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The Verdict – An Ultimatum For Action

Aminisha Black
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Africans knew that all things were interrelated.  That knowledge brought cohesion and order to their lives.  They respected the planet.  They learned to live with nature, rather than control and conquer it.  This deep respect for human and non humans set a tone for nurturing and harmony.  Our removal from the cradle of civilization, the harsh and inhumane treatment during slavery has left wounds with African Americans that still must be healed.  The train (culture) within which we travel place little values on ethics.  It foolishly places a price tag on peace, reduces life to debate and offers material trinkets as a distraction so that we don’t notice   the nightmare within which we live.  We are all endangered because of the separation, the insecurity, the fear and the brutality born of this life style. It’s time to end the nightmare.  We owe them more than the latest clothing, activities, toys and games as well as the so called “best “schools.  We owe our children – a chance – to live – to discover their individual purpose for being and to develop their purpose for being born.   We must release them from the mental chains that have kept us trying to keep up with “standards” based on other people’s values and had us forsake our own, the most important that of holding relationships as highest held value.

While looking for solutions to the problems facing our youth and adults, all paths seem to lead to the need for an integrated community in which all individuals recognize their own self worth, heal relationships with biological family and extended family.  Those mark the points of healing that will empower us to recognize and honor our strengths and those of others, accepting individual differences (give up the practice of making wrong when others see differently and finding points of agreement.   It allows us to free ourselves from the compare and compete that we inherited from enslavement (yes the physical removal of chains left us free to move physically but another process is needed to free mental chains and that process requires courage.  It requires adults who are committed to freeing the children.) We owe our children community.

We are unable to give our children what we ourselves don’t have.  Many of us have reached the age of adulthood without having passed the tasks in developmental states.  Many parents are in their 30s or 40s and still have adolescent tasks to complete.  If this person is a parent, there will be some problems simply because the parent still needs to work on issues that their child will be working on.  In our communities, we often lack activities supervised by adults of the community.  That is not a result of not caring, I say it’s the result of the adults still having unmet needs.  I had given birth to seven children before I discovered that each of my children had unique stages of development and unique, innate purposes for their lives. That was a revolutionary moment, one that put me in the driver’s  seat and released the chains of dependency….dependency on a  system that  took the Land from “Native Americans” and  exiled  them to “Reservations” , who brought  Africans to the stolen land as slaves  culminating in statistics  where numbers of Black youth killing Black youth, Cops killing Black youth and George  Zimmerman killing Trayvon Martin.

We must find solutions to our own problems, not as they existed years ago, but as they exist now.  Not as they’re defined by a capitalist system but by our vision to have our children discover and fulfill their purpose in life.  It is time for elders to take a stand.  We must take the lead in healing relationships because our fore parents suffered and survived, our children carry the promise of change.  It begins with relationships. PN Alerts!!

*** *SAVE OUR AFRICAN AMERICAN TREASURES –at the Brooklyn Museum, 200 Eastern Pkway, Sat. July 20  from 11 am – 5pm.  Bring up to three personal items (family personal items) for appraisal at no cost).  Call 877-733-9599.

**** JOIN MILLIONS 4 Trayvon – A Family Project.  Have all family members write letters expressing your feelings about the Verdict.  Send to Millions 4Trayvon c/o Omi Rahim, P.0. Box 302, Willingboro, NJ 08046…E mail: millions4trayvon@gmail.com.  The letters will be sent to the parents of Trayvon.

**** Another Forty Five Day Challenge begins Thurs. August 8th. PN’S contribution to Trayvon’s memory. Weekly conference calls (one hour) from wherever you are.  Requirement:  a project involving a child.  For more info and to register email Parentsnotebook@yahoo.com.

Black United Fund’s Kermit Eady Has No Confidence In Spitzer For Comptroller

Mary Alice Miller
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Days after disgraced former governor Eliot Spitzer announced his impromptu run for NYC Comptroller, Kermit Eady offered a blunt assessment: “Spitzer is a no good dog.”

“Spitzer never built a damn thing. He didn’t know anything about building a Black United Fund, particularly building Black organizations in the Black community.”

Eady has raw memories of how then- New York Attorney General Spitzer destroyed the city’s first Black- owned and operated employee payroll deduction program specifically targeting African-Americans.

 In November 2002, Spitzer launched his attack, claiming that “the charity had shifted its focus in recent years to housing and land development without notifying its donors,” an untrue charge.

Eady publicly notified donors of BUFNY’s initiatives (which BUFNY donors approved) via regular appearances on Gary Byrd’s radio program on WLIB during the 1990’s and other public venues. Spitzer also claimed that BUFNY was “chronically delinquent in filing documents required by law with the attorney general’s office.”

