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Kudos For SOH
Editor:
Spectrum of Hope was a great idea! It was nice to meet and socialize with the Katrina survivors. The contributions from the local performers, was enjoyed by all.
Thanks Urban Spectrum for the fun day.
--Peggy Wortham
--Denver
Tax Code Hypocritically Enforced
Editor:
I was disappointed to read yet another story of political strongarming and duplicitous actions of the Bush administration.
In the article, "IRS Warns Church Over 2004 Anti-War Sermon" (Nov. 8th), the IRS threatens a church that it could lose its tax-exempt status because a guest preacher gave an anti-war sermon.
Where was the IRS in 2004 when bishops of the Catholic church used their pulpit to advocate against John Kerry's presidentail candidacy? Where was the IRS when Catholic bishops threatened to deny communion to pro-choice candidates? It appears the IRS is only concerned with enforcing tax laws when the Bush administration's policies are challenged.
The IRS tax code prohibits nonprofits from "participating or intervening in any political campaign on behalf of, or in opposition to, any candidate for public office." I am saddened to see the IRS has rejected fairness and replaced it with petty partisanship.
I challenge the Bush administration to fairly enforce the tax code without a double standard. The IRS should not use the tax code for petty political thuggery directed at those who disagree with the Bush administration.
--State Representative Rosemary Marshall
--House District 8 in Denver
Gratitude For ColorScope
Editor:
I wanted to thank you again for adding my image to the cover of your fantastic insert ColorScope (in the Urban Spectrum’s November edition). It is so informative! Congratulations to all who worked on it. I will definitely be keeping it as an information guide, and I am always proud to be a member of the Urban Spectrum family.
--Sheryl
--Denver
|Katrina Victims Concerned About Voting
Editor:
Hurricane Katrina rolled quickly across the South leaving nothing but harsh memories and the need to rebuild not only cities, but people’s lives. The mayor of New Orleans and the now ex-chief of FEMA urged people to evacuate the city, but not all could afford to leave. The lower class of New Orleans, predominantly African American, had no means of leaving the future disastrous city, forcing them to wait out the storm and face the inevitable. Once the catastrophic storm hit so did the horror; people were dying, drowning, and trying to survive by any means necessary, including stealing from shops and homes. The storm stranded people tried leaving the city, always in search for higher ground. People fortunate enough to get to the promised buses were packed off and sent to the great state of Texas in a convoy. This dispersion of people across the vast United States had begun. This displacement is affecting the country, and the full effects have not been completely revealed.
The United States is already in dreary shape with President Bush’s policies and the unpopular war in Iraq. Now it must face the effects of newly revealed racism and death, and displacement of thousands. The hurricane showed that racism is largely present in the "equal rights age" of America. It was apparent to every eye that watched the atrocious news stories that the majority of people killed, stranded, and deserted were African Americans. People were dying in the once tourist filled streets, now filled with polluted waters and the floating remains of homes, trash, feces, and human bodies. The stranded African Americans had to fight to live; the country did not come to their aid for a few painful days.
The slow attempts at rescuing and recovering resulted in the untimely and unmannerly deaths of thousands. According to the Associated Press, the death count is currently 1,057 in Louisiana, which is appropriately measured by how many bodies they have found in the area. Death has also been brought about by infections, starvation, and the plain ignorance of rescuers. New Orleans has lost its population by death and displacement. Death hurts the area and brings pain to the United States tremendously and will affect it in many ways.
The dispersion of people from different cultures will change the way the country grows in the future. People have realized the death and racism, but few have noticed the problems that will arise in elections and voting. The results of future elections and the voting procedures of relocated people will lead to voting problems and altered elections because of the scattered and diffused population. The voting rights of these people need to be protected. Appropriate measures have to be carried out to repair the voting machines and figure out how to ensure votes are counted.
The current administration is not acting quickly to fix the voting problem and some feel the Republican administration is using the displacement of African Americans, mainly Democrats, as a political ploy. The vast scattering of Democrat voters could alter electoral votes in favor of the Republicans, since part of their opposition in the Gulf Coast will not be present. The Republicans have gained the upper hand in the November elections since the displaced Democrats will probably not vote. The votes may also be skewed across the country, since many of the victims do not understand how they will vote. Furthermore, taking the time to figure out how to vote is not their top priority, surviving is.
Between the midst of finding jobs, homes, and other basic survival needs people do not have the time to figure out how they will vote. The Democratic leaders are responding by "backing a bill, that would give displaced people balloting and registration procedures available to voters who are in the military and overseas," ultimately giving the displaced victims the ability to place absentee votes in their residence temporarily through 2008. With enough support the evacuees will be able to get their voice out and vote against the leaders that did not aid them to their best capability.
