Our Time PressThe Local Paper with the Global View

Eighty-seven percent of the black vote went to Charles Schumer.  Only 13% went to the Floyd Flake supported Al
Damato.  Rev. Calvin Butts supported Pataki who got only 15% of the black vote.  This says that the black electorate
is smart enough not to be fooled by the Flake and the Butts claims to political leadership.  The sad thing is that it says
the black vote is too blindly devoted to the Democratic Party.  When you look at Schumer’s vote ten percent of the black
vote went independent.   Carl McCall got 2.6 million votes, more than Pataki and more than Schumer.  Remember that
Carl McCall has not been seriously challenged in an election. Blacks saved the Democratic Party across the country and
put Charles Schumer in the Senate.  Now here are some things he can do.  He could lead the charge to get a presidential
pardon for Mumia Abdul Jamal.  He could get with Attorney General Spitzer, another beneficiary of the black vote, and
give Alton Maddox his license back.  He’s already done ten years.  Even convicted murderers get out earlier for “time
served.”  Schumer should sponsor a Martin Luther King Plan to rebuild urban communities modeled after the Marshall
Plan for Western Europe.   The Plan would rebuild infrastructure, roads, bridges, parks and housing stock.  It would
create jobs and promote urban health.   The new senator should be dedicated to developing black economies in black
communities.  Then we can own and operate our own businesses in our communities.  Instead of Rite Aid, we should
have a Rite On Health and Beauty Aids.   These major stores coming into the black community are really promoting
white economic development.    Schumer could also look at immigration to make it easier for folks from the Caribbean
to have citizenship.  He could  support a Bill on reparations for black people in America.   These are the kinds of things
blacks should be speaking with  Schumer about.  The danger is that he may choose something like the African Trade Bill,
which is simply a plot to strip Africa of her resources, and call it supporting a black agenda.
   Charles Barron

Ed. Note:  The Unity Party received a total of 11,000 votes with 7-8,000 coming from NYC.   The largest votes came
out of Bed-Stuy, Crown Heights, East New York, Brownsville and Harlem, which happens to mirror the major part of
the Our Time Press distribution pattern.   Because we had major articles about the Unity Party and Mary France in our
July-October issues, we don’t think it’s inappropriate to take some credit for the turnout in our area and thank our
readers for their support.

As another calendar year approaches its end and Kwanzaa is days away, it=s the perfect time to assess effectiveness in all areas of our lives and revamp our plans for the coming year.   
On the school front the Fall Open School sessions have just concluded.    Conversations with teachers and parents in various schools brought home the fact that changes can and must be made at the level of the individual school.   The general designation for the conferences is for an afternoon session and an evening session for a  total of approximately five hours.
 This arrangement clearly doesn=t produce the intended result.  Afternoon attendance has traditionally been low B and continues to be.  A number of middle school teachers, each with 75 B 80 students on their rolls reported seeing an average of five or six parents in their afternoon session.  No surprise here.  Working on my Masters, the research showed that the greatest obstacle to parent involvement was scheduling events during the day.  
While more parents attend the conferences during the evening hours, another problem arises, especially at the middle and high school levels.  In these schools teachers have four or more classes of 25 plus students.  Some teachers said that up to 50 percent of their parents signed in but because of the numbers and the time constraint, they didn=t always get to meet with them.  I remember the ritual of going into class rooms filled with waiting parents, signing in and leaving to see if I could see another teacher or if lucky, two before my name was reached on the first list.  That didn=t always work and what was originally intended to be an opportunity to hear about my children=s progress and needs, became a tension filled obstacle course.  So if this system doesn=t work for 50 percent of the parents attending, what can we expect at 60, 70, 80 and above?
 Fortunately, I discovered that some school communities are taking the initiative to make Open School more parent and teacher friendly and in the process having it serve its intended purpose B provide an opportunity for parents to meet, greet and confer with the adults (teachers and administrators) who often spend more waking hours with their children than they do. 
Some schools designate a period of days for parent-teacher conferences and parents make appointments based on their schedules.  Others convene the afternoon and evening session in a combined block of time. An elementary school stretches the conferences over a two-week period and parents have 30-minute blocks of time.   In one middle school, the Homeroom teacher assembles the information from the student=s subject teachers.  Parents then meet with the Homeroom teacher and can request meetings with the subject teacher if desired.  You all know that you can request conferences with the teacher(s) at any time during the school year, of course.   I=m sure that there are more innovations out there on a wide range of topics and I=d like this column to be the vehicle to share them.  There is a correlation between effectiveness and team spirit, between team spirit and parent involvement, between parent involvement and student success.  The more we share what works, the closer we come to reaching our goal B school success for all children. 
It makes sense that promoting team spirit and problem solving is easier to implement within a school than in the entire city.  By students, parents and school staff increasing the effectiveness of their school, the system, city wide is made effective.   The ball is in your court.  We can change anything that we take responsibility for B responsibility does not equal blame.  What things could be improved in your school that would have a positive impact on student success?  Working with your Parent Coordinator to reform the next Open School Week might be a good project to start.
I=d like to extend an invitation to the Parent Coordinators to let us know what you=re up to at your school.  What challenges do you face?  What challenges have you met or are meeting successfully.  The invitation is ever open to parents to let us know what your successes and needs are.  Remember people are resources.  Please email me at faminisha@aol.com or parentsnotebook@yahoo.com.