By May 2003 NYS AG Spitzer abruptly removed Eady and his vice president Larry Barton from BUFNY’s Harlem headquarters, denying the men access to the organization’s records and mementos. Spitzer, a Democrat, installed four Long Island Black Republicans to run BUFNY, presumably to help it flourish. Spitzer appointed Briding Newell to head the hostile takeover.

Newell had been fired from her post as a Commissioner of the Nassau Department of Drug and

Alcohol Addiction by Spitzer’s 2006 gubernatorial rival Nassau County Executive Tom Suozzi because Newell and her boss were sued by a whistleblower who was retaliated against after the whistleblower accused the agency of financial mismanagement and condoning at least one no-show job.

Newell’s team promptly fired all BUFNY’s employees and stopped payroll deductions.

At the time, BUFNY had direct ownership and control of 98 apartment units in eight buildings.

The fate of one of those buildings – BUFNY Headquarters – leaves many unanswered questions.

Research by Dr. James McIntosh found that in October 2005 — two years after Spitzer displaced

BUFNY founder Eady — BUFNY HQ  was sold for $3,435,854.00 by an entity called

BUFNY Houses Associates. The property was transferred via a grant deed to an entity called

2273 Realty LLC. The mailing address of the owner was listed as 1987 7th Avenue. Records show that address is owned by Neighborhood Partnership Housing Development Fund Company with a mailing address of 80 5th Avenue. Records also show that this fund company has over the last few years been involved in over three hundred landlord-tenant cases, most of them eviction cases.

Dr. McIntosh pointed out that at the time of the publication of his research “There has been no mention by Spitzer or any of the Harlem politicians to the public of what happened to that 3.4 million dollars that exchanged hands in the sale of the 2271 Adam Clayton Powell Boulevard Building.” McIntosh asked, “What was the outcome of that Spitzer ‘investigation’? Where are BUFNY’s books and records covering 24 years? What about BUFNY’s assets, including buildings? What of priceless personal property, including awards, belonging to Eady and Barton?”

Eady tells a sordid tale of what happened when he attempted to seek help from Harlem politicians.

According to Eady, he attempted to contact then-State Senator David Paterson a couple of dozen times. Paterson finally set up a meeting with Eady in which he outlined a plan to have legislative hearings on what Spitzer was doing to BUFNY. Paterson promised to meet with then-Senate Majority Leader Bruno. Eady said since that meeting “David Paterson has never spoken to me again.”

A few months later, Eady found out why.

Paterson became Spitzer’s running mate for governor despite Paterson’s father, David Dinkins and Charles Rangel support of Arthur Eve’s daughter for the position.  Spitzer caused a rift between Harlem’s political elite which deepened when Spitzer forced Percy Sutton off the board of the Apollo Theater after Sutton had invested $35 million in the theater then turned it into a not-for-profit. The shocker for Eady came at an event at City College for Spitzer attended by Harlem’s political establishment when, according to Eady, Assemblyman Keith Wright introduced Spitzer as “the next coming of Malcolm X.”

Eady still believes in the BUFNY philosophy of venture philanthropy: empowerment in terms of jobs and business development, ownership and control of resources, and building institutions and community infrastructure.

“If we don’t build an economic base in this country, we are never going anywhere. You can go to all the meetings and marches you want to, but if you don’t build something economically in this country, Black America is going down the tube,” said Eady. “The Egyptians are building. The Vietnamese are building. The Italians, the Irish are all building something… except African-Americans. We have to have an economic infrastructure in our community. We have got to build it.”

“Employee payroll deductions still remain, for Black and other communities, a relatively untapped and unappreciated source of independent funds to support nonprofit community empowerment initiatives,” said Eady.

Founded by Eady in 1979, Black United Fund New York (BUFNY) used voluntary workplace giving to practice self-reliance. Offering African-Americans an alternative to United Way’s monopoly on payroll deductions was a difficult task, but a BUFNY lawsuit opened opportunities for BUFNY in the local, county and state public sectors. By 1984, employees at IBM, Bell Laboratories, New York Telephone and AT&T gave more than $400,000 to BUFNY. That money was distributed to 3,000 community groups that had not received money from the United Way, said Eady.

During almost two decades of active operations, BUFNY awarded more than $15 million in grants and technical assistance to over 2,000 community-based organizations and programs. BUFNY had developed, and owned and/or managed over 400 affordable housing units in New York City with more than 200 additional units on the drawing board. In 2003, BUFNY acquired AM radio station WCKL.

BUFNY’s housing initiative provided affordable housing to community residents and generated additional funds/revenues for program services, as well as contracts for underutilized businesses.

These contracts affected hundreds to thousands of jobs for the unemployed, including ex-offenders and trainees in the construction industry, college interns and select high school students.

