Our Time PressThe Local Paper with the Global View

By Danielle Douglas

Regarded by many as the second-most powerful politician in New York City, City Council Speaker Gifford Miller is banking on his legislative record to catapult him into the mayoral office. As City Council Speaker since 2002, Miller created the city’s first Earned-Income Tax Credit, passed the first living-wage law and required the removal of lead paint dust from city dwellings. Still, the 35-year-old candidate has had a rather poor showing in the polls, continually lagging behind former Bronx Borough President Fernando Ferrer, the democratic front-runner, and Manhattan Borough President C. Virginia Fields. However, Miller remains confident that his demonstrated skills as a political leader will make him the standout come September 11th. Nevertheless, with the Democratic Primary less than a month away, the Upper East Side resident must present a platform that not only caters to the needs of the city’s diverse populations, but also distinguishes him from his opponents. Speaking at a recent Independent Press Association event, the mayoral hopeful attempted to do just that.
Unemployment
“We live in a city with enormous disparities in communities of color in terms of jobs and job access and I have a specific plan to address that by building on the Workforce Development Initiative [created in the City Council],” said Miller. In May of this year, the United Way and the City Council, under Miller’s direction, launched a $10 million dollar program, NYC Works, targeting chronic unemployment in low-income neighborhoods. Miller is using the initiative, which will award grants ranging from $100,000 to $700,000 to nonprofit groups to create innovative ways to help the chronically unemployed obtain and retain jobs as the basis of his unemployment strategy. While the plan is noble, it appears that the candidate is passing the problem off to the nonprofit sector instead of having the Mayor’s office tackle the problem head on.
Like his Democratic contenders, Miller cites education as the key element to decreasing the staggering unemployment rates within communities of color. “When we’re failing 550,000 children and the schools are predominantly made up of children of color there is a connection between the disparities in terms of jobs and the failure of our school system.”
Education
In many ways, Gifford Miller’s education plan closely resembles that of Fernando Ferrer’s. Like Ferrer, Miller wants to reduce class sizes, recruit and retain quality teachers, return disciplinary control to principals, expand after-school programs and use technology to keep parents informed. The only real differences in the aforementioned initiatives are the qualitative goals set by each candidate; while Ferrer hopes to add 66,000 new classroom seats, Miller seeks to reduce class sizes by 20 percent.
The greatest distinction between the two candidates’ platforms is the means by which they will be funded. Ferrer’s controversial School Investment Program, which seeks to reestablish the stock transfer tax – a sales tax on purchased stocks, is his primary financial solution. Technically, this plan depends upon the willingness of the state legislators to reestablish the transfer tax; a highly unlikely feat. Miller, on the other hand, wants to cancel the upcoming tax cut for those who make more than $500,000, in order to use the $400 million in revenue to lower class sizes.
Crime
Walking the political tightrope, Miller praised the NYPD’s contribution in making New York one of the safest big cities, as he indirectly addressed poor police relationships with communities of color, calling for the expansion of the Cadet Corps Program to diversify the force. One of the few standouts in Miller’s rather unimaginative program (increase salaries and hire more cops) is the creation of community courts in every borough. The courts will provide low-level offenders the help they need instead of recycling them through the court system.
With heightened concerns of terrorist attacks on our subway system, Miller’s safety program primarily focuses on subway security. The Speaker intends to create a task force headed by the NYPD and accountable to the mayor to launch the following subway upgrades: install 9-1-1 phones in stations and tunnels, install repeaters throughout the subway system to enable emergency responders to communicate, modernize the system to enable tracking of every train and install a subway notification system to alert passengers on what to do in case of emergencies. To pay for his proposed upgrades, Miller wants to reinstitute the Progressive Commuter Tax on those who work in the city but live elsewhere.
Affordable Housing
Of all of Miller’s proposed initiatives, his Housing Tax Credit is by far the most distinctive. He has proposed the creation of a renter’s tax credit, totaling 3 percent of annual rent for renters earning up to $100,000 and do not qualify for the Earned-Income Tax Credit. The credit would range from $180 to $1,000, and would be paid for by getting funds from the state’s Star program, a house credit which tends to primarily benefit homeowners. Miller also proposed doubling the city’s Earned-Income Tax Credit by billing the state after a year for the cost of housing inmates before trial, which Miller estimates will bring in $75 million.
Beyond tax credits, the candidate seeks to continue his City Council efforts to preserve Section 8 and Mitchell-Lama Housing, stating, “Any plan for affordable housing has to be about preserving existing affordable housing, and unfortunately, we are losing tens of thousands of affordable housing units each year,” said Miller.
He also intends to use the Battery Park city fund to create more affordable housing as well as institute inclusionary zones, allowing developers to use more density if it is used for the creation of affordable housing.
Of all of the candidates running for mayor, Gifford Miller does have the most experience in the legislative arena, serving on the City Council for the last nine years and overseeing some of the body’s most progressive initiatives. The question remains will voters, many of whom could not recognize Miller on the street, remember that on Primary Day.

