
Apparently three or more cooperating witnesses have
provided critical details on the Vick case as we go to press.
The long and short of the evidence is simple—Vick's animal
abusing and killing buddies have squealed on the brother.
Federal authorities have compiled a detailed case from the
testimonies of these witness/co-participants that traces the
origins and sick practices of Bad Newz Kennels, Vick's dog
fighting and killing venture.
From the indictment: "In or about April of 2007, Peace,
Phillips and Vick executed approximately eight dogs that did
not perform well in testing' sessions at 1915 Moonlight Road
by various methods, including hanging, drowning and slam-
ming at least one dog's body to the ground.'
The federal indictment goes on to list many, many
episodes of animal abuse and dozens of specific occasions in
which Vick allegedly participated in the killing of "loser ani-
mals."
"Our crime rate is far too
high." Dr.
Martin Luther
King Jr. wrote
those words
in Jiis 1958
boolc, "Stride
Toward Free-
dom." He was
,         . Kane
referring to ------------
the disproportionate amount
of crime among black Ameri- these vermin, according to
cans, an issue King didn't Times writer Amy Good-
flinch from facing. Nearly 50 nough, "forced the woman to
years later, King might be in- perform oral
dined to follow that sentence year-old
with the words "and some of
those crimes are unbeliev-
ably heinous."
Indeed, you have to
wonder what King would
have made of this story from might well hold up as the
The New York Times on July worst black-on-black crime
19 about one of the most hor- of the decade, don't bother
rendous and brutal cases of You already know the an-
black-on-black crime I've swer.
ever heard of in my 55 years. They're otherwise en-
The incident occurred at a gaged. Jesse Jackson has been
public housing project called on a crusade to close a gun
Dunbar Village in West Palm shop
Beach, Florida.
"After dark on June 18,
the police say, as many as 10
armed assailants repeatedly
raped a Haitian immigrant in
flashiest rings, chains, and
rides. These "stars” have di-
vided and individualized us
into oblivion.
Where we used to collec-
tively understand that we
needed to save money, we
now rush to spend our last
dime on the latest cologne,
CD, or bling. Where we used
to know the value of holding
dear our survival of slavery',
we now believe that modern
slavery, i.e., going to prison
for our homies is a rite of pas-
sage. We are in a dangerous
place because we have lost
our center, our reference
point, our collective under-
standing of who we are. We
are a people in transition and
we have lost many along the
way. I personally believe it is
our end passage, the last
point before reaching our
final destination.
It's always darkest be-
fore dawn, they say. Our
commonality is now in our
differences and each experi-
ence adds a new dimension.
We are developing a new
mindset, synthesizing our
new talents into a more flexi-
ble, and durable personality.
The end of common sense as
we know it means the birth
of a new sense that will illu-
minate us from within.
The pressure we've been
under has shattered our co-
hesion like a water balloon
falling on concrete. Yet we
are alive, looking, searching,
grasping for each other in
this darkness. We will find
each other, and in doing so
we'll find ourselves. Then
we'll become common again,
normal, grounded. In that
day we'll show them where
the pyramids came from.