Our Time PressThe Local Paper with the Global View

Think America’s youth are nothing more than a bunch of lazy and ungrateful text-messaging, mall-dwelling, iPod-blasting brats?
A recent survey released last week from the Center for Information and Research on Civic Learning and Engagement says to think again, especially when it comes to America’s Black youth.
According to the study, African-American young people are “most likely to vote regularly, belong to groups involved with politics, donate money to candidates or parties, display buttons or signs, canvass and contact the broadcast media or print media.”
The study also said Black people between the ages of 15-25 were most likely to raise money for a charity, tying with Asian- Americans.
“Consistent with previous research, African-Americans are generally the most politically engaged racial/ethnic group,” the study said.
The Maryland-based organization compiled information from telephone and e-mail surveys done earlier this year with 1,700 young people ages 15-25.
The study’s results departs from other studies that conclude Black youth are more prone to wind up in the justice system, be killed by a peer, become pregnant or contract a sexually transmitted disease.
Melanie Campbell, the executive director of the National Coalition on Black Civic Participation, said she is not surprised that Black youth are getting more involved especially after the popular “Vote or Die”campaign in 2004 led by entertainers like P. Diddy and most recently Hurricane Katrina recovery efforts.
“The 2004 election, the youth vote overall went up but it was largely in part because Black youth turned out in much higher numbers than they had in about 10 years,” Campbell said.
“Katrina, young people decided to do an alternative spring break. That’s a clear example that young people are connecting the dots that they need to be involved.
It’s not just the vote but being involved in one’s community. That was volunteerism at its best. We should celebrate that but build on it.”
Campbell’s Washington-based organization was instrumental in registering young Black voters during the 2004 elections and in its 10th year of the Black Youth Vote Initiative.
As November approaches, the group is working even harder until Election Day criss-crossing the country in a voter registration drive. So far this year, the group has registered 350,000 voters aged 18-30 years old. Campbell’s staff and volunteers are all practically in this age group. She said peer-to-peer encouragement has been the most effective in registering voters.
“A lot of young people are out here organizing and they want to be involved and we as a community have to embrace that. We have to make sure we continuously find avenues and vehicles for them to be able to engage their peers and lead the effort for and with the community,” she said.
Asian-American youth came right behind African-Americans and like African-Americans are more likely to volunteer, sign petitions, raise money and persuade others about elections.
In direct comparison to young Whites, the study said “Whites are the most likely to run, walk or ride a bike for charity and to be active members of a group.
They are least likely to protest, donate money to a party or candidate or persuade others about an election.”
The study showed that Latino youth had the highest levels of disengagement and were the least likely to volunteer, contact officials or boycott. But 25 percent of young Latinos have protested “more than double the rate for any other racial/ethnic group.”
Recent large-scale protests about immigration may have contributed to these numbers and the study also mentions that the protesting may factor into increased Latino voter participation in November.
But while minorities are getting more vocal about their concerns, when it came to political knowledge, the study revealed America’s youth overall barely knew questions about the government.
A little more than half of America’s youth could not name the Republican Party as the more conservative party, 56 percent did not know that only citizens could vote in federal elections and only 30 percent could correctly name at least one member of the President’s cabinet. Of those who could name a cabinet member, 82 percent named Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice.
As for African American youth, the study said they believe have a reason to get involved because they are “most likely to view the political system as unresponsive to the genuine needs of the public.” Asians were more likely to believe the system is responsive.
For the most engaged young people, a number of factors contributed to their participation in community service and the political process including being Democrat, liberal, from an urban area, a regular church attendee, and from a family with parents who volunteer and are college educated.
Nolan Rollins, the president of the National Urban League’s Young Professionals, said it is no surprise the connections between Black youth, the church and long-standing Black social organizations like the National Urban League and NAACP boosted young Black
people ahead of other groups.
“It’s not really surprising because I think that what you’re talking about is a generation that is not far removed from the civil rights generation and I think what we’re seeing now is almost a trickle down effect,” he said.
Rollins said that youth participation in the NUL’s annual convention has grown every year to the point where there is a youth track with age-based sessions specially made for teens, college students and young professionals.
The Young Professional division of the NUL has a membership of 9,000 ages 21-40, representing 62 chapters across the country. The group is responsible for the National Day of Service and a number of educational programs on topics ranging from HIV/AIDS to financial responsibility.