by Terrence Winston
The race for the City Council seat in the 41st District (Ocean Hill, Brownsville, parts of Bedford-Stuyvesant and East Flatbush) is a quagmire of candidates and political agendas. There are 15 candidates running in this election. Their names in alphabetical order:
 
1. Alicka Ampry-Samuel
2. Royston Antoine
3. William F. Boyland, Sr.
4. Brinmore Britton
5. Rev. Melvin L. Davis
6. Essie M. Duggan
7. Tania Gelin
8. Pamela M. Junior
9. Stanley Kinard
10. Danny King
11. Darlene Mealy
12. David R. Miller
13. Naquan Muhammad
14. Maryam A. Samad
15. Joseph Young, Jr.

 I took the opportunity to speak with resident voters asking what was important to them. I questioned young adults and neighborhood elders. Surprisingly (or not), many of the folks were aware of who their current City Council member is (Tracy Boyland, whose term is expiring this fall) but unaware, of almost all the remaining candidates campaigning. This was consistent in spite of the abundance of campaign posters hanging up in almost every barbershop, hair salon, grocery store, and street lamppost. These residents weren’t particularly interested in individual politicians and their agendas. Past experience has taught them that the political messiah, a complex mixture of personality and promise, can sometimes be as hollow and transient as the campaign promises they midwife.
Ms. Delores Paul, a homeowner living across from Saratoga Park in the Ocean Hill section of Brooklyn for thirty-four years, believes that “nobody cares” anymore about the welfare of the community, adding, “We lost respect for the block, for the neighborhood.” Paul has seen her block in particular go through a series of transformations; from peaceful to chaotic.and back to peaceful again. A few years ago, she wouldn’t have felt safe sitting and conversing on her stoop without the fear of violence breaking out. She believes the reason things have settled down is because so many people “have been locked up” or “shot dead.”  From her perspective, nothing has really changed in the collective thinking of the community. There has still been a failure to examine current values and priorities that mystifyingly replaced older ones. The choices being made and reciprocating behavior has created a fractured community. 
Ms. Paul isn’t looking for any politician to solve her problems or rescue her self-interests or the communities. She recognizes that it will require the effort of an entire community to heal itself. Paul expressed that she isn’t afraid to speak her mind or take initiative on her own if the situation requires that kind of dynamic effort. Experience, however, has lowered her expectation on the results of her efforts. Ms. Paul shared a position with many people interviewed; the desire to return to an older traditional community value system that’s time-tested. A system requiring reexamination in addressing today’s community concerns. The desire to look towards shiny “new” solutions to long-standing problems should be abandoned.
 Ahmed, a young man whose family lived in Bed-Stuy, believes that whoever is elected should initiate programs that develop the financial intelligence and social skills of the youth in the neighborhood. He says the youth “need to be taught the concept of money, so it can circulate in the community.” Ahmed recognized a damaging, reoccurring pattern in African-American neighborhoods: the sustained ignorance of a group’s financial power and potential leads to loss of community property and self-respect. This ignorance has left large portions of our community vulnerable to foreign, economic and political interests. These foreign groups parasitically drain our communities of the monies needed to sustain a strong economic base. He said, “Everybody (non-African-American groups) knows how to pimp us.”
 A question many residents had is where do they fit in the future plans for central Brooklyn? There is a real concern that with all of the changes, influx of new residents and new money, has the future of their community been decided already? Are these political elections really going to provide leadership that will enhance their lives? This is not to suggest that there is a cauldron of cynicism boiling in the bellies of the voters. On the contrary, many see a bright future for Brooklyn and its residents. They wonder, however, who these residents will be.
 Chris Slaughter, a poet, author, scholar, barber, artist and activist who grew up in Bed-Stuy, stressed the need for, “more during-school programs” in contrast to after-school programs. He questioned the thinking behind cutting art and music in schools. He also strongly suggested that children should be taught interviewing skills for jobs at younger ages. It should not wait until they are about to graduate from high school. It should begin when the students are seven, eight, nine years old. As the years pass and the job-seeking process has become familiar, then they will be prepared to compete and succeed. Slaughter also felt that African-American’s should, “Start policing our own neighborhoods” again and take self-empowerment classes.
But all of the concern is not just for the youth.  Ms. Sheila, an elder living in Brownsville, said more should be done for our senior citizens. She said there should be “pool activities” where public pools would be opened at a specific time of the day only for elders. Sheila believed that older folk need physical stimulation coupled with mental stimulation, creating a balanced, healthy lifestyle. Like the other interviewees, community safety remains a constant concern saying she too is, “afraid to walk in the neighborhood,” one she’s resided in for twenty-one years.
   Interestingly on the evidence of two perspectives: old and young voters, similar concerns and conclusions were brought forth. While the young foresee a community that is rapidly moving in a different direction, the old look back with experience, see a pattern repeating itself .  If there is one thing that both groups would want from an elected official, it’s to create a political strategy that reinstitutes a value structure that used to exist in central Brooklyn, and that worked. It encouraged folks to help, teach, communicate, problem-solve and build for each other with each other.