BUFNY took a two-prong approach to the integration of advanced computer and telecommunications technologies at the individual and community levels to ensure equitable access for all.  First, BUFNY wired each apartment in its 137th Street property with high-speed fiber-optic cable, with plans to expand in the other apartment buildings it owned or controlled.

“We were going to teach the kids how to do homework at home. We were working on home-based businesses for adults, especially for poor people and people of color.” said Eady. “We believed we were far ahead of the cutting edge. No question about it.”

BUFNY also established two Harvest Information and Technical Centers, one in Harlem and the other in Brooklyn’s MetroTech Center which provide a wide range of consumer services.

Race to Succeed Al Vann in City Council Heats Up

Stephen Witt
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Race for the open city council seat in the 36th District representing Bedford-Stuyvesant, Crown Heights and Weeksville took a turn for the nasty last week when one of the candidates filed a general objection to all three of his competitor’s petitions to get on the ballot.

Candidate Robert Cornegy, the male Democratic District Leader and president of Bed-Stuy’s powerful Vanguard Independent Democratic Association (VIDA), filed the objection against fellow candidates Conrad Tillard, Robert Waterman and Kirsten John Foy

Under the current city election laws, candidates running for City Council seats in the upcoming September Democratic Party primary had to turn in at minimum 450 signatures of registered Democrats from within the district to the Board of Election by last week.

All the candidates produced petitions with more than enough signatures, but Cornegy’s campaign immediately filed general objections – the first step to scrutinizing all the names on the ballot. Over the years this strategy has at minimum cost rival candidates time and money for legal expenses, and at worst, has gotten potential candidates thrown off the ballot.

“I don’t understand why the others (candidates) didn’t do it. Filing a general objection just gives us an opportunity to look closer at their petitions. It’s not my goal to exclude anyone from the democratic process,” said Cornegy.

Cornegy said he did not anticipate filing any specific objections by next week’s deadline which would start the legal process of potentially getting a candidate kicked off the ballot. If he doesn’t file specific objections, all the candidates will be on the ballot.

Tillard, whose campaign collected about 1,200 signatures, said he spoke to Cornegy personally about the challenge and was also assured no specific challenges would be filed.

“Every consultant I spoke with told me I should challenge petitions, but in light of the Supreme Court striking down the Voting Rights Act, I couldn’t in all good conscience be part of limiting choice for the voters,” said Tillard.

Waterman said Cornegy must have had a windfall of money to be able to challenge all of the candidates.

“Maybe your own numbers aren’t correct if you charge everyone else with not having enough valid signatures,” said Waterman, whose campaign collected 3,740 signatures. “If that’s the normal democratic process to challenge everybody’s petitions then everybody would have challenged everybody.”

Both Tillard and Waterman emphasized that unlike Cornegy, who has the backing of term-limited Al Vann along with the political infrastructure of the VIDA club, or Foy, who has major backing from the Rev. Al Sharpton and unions, they will continue to run a grassroots campaign appealing directly to the voters in the district.

Foy said it’s unfortunate that rather than letting the voters decide on Election Day, a campaign would use arbitrary challenges in an attempt to kick candidates off the ballot.

“Our campaign is grateful for and confident in the more than 4,000 signatures we received from Bedford-Stuyvesant and Crown Heights residents throughout the district to get on the ballot,” said Foy. “While some seem to be fixated on the machine politics of old, our campaign is focused on talking to voters about my progressive record of activism and organizing that has achieved results and my vision to move our community forward with a new generation of independent leadership in the City Council.”

Opinions Differ In Feeling On The Case And Race: George Zimmerman

Stephen Witt
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White Brooklyn residents generally reacted with nuanced views to George Zimmerman getting off scot-free free in court despite gunning down 17-year-old Treyvon Martin, who was unarmed. All those spoken with refused to give last names.

“My heart goes out to the family that lost a child,” said Gina, a senior citizen dental assistant that lives in Midwood. “But the same way I saw the expression of people coming out to show their sympathy for the family, I wish they could show same the same sympathy to every police officer and firefighter injured or killed by severe violence in our society. And that same sympathy should be shown to senior citizens like myself whose his necklaces are ripped off and who are violated in their hallways and their apartment buildings.”

Gina evaded the issue of whether she though Zimmerman would have been convicted if Treyvon Martin was white, saying instead that the “Stand Your Ground” law in Florida should be further investigated.

“I think because this young man was black e boy we have had this outpour and loud demonstrations. Already there was violence and in some cities stores were broken into because he was of color. The law is the law, and the evidence was the evidence, and that was a fact. The jurists had a hard job to do and everybody should put themselves in their shoes.”