Rollins believes this surge in social engagement comes from young people understanding they are the beneficiaries of gains made by the civil rights movement and with the unprecedented opportunities they have available, young people are confident they can make a difference from places their ancestors couldn’t in the boardroom, classroom and courtroom.
“There was a whole generation of folks that fought for rights that wanted us to have the ability to attend the schools we wanted to attend and get the jobs that we wanted to actually get and you come up with a group of folks who have access to those opportunities,”Rollins said.
“We no longer have to depend on our back in order to ensure that we can be successful. If we want to laborious things we can. If we choose not to we have the opportunity and the ability to find our ways to higher education find our ways to entrepreneurship and things like that. This is a generation that realizes we have more at our fingertips than before and is taking advantage of it.”

It’s not that Ed Towns is always wrong, as his progressive voting record attests (see page 11), it is that the 10th Congressional District in Brooklyn deserves better than easy votes on issues popular in the district.  Most progressive candidates would make those same votes.  Charles Barron certainly would, so nothing is lost there in a change.  What would be gained in the district would be a Congressman who makes a difference for the better on key votes that can change lives.  On those deciding votes where a real difference is made, such as his vote on Net Neutrality which went against equal access to the internet, and allowed firms to practice content discrimination on the basis of price or speed, Ed Towns has been on the wrong side.
In 2005, The Working Families Party and union leaders wrote to Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi saying, “We urge you to remove Reps. Meeks and Towns from their seats on the Financial Services and Energy & Commerce committees, respectively. They have used their committee membership cards to access corporate America’s ATM at the expense of working families for far too long. It is time for Meeks and Towns to turn in their cash cards.”
The Working Families Party in 2005 announced, “Meeks and Towns had an opportunity to act on behalf of workers here in the United States and across Central America by stopping CAFTA. Instead they voted on the side of multinational corporations that want to sell off U.S. jobs to the lowest bidder while doing nothing to improve the lives of workers anywhere…..In addition to sending jobs overseas, Towns has supported shifting the tax burden from the most affluent to working-class New Yorkers.”
They were also fiercly unhappy with Towns’ vote on the Estate Tax , which WFP called “Robin Hood in Reverse.”  The vote was to “completely eliminate the federal estate tax, providing an unjustifiable tax break for the very wealthiest Americans. Rep. Towns was one of only 41 Democrats to vote for this legislation.”
It is in areas such as these and others, where votes are cast for a corporate constituency, that the District deserves better and a change in the congressional office.
In 2005 the Working Families Party and major unions were making much noise about how they would hold Ed Towns “accountable,” but now in the election season when the time comes for the accounting, they are not to be seen, exposing their strong language of 2005 to be the empty rhetoric of 2006 when their action would  matter.
Ed Towns failing to receive 50% of the vote in the Primary, is an indication that his voting constituents know something is missing.  A write-in vote for Barron would show that unlike the WFP or the major union leadership, voting constituents have a longer memory, and do not want either the Democratic Party or their elected representative to take them for granted.  A strong write-in vote would make that point.   Afraid of machine not counting your vote?  Write it in for Charles Barron.  It will be two more years before you can send a message that matters, send this one now.
(See call for volunteers, Page 14)

Sylvester Leaks, universally known as Syl, was born in Macon, Georgia on August 11, 1927. While still attending school, he worked several jobs to help support his grandmother, Ella Williams, who was his primary parental figure. Syl would refer to her and Lucy Roundfield, his fourth grade teacher, as two of the earliest major influences on his life.
In his own words Leaks, would tell that, as a young man, he was a “… shoe shine boy and seller of scrap iron, cotton picker and peanut shaker, com shucker and ice man, chicken plucker and fish scaler.” Somewhere in the parcel of jobs that Syl held was employment by one of Macon’s leading black entrepreneurs as an assistant. This now unknown gentleman was the source of inspiration for Sylvester’s lifelong sartorial splendor. Leaks, who once wore a suit to the beach, was known for his natty ways.
When Leaks graduated high school, he joined the u.S. Army and began another lifelong pursuit: travel. The service took him to Japan and the Philippines. As a soldier, he took a train from Georgia to Washington State; Leaks loved to tell stories about the things that he’d seen on this trip. Life later took him to Ghana, Liberia, Nigeria, London, Ecuador, Mexico and all fifty of the United States.