“I would tell [young people] to start where they are with what they have and that the secret of a big success is starting with a small success and dreaming bigger and bigger dreams,….I would tell them also that a young Black woman or a young Black man can’t dream too much today or dare too much if he or she works hard, perseveres and dedicates themselves to excellence.”  John H. Johnson
John H. Johnson took a $500 loan, using his mother’s furniture as collateral, and built what became a $500 million publishing and cosmetics empire.  For African-Americans the Johnson legacy is inescapable.  
There’s not an African American born after 1945 that does not owe a debt to Mr. Johnson and his genius. His were pychologically healing publications, critical to the development of African Americans who, in 1945 when Ebony magazine first published, were only a couple of generations removed from the ground zero of emotional trauma, chattel slavery. 
To people who were still subject to ongoing acts of random terror and constant discrimination, Ebony, along with Jet magazine, the newsweekly started in 1951, became beacons of what is possible. 
As important as these publications were for adults, they were perhaps more important to children.  With large pictures and easily read captions, Ebony and Jet of the ’50’s and ’60’s provided early readers accessible  information about every “first” achieved by someone who looked like them.  This was the opposite of their everyday “Dick and Jane” schoolbooks with their all-white worlds. 
Ebony and Jet magazines were in every Black barbershop and doctor’s office I could recall and I’m sure they’re still there.  As a child, I used to sell Jet magazines to folks coming up from the Kingston & Throop subway station after work.  I believe they  cost .35 at the time and I kept a dime.
Jeff Burns, Associate Publisher, Johnson Publishing Company, said of his mentor, “Failure was a word he did not accept.  That set the tone of determination around the company.  Ebony is and has remained #1 in its field.   Jet is also the number one newsweekly.” 
Burns says that Johnson was “a giant in the business world” as well as a giant in the African-American community. 
“The University of Texas  identified three of the greatest entrepreneurs as Henry Ford, Mary Kay Ash and John H. Johnson,” said Burns.  “His legacy will continue in Ebony.  It will continue at the fall groundbreaking for the John H. Johnson School of Communications, in a state-of-the-art building at Howard University.” 
Legacy begets legacy.  Robert S. Abbott was founder and editor of the Chicago Defender. The first issue appeared May 5, 1905, and billed itself as “The World’s Greatest Weekly.”  After Abbott’s death in 1940, his nephew, John H. Sengstacke, took over the publication, and was a mentor and colleague to Mr. Johnson.
The Chicago Defender’s August 9th issue did that relationship proud with its “collector’s item” reporting of John Johnson’s passing.    The stories are available online at www.chicagodefender.com, and the issue will be reprinted August 28th.  Ebony also plans a commemorative issue for October, one month shy of the 60th anniversary of the magazine.   DG
John H. Johnson, media giant, dead at 87
by Karen Pride, Staff Writer,
Chicago Defender
John H. Johnson, the award-winning publishing pioneer and cosmetics mogul who used the pages of Ebony and Jet magazines to trumpet the stories of African-Americans for the past 60 years, and in turn built a $500 million media empire, died Monday at Northwestern Memorial Hospital. He was 87.
His story is a rags-to-riches tale. A man who left Arkansas for Chicago as part of the Great Migration, Johnson went from poverty and welfare to one of the nation’s richest men.

Johnson Publishing
Company: An empire built on valuing Black consumers
Analysis by Ken Smikle
Publisher, Target Market News
Sixty years ago, John H. Johnson single-handedly created the Black consumer market.
Before the introduction of Ebony magazine in November 1945, there were Black newspapers, and even a sprinkling of radio stations catering to the Black audiences. But for advertisers, especially those that were nationally recognized, the Black consumer market didn’t exist and the neither did the need to advertise to it.
Johnson’s first publication, Negro Digest, offered advertisers the first national media vehicle targeted to the Black audience. But the magazine’s lifeblood was the revenue generated from single-copy sales and subscriptions from the circulation of 100,000 monthly copies. While subscribers were plentiful, advertising was slim. So much so that Johnson decided to create his own line of hair products and advertise them in the same pages major advertisers bypassed.
With the introduction of Ebony, his second magazine, the budding entrepreneur established the first media vehicle capable of delivering color advertising messages to African-Americans coast to coast.

