All Black News Ain’t Good News…
As we continue our journalistic journey with The People’s Voice, I feel it essential to address the issue of  the content of The People’s Voice.
When we first launched this publication, a lot of concerns were voiced about all of the positives of the African American community that are seldom mentioned or even acknowledged in the mainstream media.  In an effort to show sensitivity to the feelings and opinions of the African-American consumers who would ultimately make up our reader base, who stated that they got sick and tired of reading about all the embarrassing, police reports, who robbed who; who got locked up; who got busted for drugs; because the negative news about black subjects is always reported ten times worse than it really is, we really tried to concentrate all of our zeal on the positives.   However, we continued to be bombarded with the many negative realities of African-American life in the Southeastern United States.   The realities of police brutality, racial profiling, abuse of power, and unfairness in the workplace and every other form of racial corruption imaginable.   These were the real-life, often shocking, day-to-day horrors of African-American life that continue to plague black people despite our supposedly having “overcome.”
Lately, I have been confronted by many readers who’ve said the following:  “What are we running for our “top story” this week?   Is it going to be something positive?  We’ve had sad news for the last two weeks.   First, I’m happy to know that people are watching so closely, what we choose to print.
It must be understood by all, that we don’t live in paradise.  And if you are looking at black life through rose-colored glasses, you may as well remove them; because not all black news is going to be either good or positive.   There are numerous aspects of African-American life that can and must be reflected in this publication if our story is to be told….it must be told truthfully and accurately.
Just as our mission was to reflect the positive contributions that African-Americans make in their communities every day….it is also our mission to utilize this Voice as an instrument of expression.  Thus we deceive ourselves, by our reluctance to see that we still share serious negative issues within the African-American communities, that are not being dealt with on ANY level, within any of our own African-American institutions.

If our communities are to continue to grow and progress, we must sit up and take notice of these issues, and take collective action to correct them.  Therefore, we also need to use this instrument to take an honest look at the things that are going on in our very own communities, right under our very own noses, that hinder black progress across the board.  They are too numerous to name.  We need to be looking at these matters so we can make the effort to correct them.
No point in trying to create false impressions; delusions; let’s call a spade a spade.  let’s get real.  Otherwise, how will we ever transform our current condition?

Again, I refer to the infamous address made by Dr. Bill Cosby last May, during the 50^th Anniversary Observance of Brown vs Board Of Education to which many African-American’s took insult.
The man was right:

Let me just name a few

parenting is not going on

1. misplaced values
2. Illiteracy (due to a high drop-out rate)  Lack of respect for education
3. Poverty
4. Hopelessness
5. Helplessness
6. High rate of incarceration among black men
7. Total absence of  Pride:  No longer is a person embarrassed because they’re pregnant without a husband
8. We are not paying attention…
9. drug addiction
10. lawlessness

drooping pants

Copyright 2006 by Charlotte A. Clark-Frieson
This article was composed and written by Charlotte A. Clark-Frieson, and appeared in the March 22, 2006 edition of The People’s Voice African American Weekly News (www.peoplesvoiceonline.com).   This article may be reprinted with permission from the author:
Charlotte A. Clark-Frieson
email:  caclarkfrieson@msn.com
322 Wilkie Clark Drive
Roanoke, Alabama 36274
334-863-4885
334-338-1149

Could This Happen To Your Child?  Your Brother?  Your Friend?

Charlotte A. Clark-Frieson, Associate Editor
 
Genarlow Wilson sits in prison despite being a good son, a good athlete and high school student with a 3.2 GPA.  He never had any criminal trouble.  A recent article that appeared in Atlanta Magazine described Genarlow  as a “football player and track star, homecoming king and honor-roll student.”   On the day he was to sit for the SAT, at seventeen years old, his life changed forever.  He was arrested.  
 
The story has now been retold many times, in print media including newspapers and Atlanta Magazine.  It was again re-told just this past Thursday (March 9) on Good Morning America and PrimeTime Live.   In short, After a New Year’s party, that has been described as “wild,” Genarlow was one of six Douglasville teens charged with Child Molestation under a legal technicality.   According to Genarlow’s attorney, B.J. Bernstein about 14 teenagers had attended the party.   Chandra R. Thomas (Atlanta Magazine) reported that initially, the parents “hired attorneys, and all of the boys vehemently maintained their innocence.   But, none of them or their families had the faintest notion that their actions that New Year’s Eve night would haunt them for the rest of their lives. At first the young men—dubbed “the Douglasville Six” by local media—stood united.

But as the reality of the charges stacked against them began to sink in, the pressure began to mount.”   One by one, the boys began to buckle, and signed documents accepting pleas to lesser charges in exchange for lighter prison terms.  But, Genarlow was the one boy who refused to take a plea.  