When the Powell family gathers in a joyous celebration of Kwanzaa this year, a new addition to the family will be present. For this reason the Kwanzaa principles will have a special meaning. Eight month old Christopher will not understand about the candies or ceremony but he will see the loving faces of his family. He will sense that something very special is happening. Chris became a member of the Powell family earlier in the year through adoption.
Kwanzaa is a seven-day cultural festival that celebrates and reinforces, family, community and culture through practices and affirmations. A prominent display symbolizing the seven principles of Kwanzaa is increasingly found in homes right alongside Christmas trees and tinsel. If we subscribe to the importance of the tradition, then we must embrace
the significance of the Black family in its broadest terms and the extended family that forms our community. It is the perfect time to remember the many children in our community who have not been as fortunate as little Chris. Sadly, many babies and children are still waiting for a permanent, loving home with parents like Rita and David Powell.
Chris found his home because of the African-American Infant Adoption program of Spence-Chapin Services, a nonprofit organization. The agency is one of the oldest adoption agencies in the nation. It was a pioneer in the 1940’s when it began to find adoptive parents for minority children. Today it has the most extensive services of this kind in the
region, placing both healthy babies and babies with special medical needs. Because of a commitment to early placement, the babies average eight weeks of age when join their permanent families. Families like the Powell’s express the true spirit of Kwanzaa. Welcoming Chris into the family reflects two values of Kwanzaa, Umoja (unity) and Ujima
(responsibility). The act of adopting is in keeping with the tradition of the holiday, honoring the past, while building a strong future.
Spence-Chapin Services for Families and Children is sponsoring an information meeting about African-American Infant Adoption on Wednesday, January 6 at 6:00 p.m. Couples, single adults and extended family are invited to attend.
The presentation will feature an adoption specialist and an adoptive family. A major part of the meeting will be spent responding to questions from the audience. At the end of the meeting, prospective adoptive parents can arrange for a private interview.
The nonprofit agency emphasizes an individualized approach to the adoption process and direct permanent placement without foster care. Post-adoption workshops and seminars are other services available to both parents and children.
Spence-Chapin is at 6 East 94th Street, Manhattan. Call 212-369-0300 or www.spence-chapin.org. for more information and reservation.

The newly-formed Unity Party is claiming victory after receiving close to 11,000 votes in the November 3, 1998 elections. Although 50,000 votes were needed for the Unity Party to receive ballot status and recognition by New York State, the Party is exercising self-determination by affirming that we are indeed a party because we gathered 20,500 signatures to get on the ballot and received 11,000 votes from the people.
You have a party when you have people, a progressive platform, and a program. Obtaining state-recognized ballot status is only one objective of a political party. We can still raise money, run candidates, write policies and organize around issues. As a liberated people we cannot wait for our oppressors to validate us. We must validate ourselves for ourselves. Thus, as of November 4, 1998, we assert our right to self-determination and officially proclaim that the Unity Party is now a peoples=-validated party in New York State.