Johnson leaves imprint
on media industry
by Corey Hall, Chicago Defender
The foundation, established long ago by greatness, can only be emulated, never equaled.
That was the refrain of respect expressed by numerous publishers, writers, editors and media consultants who talked to the Chicago Defender about the life of John H. Johnson, the founder of Johnson Publishing Company, who died Monday at age 87.
Cathy Hughes, the founder of Radio One and the only Black woman to head a publicly-traded company, called Johnson one of America’s greatest entrepreneurs. “He was a pioneer and an inspiration for all who seek to establish a foundation and a legacy that will have, positive impact on numerous generations to come,” she said in a statement to the Chicago Defender. “He was my dear friend, my mentor, and the example of whom I aspire to be in the world of communications.”
Edward Lewis, chairman and founder of Essence Communications, Inc., noted how Johnson’s career made his success – and every other Black publisher’s – possible.
“He made groundbreaking strides with his magazines and was an inspiration to all of us in the business,” Lewis told the Defender. “He was one of the most candid and unvarnished businessmen I have ever encountered in my 37 years in media. His legacy will continue under the leadership of his daughter, Linda Johnson Rice. The death of John H. Johnson is a tremendous loss to the publishing world.”
Robert Johnson, founder/chairman of Black Entertainment Television, called John H. Johnson – no relation – “one of the greatest American businessmen of all time.”

By Peter Fry
For most of us, addiction is a difficult issue to deal with. If you drink to excess or do illegal drugs, denial becomes a way of life. On the other hand, if you are close to such a person, anger and confusion tend to overwhelm everything else. Within the larger community, many prefer simple solutions, such as locking up those who use drugs, or just keeping them out of the neighborhood. To consider it simply as a disease, on the other hand, feels like abandoning personal responsibility altogether.
In any case, Brooklyn has a major problem. In 2001, there were an estimated 225,000 people in need of treatment, including more than 16,000 under the age of 18. However, only 19,000 Brooklyn residents entered long-term treatment programs that year, and not all of those completed. In other words, while over 9% of Brooklyn’s population needs some kind of treatment, few actually receive it.
To aggravate the problem, crime and substance abuse have become closely entwined. For example, in 2003 70% of male arrestees in Manhattan tested positive for illegal drugs, and an estimated 81% of New York State parolees need treatment. Though incarcerating people does keep them off the streets awhile, they eventually return to the communities they came from. In 2003, for instance, an estimated 14,000 people were released into New York City by the state prison system. Those numbers, of course, do not include the hundred thousand plus who pass through Riker’s Island every year.
Two facts need to be kept in mind. First, certain communities receive the brunt of the problem. In the most severely affected neighborhoods of Brooklyn, adults are ten times more likely to end up hospitalized with drug problems than in the least affected neighborhoods. This high concentration of addiction within certain communities feeds into their cycles of poverty, crime and hopelessness.
Secondly, the children of those who abuse drugs or alcohol become the unseen victims. Not only have many been physically or sexually abused, they also will likely abuse drugs or alcohol themselves, and end up in jail or prison far more often than their peers. The problem thus passes from generation to generation.
Statistics, however, cannot tell the whole story. Take the Hispanic inmate who, like perhaps 90% of female prisoners, has been abused sexually or physically as a child and an adult. She has three children in foster care, is about to lose them because she is incarcerated, and actually dreads being released from prison. Unlike the men she knows, she experiences no pride in having been imprisoned: she simply feels herself to be a loser, with no education or job prospects, and absolutely no confidence in herself.
Or consider the white man in his forties, who having been in and out of jail, now sits in a community-based treatment program and tells you he has been mentally ill all his life. He has no prospects of getting a job, and will be going on SSI (disability insurance) when he finishes the program and returns to a world with no real place for him. Then there is the African-American male who, having served years for a violent felony, finally breaks down and cries when talking to his counselor, because he has never dared show weakness to his fellow inmates. He too is a father, rarely sees his children, and has no idea of how to be a parent.
Treatment, in other words, is as challenging on the personal level as it is for society. Even when someone enters a program, there is no guarantee that he or she will succeed in making the breakthrough needed to live a drug-free and productive life. Though we now know what kind of treatment programs work best overall, the process for any individual remains an uncertain journey.
What then can we do, as members of the community?
First of all, Brooklyn needs more treatment programs, of all kinds: out-patient clinics, residential programs, programs for women and children, programs for parolees, probationers and those incarcerated, and transitional housing. We do not need to sit back and wait for government agencies or legislators to act. After all, treatment has been scientifically proven to work, and even to save society a great deal of money. What argument is more compelling than that?
Perhaps even more vitally, we also need to find ways to support those programs which do exist. For when people struggling with recovery go back into the community, what often determines their success or failure is the support network they have. A number of Brooklyn churches have taken the lead on this issue, yet all of us can play our part, whether as businesses, service organizations, or simply concerned individuals.
Perhaps no task is more important, or more rewarding.
In the next issue, Peter Fry, Community Liaison for New York Therapeutic Communities, Inc., looks at treatment options available to Brooklyn residents.
The Third Annual Serendipity Bed-Stuy Health Fair- September 10, from 10 am to 4 pm- Herbert Von King Park (AKA Tompkins Park)- Lafayette and Tompkins Avenue, Brooklyn- Healthy Lives, Families and Communities!