In Douglas County, he was accused of inappropriate sexual acts at the now infamous party.   The trial, began on February 21, 2005 and lasted until February 25, 2005 when the jury acquitted him of the allegation of Rape, but convicted him of Aggravated Child Molestation for a voluntary act of oral sex with another teenager.  He was 17 and she was 15.  At the time of the conviction, Wilson’s mother Juanessa Bennett called the sentence grossly unfair. “The punishment is too harsh. The law says it’s okay for a 17-year old girl to be with a 50 year old man. But if you’re 15 and with someone who is 17 it’s a tougher penalty.”  The media has dubbed this case “a tragedy for everyone involved.”
 
Along with the label “child molester” which would require him throughout his life to be on a sexual offender registry, Genarlow received a sentence of eleven years – a mandatory 10 years in prison and one year on probation.
 
While there is widespread condemnation of sex between adult predators and young children, it is less clear how to deal with statutory rape involving teenagers.
 
Under Georgia law, the penalty is actually more severe for a person found guilty of engaging in oral sex with a minor than for having intercourse (which is classified as misdemeanor statutory rape), even if the perpetrator is just a few years older than the minor.   Consequently two teens can have intercourse and it is a misdemeanor, but if they engage in oral sex, it is a felony which mandates a minimum of 10 years in prison.  If two teens engaged in heavy petting, that could be a felony Child Molestation.
 
The intricacies of the Georgia law made national news nearly two years ago when aggravated child molestation charges almost sent 18-year-old Marcus Dixon from Rome, Georgia, to prison for a decade. Dixon, a former Pepperell High School football star, who is black, was accused of raping a white classmate who was three months away from her 16th birthday. When that case broke, even the author of the statute, state Representative Tyrone Brooks, argued that the law was intended to protect children from adult sexual predators, not to police teenage sex.

According to Douglas County District Attorney David McDade, most of the six young men charged in the Douglasville case had been in trouble with the law before, including one now facing similar charges nearly two years after this case.
ABC Chief Legal Correspondent Chris Cuomo interviewed Genarlow in prison. Genarlow’s case was featured on Good Morning America on ABC this past Thursday morning and an indepth interview of him Thursday night at 10:00pm on ABC PrimeTIme Live.

The January 2006 issue of Atlanta Magazine provides a full account of the grave injustice and problem with Georgia law.
 
What is Being Done to Release Genarlow Wilson?
Genarlow Wilson is appealing his case to the Georgia Court of Appeals.  The case has been scheduled for oral argument before the court on March 9, 2006.  Genarlow’s attorney, B.J. Bernstein, The Bernstein Firm, Atlanta, Georgia is pointing out the legal flaws with this case.  On Thursday, Bernstein commented:  “Today, I will be arguing his case before the Georgia Court of Appeals.  The main argument is that his conviction violates the Equal Protection Clause of the Constitution.  That clause means that similarly situated people and circumstances should be treated equally.  As it stands now, teens that engage in voluntarily are in sexual activity are arbitrarily treated differently.  If teens engage in intercourse, it is only a misdemeanor with no more than 12 month sentence on no requirement to register as a sexual offender.  If they engage in oral sex, then the law sentences a felony of Aggravated Child Molestation and requires signing for a lifetime as a registered sexual offender.  That is a clear-cut example of unfair and unjust treatment without a rational basis particularly since intercourse could lead to another teenage pregnancy out of wedlock.”

What can you do?
 
1.  Let District Attorney David McDade and other politicians of the state of Georgia know your outrage with the unjust incarceration of Genarlow Wilson.  The law needs to be changed and his conviction undone. 

2.  The Bernstein Law firm has set up a website at http://www.wilsonappeal.com/
you can go to this site, and sign an online petition demanding his freedom, and that he not have to register as a sex offender.
 
3.  Donate to the Wilson Defense Fund:  All monies collected will go to legal expenses, and when released, an education fund for Genarlow.
 
“We will have to wait for the decision from the court.  In the meantime, we are fighting to have the Georgia legislature enact a “Romeo and Juliet” law which will across the board make sure any teenage consensual act will be no more than a misdemeanor and not stigmatize a young life with the label and sexual offender registry.