Djemail, a recent Muslim immigrant from Macedonia now living in Kensington, said he watched the trial daily on TV with his wife, who works at a law firm.

“I don’t understand how someone cannot be guilty when that person had a gun and the other person didn’t have one.  If you have a gun and I don’t have one and you kill me that isn’t fair,” said Djemail, adding if Treyvon Martin was white he thinks Zimmerman would be in jail for life.

“All over the world if you are not a member of the elite you don’t have rights. I don’t see human rights in this country.”

Virginia, a homemaker with children originally from Texas but now living in Kensington, said the verdict is a clear indication that racism is alive and well in America.

“I found it very unsurprising that he (Zimmerman) got off. The case was in Florida and knowing how the jury was made up I was certain he was going to get off. There is a divide in this country and there are racists in this country, and white people in this country are so racist and not even aware of it,” she said, adding white people are frightened by black people and think they are different then everyone and so they think this man (Zimmerman) deserved to shoot him (Martin).

“It’s shameful and it makes me sick. I think the United States and especially Florida are profoundly racist places where they don’t think a black life is as important as a white life,” she said.

Virginia said the main problem besides racism in Florida is the “Stand Your Ground” law

“If a half-Hispanic man kills a white man I would think he would be in jail – maybe not for a higher degree but on some grounds,” she said.

Paul, a retired senior citizen originally from East Flatbush, said he belonged to a neighborhood block association for the past 34 years, and as a part of that was a member of a watch team trained by the police.

“We were trained and told not to get out of the car and if we see anything to call the police,” said Paul. “Zimmerman is guilty of at the very least criminally negligent homicide because he caused the incident by doing what he wasn’t supposed to do which was getting out of the car and follow him on foot.”

Paul said Zimmerman may have been actually guilty of murder but we don’t know because the only person living that was witness to the incident was him.

“If Martin was white I think he (Zimmerman) would have been guilty, because as I said we were told not to get out of the car or do anything but call the police,” he said.

Reactions in Bedford- Stuyvesant and Beyond to George Zimmerman’s Not Guilty Verdict

Bernice Elizabeth Green
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KAZEMBE BATTS was at a barber shop in Brooklyn when he heard the verdict for George Zimmerman, Trayvon Martin’s killer.
While K was hopeful George Zimmerman would be convicted, the verdict, he says, came as no surprise.
“It reminded me of the Bernhard Goetz incident with regards to Zimmerman’s perception that Trayvon was a criminal.” Goetz, dubbed the “Subway Vigilante”, shot four young men who were allegedly trying to mug him on a NYC subway train. The incident set off a nationwide debate on race and crime, and the limits of self-defense.
“The Zimmerman verdict saddens and disappoints me, but it does not shock. The very first bad sign was the jury selection: no one on the jury was black.
“Zimmerman claimed that Trayvon Martin was holding him down on the ground. That’s irrelevant. Zimmerman followed Trayvon, who was unarmed. That was injustice to the highest degree.”

HARRIET G., an airport employee, heard the verdict while sitting with a friend in Mirrors on Grand Avenue. The former paralegal initially wanted to become a professional lawyer so the case interested her from its tragic beginnings in 2012. She told us the prosecution didn’t prove its case, but “the law is the law.” But it’s not so easy for Harriet to be very objective. She revealed how just a few months ago she left her post for a few minutes after spotting Trayvon’s mother walking through the terminal. “I just ran after her and hugged her very tight.”

JOANNA G gave this message:
Spike Lee’s Do the Right Thing is a film about the death of the American Dream. Just as the dreams, hopes and future of Trayvon Martin were ended tragically by unnecessary violence.
Filmed in 1989 and set in the Bed-Stuy of the preceding decade, Do the Right Thing depicts explosive ethnic confrontation between Italians, Jews, blacks and gentrifying whites.
The Radio Raheem character, like the large majority of Black youth, is the victim of misplaced hatred which vigorously target the young-African-American-male demographics.
We need to start talking about this – before a thousand more Sal’s Pizzerias, or a thousand more Bedford-Stuys, go up in flames as well.
RIP Trayvon Martin, Jordan Davis, Darius Simmons, JeRean Blake, Is the killing of these children justifiable homicide in America?
To all the mothers and grandmothers: We must protect our children. Hold their hands tight. I don’t want my children to be afraid of people, but understand that there are people who are evil and will hurt you without conscience. Note: Skittles should be sponsoring some outreach or grassroots initiative that gives scholarships to black children.

TISH JAMES was the first to inform us of the news: “Did you hear?” She was emerging from her car as we walked past.
“Hear what?”
“The verdict.” There was no need to go further: her face told the story. We were thinking that there’s a blessing in having a Public Advocate with a law degree, compassion and fire.
(Bernice Elizabeth Green)

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