New York City was the first destination when Leaks left the army in 1947. From the day he arrived until his death, New York was home. Leaks, like so many other renaissance men held a day job but by night he was, indeed, a man about town. Leaks, however, was no dandy looking for a date. At night he attended Baruch College; he danced with the Sierra Leone dance troupe of Asa Data Dafora; he was a member of the Harlem Writer’s Guild; he was an actor (and President) in the Elks Community Theater.
The year 1960 would see several changes in Leak’s life. Because of his friendship with Malcolm X, he became editor of the Nation ofIslam newspaper “Muhammad Speaks.” He married the former Norma Nelson. This union would produce a son, Gideon, in 1963. Besides his duties at Muhammad Speaks, Leaks also continued writing independently, publishing book reviews, short stories and critical analyses. Leaks also began to promote plays and musicals on and off Broadway. His idea was to introduce blacks to Broadway using church groups as a source of customers for his clients. His friendship with the thespian couple, Ossie Davis and Ruby Dee provided him with one of his first big clients, the play “Purlieu Victorious.” Specializing in productions with African – American themes and casts, Leaks continued to promote plays well into the seventies and was associated with such noted shows as “Raisin”, “The Wiz”, “Pippin”, “Guys and Dolls”,”Short Eyes”, and “For Colored Girls…”
In 1965, disenchanted with the Nation of Islam; perceiving them as complicit in the assassination of Malcolm X, Leaks moved his family to Brooklyn from Harlem. There he became the Director of Youth In Action, a non-profit organization that sought to educate Brooklyn youths in African – American history and culture. Leaks also taught and continued to write. Leaks left Youth in Action to become Director of Public Information for Bedford Stuyvesant Restoration Corporation in 1970. At “Restoration,” Leaks was influential in the founding of the Billie Holiday Theatre, which he named. The theatre is still operating.
The seventies saw Sylvester Leaks in full bloom. He finished his play “Trouble, Blues, and Trouble” which, as a short story, had been published in the legendary “Best Short Stories by Negro Writers” edited by Langston Hughes. His poem “Talking about Harlem” has been translated into thirty-two different languages including Swahili, Chinese, and Russian. He completed a movie script, “My God, My God is Dead.” He also completed the biography of his friend, Malcolm X. He became active in Brooklyn politics and won a seat on the District 17 Community School Board which he held for close to thirty years. He founded the Central Brooklyn Urban Development Corporation, a company that developed, owned, and managed apartment buildings for low-income tenants. Most importantly, he met and began the most significant love relationship of his life, one thirty years long, with the woman who would later become his wife, Scottie Owings.
The foundation of Leaks’ life was set. For the rest of his life, he continued to be involved in politics consulting a generation of Brooklyn politicians. As President of the school board, he was responsible for the construction of at least four new schools and the education of hundreds of thousands of children. He was also a respected consultant to many businessmen, notably Don King, the impresario. Sylvester Leaks helped thousands of people in ways large and small yet he never asked for anything except that those he helped, help others so that the African-American community that he loved so much would prosper.
The last decade of his life saw Leaks return full time to his passion: writing and the research of African and African-American history. When one passed by his house on any given late night, the lights in his home office would be burning bright. If you listened carefully you could hear the sounds of an ancient typewriter. Hard at work was Sylvester Leaks who while being so many things would describe himself as a writer and historian. After a short illness, Sylvester Leaks, the self-described “po’ boy from Georgia” traveled from this life on October 21, 2006. In his ways, in his generosity, in his love of his people, he was anything but poor. He may have been the richest man most of us will ever know.

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<@Normal:><GFIRST 18><GALIGNMENT “justify”><SIZE 9.8><CTRACK 0><CLEADING 11.9>Though much of the political discussion this election season has centered on the Congressional races, there are a number of state campaigns that are just as contentious.
Take for instance the Democratic primary in the 57th Assembly <r>District. With the 24-year incumbent, Roger Green, making his play for Washington, the seat is up for grabs.