Genarlow Wilson sits in prison as the debate rages on.  No prior criminal offenses, just a young man who made a mistake a lot of young people do. Even the CDC’s (Center For Disease Control) statistics bears out the high number of teens engaging in sexual activity.  Prison is not the place to correct that trend,” said Bernstein

Photos:  Courtesy of Attorney B.J. Bernstein
 
Additional information is available from
B.J. Bernstein:
The Bernstein Firm, P.C.
621 North Avenue, NE
Building E
Atlanta, Georgia 30308
Phone:  404-522-1200
Fax 404-810-9092
  
 Copyright 2005 by Charlotte A. Clark-Frieson
This article was composed and written by Charlotte A. Clark-Frieson, and appeared in the March 11, 2006 edition of The People’s Voice African American Weekly News (http://www.peoplesvoiceonline.com/).   This article may be reprinted with permission from the author:
Charlotte A. Clark-Frieson
email:  caclarkfrieson@msn.com
322 Wilkie Clark Drive
Roanoke, Alabama 36274
334-863-4885
334-338-1149

On Getting Involved..
I pray that our readers have not only enjoyed, but have been both inspired and enlightened by the hodgepodge of articles in The People’s Voice.  It is my prayer that the Voices Of  The People are finally being heard, from all avenues throughout East-Central Alabama and West-Central Georgia, for it has been far too long that our true voices have been silent.   

One common thread that runs through this issue of The People’s Voice is seen in story after story that bears witness to the urgency for contemporary African Americans throughout all our communities to “Get Involved.”   One thing is crystal clear:  that much of the injustice that plagues our respective communities is our own fault.  We are no longer vigilant.  Decades of  inactivity; decades of unresponsiveness; decades of apathy is the reason why a kid like Genarlow Wilson (and many like him) sit behind prison bars serving a mandatory 10-year sentence for committing an act that practically even teenager in America has committed.   Thus we need a black renaissance.  What is needed is a renewed interest in black unity, African-American pride and achievement.  We are not paying attention to the real issues anymore. This is the reason why a Michael Dobbs can just fire a top-ranking official like Ruben Hairston, and not have to account to anyone for it. We stopped voting in local and national elections.  Throughout our various communities there is a visible lack of appreciation for the fact that somebody bled, died, and took all kind of abuse both verbal and physical, so we could walk into the voting booth like any other citizen, and cast our ballot.  So, we now, have no appreciation for the right to vote.  Most of us don’t even participate.  But, understand, participation is mandatory for survival.

Until we realize that participation is not optional – but mandatory, we will continue to be “blind-sided” by blatant acts of civil wrongs that obscure our civil rights.   We need to utilize every resource at our disposal to forge ahead toward that day that Martin Luther King, Jr., dreamed about.   

We cannot afford to sit back and continue to be blind, deaf, and dumb, regarding the status of “God’s least of these.”   In 1619, when the first boat-load of slave ships landed at Jamestown, Virginia, our ancestors emerged from the belly of slave ships ― TOGETHER.  They realized their respective plights were linked.   Although they came from different tribes, and  spoke different languages, they nevertheless understood the common language of anguish; travail; and spiritual bondage.  Today, we find ourselves in a far worse state of bondage and travail;  however, it is a state far worse that our ancesters witnessed, because today, it tied to pre-occupation with drugs, materialism, and a false sense of security that in truth does not exist.  Wake up, people.

Every great stride; every great movement; every successful African-American campaign resulted from the unified effort of the people.   It is my belief that we are seeing an increase in racial disparity because of the “falling away” from our tradition of brotherly love, and concern for our fellowman, which characterized the spirit of the Civil Rights movement. We also must not forget that even though the primary focus of the Civil Rights movement of the 20^th Century was on black liberation, at the end of the day, poor and disadvantaged whites got just as much benefit from it, too.  Thus, the implication for us is that we must get involved.   If we don’t, generations of those who come behind us will find themselves totally helpless, because WE failed to tell our stories; WE failed to pass the torch;  WE failed to teach them the concepts of  struggle for justice and equality; they won’t know how to conquer or overcome their oppressors because WE will have failed to teach them about the heroes of yesteryear, who understood the politics of racism and who masterminded their own liberation.  Again, it’s time to Get Involved!    

Copyright 2005 by Charlotte A. Clark-Frieson.
This article was composed and written by Charlotte A. Clark-Frieson, and appeared in the March 11, 2006 edition of The People’s Voice African American Weekly News (http://www.peoplesvoiceonline.com/).   This article may be reprinted with permission from the author:
Charlotte A. Clark-Frieson
email:  caclarkfrieson@msn.com
322 Wilkie Clark Drive
Roanoke, Alabama 36274
334-863-4885
334-338-1149

ORIGINALITY is a real virtue that I treasure.  I take pride in doing something in a way that no one else ever has; or creating something new from something old.  That’s the essence of creativity. 

 Recently I received a couple of articles that individuals submitted for publication in The People’s Voice; and while I am always happy to receive material of interest for publication, I must say that I was quite disappointed that the article was a clipping from some other paper complete with photos.  The individual had suggested to me that we reprint the article exactly as it had appeared in the other publication. It disturbed me greatly, because it reminded me of how careless we as African-Americans sometimes are about copying what others do. Why do we need to “copy” what someone else has produced?  Our forefathers were some of the greatest minds of all time.  Civilization was born right in Ancient Egypt, which was inhabited by a race of black people whose achievements still confound historians and archaeologists.  They were great thinkers, philosophers, mathematicians, architects and builders.  Certainly, we as a people realize the importance of thinking and acting for ourselves! 
Have we become so dependent on the actions, thoughts, attitudes and opinions of others that we’ve forgotten how to think for ourselves?