Making History in New York The Unity Party can proudly say that it has the distinct honor of making New York State election history by being the only Black-led Party in the history of New York State to be on the ballot for a gubernatorial election. Quite an achievement! When compared to other party efforts, the Unity Party can say that we ran one of the most cost-effective campaigns, $10,000 for 11,000 votes, which translates to less than a buck a vote. If Betsy McCaughey Ross, the Liberal Party candidate, had gotten a buck a vote she would be governor today. The Unity Party emerged out of efforts that began in November, 1997 to bring together all of the progressive party groups in New York State-Campaign for a New Tomorrow, Green Party, New Party and individual Labor Party activists (since the Labor Party organization couldn=t be involved)-into one unified alliance for the purposes of obtaining ballot status.  However, this objective proved to be impossible at this moment in time. The dominant leadership of both the Greens and the New Party were determined to run their own campaigns. It is important to note that their decisions were made prior to African Americans involved in these efforts strongly suggesting that 51% of the leadership of this new formation be people of African ancestry.
At that point, in May of 1998, activists from the Black Political Free Agents, Campaign for a New Tomorrow, Committees of Correspondence, National Black United Front, the N.Y. Independent Politics Network and Operation P.O.W.E.R. decided several things: that we were not going to support the New Party/Working Families Party=s candidate, Democratic Party machine boss Peter Vallone; that, based upon differences around the issues of racism and white male leadership and the practical difficulties we had encountered in attempting to build an alliance with the Greens, we could not support their effort; and, finally, that we would run African American educator and activist Mary Alice France as our Gubernatorial candidate.
We also decided, on the initiative of the Black Political Free Agents, an African American organization which came together in connection with the earlier coalition-building efforts, that the leadership of the Unity Party, once formed, would be 51% people of African ancestry. Leading BPFA members, including Ron Daniels, Charles Barron, Mary France, Jitu Weusi and Sandra Rivers, took this position based upon not just the recent difficulties encountered in trying to build principled multi-racial unity, but also upon literally decades of experience with white-dominated progressive organizations. This includes all of the existing progressive party groups. The feeling was, let=s try something new. Let=s try a different approach, one grounded upon principle and experience, one which would ensure that the issues of people of color would not be submerged or overlooked but, instead, would be at the center of the new party=s agenda.
From then on, over a five month period, we formed an organization, raised money, circulated petitions successfully to get our candidate on the ballot and ran an election campaign. 150 activists throughout the state circulated petitions to get the Unity Party on the ballot, primarily within New York City but also in Long Island, Westchester County, the Albany area, Syracuse, Binghamton and Buffalo. Our candidate did us proud by the clarity, passion and power of her message, a message heard by hundreds of thousands of people, at least. And we have now emerged with an African American-led, multi-racial party!

Other Independent Efforts

Let=s examine some of the other independent party efforts. The Independence Party ran a rich, economically conservative white male for Governor, Tom Golisano. His Party endorsed Democrats Carl McCall for Comptroller and Charles Schumer for Senate. Hardly independent. Dr. Lenora Fulani, who always accuses Rev. Jesse Jackson of delivering the Black vote to the Democrats, has to explain why she always supports rich white males like Ross Perot, Abe Hirschfeld and Tom Golisano. And now she supports a so-called independent party that delivers Black votes to a rich white male and some Democrats as well. The Green Party, who ran Al Lewis for Governor, has major problems with insisting on having a white male dominated leadership. Black people, people of color and women are not given fair representation in the Green Party leadership. White males in the Green Party have issues of racism that they are in denial of. I know this is an oxymoron, but some Green Party white males are Aprogressive racists@ and they need to get in touch with that reality. The Working Families Party is a mere extension of the Democratic Party.  Any party that chooses Peter Vallone as its candidate is truly a Party we cannot trust. Union leadership and some Democratic party members concocted this scheme in order to have more leverage within the Democratic Party, calling it political pragmatism. This effort violates every principle of progressive politics. The Unity Party is an idea whose time has come. We are planning to support candidates for NYC School Board and organize a founding convention in the Spring of 1999, run candidates for State Assembly in 2000 and run several candidates in the 2001 city council elections. We can no longer settle for the lesser of two evils (Democrat or Republican) analysis. We must challenge the idea of a two party system that is fast becoming a one party system (Republicrats). The Unity Party provides an alternative to those who are ready to see progressive candidates seize political power. Become a part of history, join the Unity Party. The Unity Party represents the embryonic stages of a powerful political movement, a movement that will be built on principles of democracy, fairness, inclusion, diversity, progressive politics and systemic change. Our time has truly come. Forward ever, backwards never. Charles Barron is President of Dynamics of Leadership and Chairperson of the Unity Party.