By Linda Armstrong

Ben Vereen Is A Wonderful Wizard In “Wicked”
There are certain African American actors who we have grown up with. People who we know have done it all-television, movies, and theater and Ben Vereen is definitely one of those actors that we hold in high regard. Whether people who him as Chicken George in “Roots” or star him on Broadway in “Jesus Christ Superstar,” or “Pippin,” he is an actor who always manages to take a role and make it his own. He performs with such intensity, joy and creativity, that you find yourself smiling from the time you hear his voice. I remember when he played the ghost of Christmas Past in “A Christmas Carol” at Madison Square Garden. He lit up the stage with his positive energy.
I’ve never seen him in a production where he was not at the top of his game. I’ve had the pleasure of interviewing Mr. Vereen over the phone in the past, when he was in “Fosse” and other production, but I recently had the opportunity to actually sit down and have dinner with him at a restaurant near the theater. The sit down meeting was his idea and I really enjoyed it. It was wonderful to speak with him in person. When we had talked in the past over the phone, we had talked about his health problems and how the Lord had seen him through. I came to realize that he is a spiritual and good hearted person. Sitting across from him, this was again obvious. This is a man who has known and worked with some of the greatest performers-Gene Kelly, Fred Astaire, Liza M! innelli, but he sat across from me with no airs about him. He was friendly, charming and honest as he talked about the great time he is having now, playing the Wizard of Oz in the Broadway musical “Wicked” at the Gershwin Theatre on W 51st Street.
Vereen spoke of his role as the Wizard and how he looked at this character as a victim of circumstance, rather than an evil character. Vereen believes that the head of the school in Oz, Madame Morrible is evil and is controlling both the wizard and the people of Oz. “My back story is she controls the weather and when he was in his balloon in the carnival, she brought him down there. When the people saw the balloon, something they had never seen before, they thought he was like a God. Morrible created the character of the Wizard and keeps him behind a mask. She controls him, because he has no powers, as well as the people of Oz.”
“Wicked” tells the story of the relationship that existed between Glinda, the Good Witch and the Witched Witch of the East, also called Elphaba. We learn why the witch was green and there’s reference to she and the wizard being connected in some way. The production shows that Elphaba was treated very badly because she was green. Contrary to the storyline of the movie, the “Wizard of Oz” that we’ve all grown up with, Elphaba wasn’t wicked at all. It was actually Glinda, the Good, who had issues. Also the animals in Oz can speak. The Wizard is lead to believe by Morrible, that the animals’ speaking is bad and it needs to be stopped. He asks Elphaba to read a spell book and take away their ability to speak. When she refuses and flees on her broomstick, she is hunted down.
When the Wizard sees her again he doesn’t want to hurt her. He’s just glad to see her, senses all along that there is some special connection between him and this green girl. As the musical comes near the end, the audience learns their connection. I’m purposely not saying what we learn about them, you’ll have to go see the musical.
Believe me Vereen is well worth seeing as are his fellow cast members, Shoshana Bean (Elphaba), Megan Hilty (Glinda), Rue McClanahan (Morrible) and Fiyero (David Ayers). This is also an unforgettable musical with such a marvelous original score with music and lyrics by Stephen Schwartz and a book by Winnie Holzman. Everything about this musical dazzles, from the sets by Eugene Lee, to the costumes by Susan Hilferty, along with the orchestrations by William David Brohn, musical staging by Wayne Cilento and phenomenal direction by Joe Mantello. For tickets to “Wicked” call 212-307-4100.