As a practicing funeral director, I have always taken extreme pride in designing and producing my own memorial items for our families (such as funeral programs and so forth).  I spend a lot of time on each one, and try to make it as unique as possible…unlike any other that I‘ve done before.  Sometimes, we are very pressed for time, but, we find that the extra minutes we devote to this task makes a real difference to those we serve.  I try to make it my business to create something just for that individual. Oh, sometimes, there may be similarities, but I try to make sure that there is always some subtle difference in subsequent materials we produce.  And nothing makes me angrier than to see an expression or phrase that I created or a folder style that I created only to have it copied exactly and used by some other funeral home serving some other family.  Something that I labored over for hours…just scooped up by somebody else who doesn’t care enough to do their own work.  This is a perfect example of how presumptious we are in copying someone else’s work. 

Our company has had many opportunities to provide church bulletin printing services for several local churches.  This gave me a lot of opportunities to see this same tendency to “copycat” among churches.  It would always be obvious to me that the program committee had gone back and dug up an old program, and merely gone down the line and changed dates and names, and said “It’s done!”   We would get the material, usually handwritten on a fresh piece of notebook paper, just the way it was copied from an old program.   From program to program you could see the same old order of events, and the same old things being done in pretty much the same old way — year in and year out.   Another example of how we copy other people’s ideas and hard work.

Why do we tend to copy others?  I think that sometimes, copying means that we don’t want to invest the time, or burn the mental calories to think things through for ourselves.  That’s too much work.  So, we think we’re working smart and letting ourselves off the hook by copying somebody else’s work.    It all leaves me wondering, “That high school diploma, or that college degree you have, did you rely on someone else’s brain power to get that?”

As a writer, I would be extremely angry, if I observed someone else using excerps from my book, without citing the work, or giving me credit for the words.  That’s against the law, and I would sue them for plagerism.   As a business person, and understanding how quick folks are to claim somebody else’s work as their own, I have developed a habit of place a copyright on everything that I create.  This symbol © guarantees legal protection of a person’s intellectual property.

Copying ain’t cool, by no stretch of the imagination.  First, it shows a lack of respect and disregard for the other person’s work.   When we copy ANYTHING, we must be sure we properly cite the originator of the work. 

Originality excites the imagination while monotony disenchants and bores. This inclination that many of us have to merely copy what someone else has done, lets us “off the hook.”  We don’t have to put forth any effort or put any thought into anything we do.   This is not good, and it teaches poor habits to our youngsters, who, by the way are learning by observing how we do things.

I love the fact that people want to contribute to The People’s Voice.  But, I don’t love the fact that we want to clip it out of another paper and run it in ours.  There is nothing new, or creative, or original about that.  Certainly, we as African-American readers, and consumers are thinking people and we can do better.

For future reference, let’s please make certain that we put a little time and effort into what we do, and what we submit for publication.  This paper is a reflection of the make-up of the African-American communities.  We want it to be a positive one.   If you insist on submitting an article that has been previously published in another publication, YOU MUST GET PERMISSION TO REPRINT IT from the publication.  If you submit any material THAT YOU DID NOT CREATE YOURSELF, please make sure that you are careful to note:  “This article was written by Joe Blow, and reprinted with permission from The Windy City Word (or whatever the publication is).  “Submitted By Jane Doe”    

You can write an article yourself, but make certain that you do good research, and you  should even cite your resources. Any quotations submitted, please give the original author credit for their quotation.

Generations from now, when most of us are dead and gone, and those who are left behind start to search the archives of black history in East Alabama and West Georgia, we will want to leave the evidence behind that we were a great community of neighbors living in bordering states of Alabama and Georgia.  That we were ethical people who had the utmost respect for the work and the ideas of others; and that we were originators, not imitators; that we carved out a future for them and that we did it with our own minds and imaginations.  And they’ll appreciate us for what we did.

This whole affair, The Clark Memorial Foundation, and The People’s Voice is about setting and raising our own standards – and making them high; and not about adopting or adapting to standards others have set for us.   We are independent thinking people.  Let’s show it in everything we do!

Copyright 2006 by Charlotte A. Clark-Frieson
This article was composed and written by Charlotte A. Clark-Frieson, and appeared in the March 3, 2006 edition of The People’s Voice African American Weekly News (www.peoplesvoiceonline.com).   This article may be reprinted with permission from the author:
Charlotte A. Clark-Frieson
email:  caclarkfrieson@msn.com
322 Wilkie Clark Drive
Roanoke, Alabama 36274
334-863-4885
334-338-1149