The cardboard shrine filled with teddy bears, candy and personal messages that is resting against the traffic post on Clinton and Green Avenues is a community=s way of rendering homage to a little boy who wasn=t supposed to die.  Quinntaun Burns, seven years old, was hit on November 3, Election day, by an 18-wheeler truck, as he was riding his bicycle with his brother and his cousin toward the playground a block away from the intersection.
The driver, William Vega, 57, received a summons for taking a route forbidden to trucks and was not charged with the boy=s death.  But on Friday the police said that the Accident Investigation Squad had started to look into the matter.  Mr. Vega, an employer of V and M Trucking, had entered the residential neighborhood because he had gotten lost on his way to the Brooklyn Navy Yard.  The police said he did not see the child as he was turning left on Clinton Avenue.
Quinntaun spent all his life in the neighborhood: he had gone to school a block away from his aunt=s house on Clinton and Green Avenues and he was, like the other kids in the block, a child of the community.  AHe knew how to cross the street@ his aunt Tracy Burns-Watson, 37, said.   AQuinntaun  used to go to Atlantic by himself, so it wasn=t that he didn=t know how to cross the streetCthis is a residential neighborhoodCthat truck was not supposed to be here!@    
Neighborhood residents who witnessed the incident say that the eighteen-wheeler had made a turn on the East side of Clinton Avenue to let a fire truck go by.  Mr.  Atwell  who lives on Clinton Avenue also noticed that the traffic lights on the intersection were taking an unusual amount of time to change from green to red.
Although on Wednesday the police said that there was nothing wrong with the traffic lights at the Clinton and Greene intersection where the accident occurred, Shenna Pierce, one of the people building the little shrine on Tuesday night, saw a man in a white truck come to check the lights at around 10:00 p.m.  AI asked the man, >What are you doing?=@ and the man said >I=m fixing the light.=@  Mrs. Piece said. 
The New York City Department of Transportation Bureau Traffic Signals received a civilian complaint call about the traffic light that Tuesday night at 7:55 p.m., a supervisor of electrical inspections for Brooklyn commented.  AWe sent somebody within two hours of the call.. The controller wasn=t working and we had to repair it.@  The supervisor asked that his name not be mentioned. 
Peggy  Pascally , a claims handler at  Welsback Electric, the private contracting company that the city called to fix the light that Tuesday night says that the last time the company had checked the light was late in September and everything was in order.  Mrs. Pascally  asserts that the two traffic lights were not in synch with the rest of the lights in the neighborhood, but that they were working. 
Although the police have stated that the area is a residential neighborhood, V and M trucking, the company for which Mr. Vega works, is looking to prove that there are no signs that indicate that the neighborhood is not a commercial route for trucks.  The president of the company who offered only his first name, Gabriel, said that this was a very sorrowful tragedy and that the driver, Mr. Vega had been a driver all his life and his record was clean. 
Quinntaun did not die of head injuries.  But his mother thinks that Quinntaun was riding his bicycle without his helmet on.  In most cases a helmet makes all the difference. AStatistically, the majority of children involved in motor vehicle accidents die as a result of head trauma and its complications,@ said Noah Kondamudi, the chief pediatric in the emergency services at the Brooklyn Hospital Center.  AWearing a helmet significantly reduces the chances of death and injuries.@  
Ms. Burns-Watson, says that she would like to conduct an investigation with the people who witnessed or heard the incident from their windows or the street to find out exactly what happened.  Ms. Burns= family has lived in the area since the 50=s.  She is astonished at how supportive the community has been with the tragedy.
The candy and teddy bears that decorate  Quinntaun=s shrine disappear during the night and children bring new stocks in the morning. They ask people in the neighborhood to sign the cardboard walls of the shrine or the color pages taped against the traffic post. They still talk about  Quinntaun  as if he was among them.
AWho ever heard of a seven year old having store credit?@  Joked  Lorrain  Warren, 16, the child=s cousin as he struggled to light a long green candle against the wind on Wednesday afternoon.
When  Quinntaun=s mother, aunt, and three brothers visited the shrine one night they were greeted with flowers.  A girl came up to Ms. Burns and said that her mother had some potato salad to give to her. Ms. Burns, 30, a substance abuse social worker animatedly replied, AIf I get anymore food my house is going to explode!@

AMy son must have really done his thing in his little seven years because people I don=t even remember have come to show their support.@   Mrs. Burns told the small crowd who surrounded the shrine beaming with candles.  ALittle kids call me on the phone crying  Ms. Kelly..  AI think about this corner, my son, and the whole thing is ugly.@  She said softly.
On their way home from  Quinntaun=s shrine,   Karif , 12, and Darrel, 9, cried for their brother. AThe best dancer in the family,@ Karif  boasted. Their aunt Tracey said, AQuinntaun  could not fathom something that big@,  she said speaking of the eighteen-wheeler coming down Clinton Avenue,  Ait was not the norm.@
Angelica  Medaglia