Three very promising candidates have set their sites on representing the district, which extends from Prospect Heights into Ft. Greene, Clinton Hill and Bedford Stuyvesant: Freddie Hamilton, founder of the Child Development Support Corp.; Bill Batson, the former director of community relations for the State Senate Democratic leader David Paterson; and Hakeem Jeffries, a lawyer for CBS who has twice before tried to unseat Green.
The position that they all covet will place them directly in the Atlantic Yards firestorm since the controversial development lies within the district. The debate surrounding the project, as important as it may be, has played a divisive role in this campaign, deflecting attention away from other pertinent issues, such as education and affordable housing.
We  broached the topic of the $4.2-billion development with each candidate, who all have been very vocal about their positions. Hamilton, who is also running to retain her position as Democratic state committeewoman district leader, supports the project primarily for its promise of affordable housing and jobs. Both of her opponents, however, insist that without any legally binding contracts, which the Community Benefits Agreement is not, those two concessions will only remain promises.
“I like the CBA,” says Batson, “but it has to be binding and the parties that are a fixing their signatures don’t have the agency or the authority to make the commitments that are being made. I am not bashing the CBA or its signers, but if FCR expects that document to substitute for municipal or state oversight than they are wrong.”
While Jeffries holds a more moderate position on project – citing the scale, use of eminent domain and the strain on public services as his major points of contention – Batson is going so far as to sue to get an injunction to postpone the hearing on the project. He, too, shares Jeffries’ concerns and is adamantly opposed to Forest City Ratner’s seedy approach – circumventing the City Council- to getting this deal approved. Batson’s position is sure <r>to garner him huge support from the likes of Develop Don’t Destroy and all others who are more taken with this one issue than any of the other problems facing the district. Some have said that he is suffering from tunnel vision, to which the contender vehemently denies. Batson points to his work with the Duffield St Underground Railroad site and his establishment of the American Civil Rights Education Services organization. “If you go through all of my <r>quotes in the media, only a tenth of it’s about the Atlantic Yards,” he says.<r>Well about 90% of our conversation was about the project. Regardless of what I asked, Batson kept returning to the subject. But to his credit the candidate does have some progressive non-ATY-related policies. I applaud his call for “a moratorium on evictions in areas where there’s rampant real estate speculation” as well as his push to sanction landlords that employ arson or neglect to blight their properties for profit. But he seems to lack a broad-based understanding of all that plagues the district.
Batson doesn’t seem as connected to the area as his opponent, Hamilton. Her work with her non-profit seems to have grounded her in a deeper understanding of the plight of working class people, especially those with families. Hamilton is focused on stemming the tide of State Medicaid cuts and expanding dollars for subsidized childcare, both lofty goals that will not be easily achieved. But her administrative abilities, as demonstrated <r>through the organization, and experience in working with legislators on education and childcare related issues are crucial for the position.
Unfortunately, Hamilton’s support of Atlantic Yards and David Yassky’s attempt to drain the color out of the 11th-CD may not sit well with voters. Granted her explanation for her support of the carpetbagger is reasonable; Yassky’s activism with gun control in the City Council and in Congress greatly attracted Hamilton, who lost her son to gun violence in 1993. She notes that no other candidate in the 11th has included the issue in his/her platform. Hamilton went on to say, “I understand the issue of the voting rights district, but I don’t agree that only Black people can run in that district. It’s a disservice and a discredit for us to even take that position.” Maybe (playing devil’s advocate).but its difficult to trust a man who made the same divisive power play in Washington DC.
As for Jeffries, the young lawyer mirrors Green in much of his policy fundamentals. He too, seeks to funnel more money into skilled-trade training programs and diversify the construction trade. Jeffries also wants to create a program by which cultural institutions that receive state funding “adopt schools and use the resources that are available to” provide students with a well-rounded education. Though a cohesive community effort to educate children is always warranted, it’s important that public schools don’t rely too much on non-governmental agencies to pick up the slack as it allows the government to slack off on services that we are paying for. Nevertheless the <r>plan is commendable.
However, I’m not totally convinced of his passion, but I seem to be in the minority as Jeffries has picked up endorsements from many of his party’s bigwigs, like Bill Thompson Jr. and Vito Lopez, and has raised $90,000. Batson on the other hand has the support of environmental groups like the Sierra club and has pulled in $62,000. Hamilton, who has posted $17,000, doesn’t have quite the war chest of the other two gentlemen, but she has the support of the out going incumbent.