The hurricane victims want their votes heard; every American is guaranteed this precious right. In order to make progress toward fixing the situation the people must vote to elect the leaders they see best. "Joseph Russell, a pastor in New Orleans, said, ‘We want our voices heard; we want our votes to be counted.’" He understands that it is the people who choose the leaders. All the people displaced and victimized as a result of the hurricane must vote to ensure their beliefs. The people need to write to their congressmen, senators, governors, and executive leaders urging them to pass the bill allowing them to vote absentee. For rights to be ensured during this devastating event people need to vote, showing they still have faith in their nation.
--Anonymous
--Denver
Coloradoans: Don’t Let Your Neighbors Down
Editor:
We are all Americans, we are all citizens of New Orleans.
I recently visited hurricane-ravaged New Orleans. Words cannot describe the devastation that Hurricanes Katrina and Rita brought to the area. But, let me try.
Sixteen parishes (counties) surrounding New Orleans were devastated by the storm. Nearly 250,000 local residents were displaced from the area to locations throughout the United States. Over 200,000 homes were totally destroyed and another 45,000 experienced severe damage and now require extensive reconstruction. Of the 190,000 small businesses in Louisiana, about 81,000 are eligible for federal assistance. These hurricanes have created a declared disaster area extending 96,000 square miles, a geographic footprint the size of Great Britain.
As I traveled through New Orleans and the surrounding areas with U.S. Small Business Administration senior management, in town to determine how best to help, we were all struck by the strength of character and sheer will demonstrated by these remarkable people in the face of tragedy. Their concern? That the rest of America might forget them, might get swept up in the next international incident or national news item. We must not let our neighbors down.
Now that immediate life-sustaining needs have mostly been met, it's time to roll up our sleeves and rebuild the Gulf Coast. In an unprecedented manner, the SBA has mobilized its disaster assistance effort to help with the long-term recovery of the residents and business owners affected by the storms. | |
The SBA's Office of Disaster Assistance has grown from 880 before Katrina struck to over 4,000 personnel dedicated to providing assistance through our low-interest, government-backed disaster recovery loan programs available to homeowners, renters and businesses in the disaster area. To date, over $530 million in disaster loans have been made as a result of the hurricanes.
The SBA is also working diligently to operate as efficiently as possible so we can respond quickly to those who have looked to us for help. We've simplified documentation requirements and we're expediting business disaster loans under $100,000. We've even asked the business lending community to volunteer to help process business disaster loans through our "Give a Lending Hand" initiative. Also, in an effort to quickly put cash in the hands of small businesses in the affected area, we just announced the introduction of the GO Loan Program, which processes loan applications in 24 hours.
Rebuilding New Orleans and the Gulf Coast region will continue to be a massive undertaking. The SBA is working with federal agencies, state and local governments and the private sector to make sure small businesses, particularly those in the region, play a role in the reconstruction effort. We are also helping to identify contracting opportunities for small businesses. For example, we're teaming up with FEMA to award 15 contracts up to $100 million each to small, local and minority-owned businesses for Katrina recovery projects.
The SBA is committed to help all of those impacted by this terrible disaster and we will stay on the job until it is complete. Our hope is that once we see the collective results of everyone engaged in the recovery and reconstruction efforts, we will look back with pride and satisfaction as the region comes back as strong as ever.
--Patricia Barela Rivera
--Colorado SBA District Director
--Denver, Colorado
Editor’s note: To learn more about the SBA's disaster assistance program, please visit www.sba.gov.
Rosa Parks: Mother of the Civil Rights Movement?
Editor:
Rosa Parks, commonly known as the "mother of the Civil Rights Movement" died this past October. While every child with an elementary school education knows the story of Rosa Parks, few know the truth about her, or her role in the Civil Rights Movement. Why was Rosa Parks the only one known as "the mother of the Civil Rights Movement", and did the movement really put an end to racism in our country?
While Rosa Parks did refuse to give up her seat to a White man back in 1955, that is about the only common piece of information that anyone is taught in America. Growing up in Texas, I was given a skewed education when it came to the Civil Rights Movement, and of racism in today’s society. The common story told to every child is that Rosa Parks was a tired old lady who was sitting behind the driver in the White section of the bus, and was just too tired to get up. After her refusal she was arrested. I went through 12 years of school believing that. It wasn’t until I attended the lectures "A Mile in Their Shoes" provided by The Veterans of Hope organization at the University of Denver, that I learned the truth. Rosa Parks was never sitting in the White section of the bus, nor was she tired or old, but was in the Black section and was still asked to get up. While reading the article ‘The Triumph and Tragedy of Rosa Parks" by Earl Hutchinson, I noticed even he said "That of course, was her refusal to budge from her seat in the White section of a Montgomery bus in 1955." If a columnist for the Urban Spectrum, a publication for colored news, is publishing false information, then how is anyone supposed to know what really happened in the Civil Rights Movement? How are we, the youth of America, supposed to understand the severity of what was happening in our society when we can’t trust what we are being taught since something as minute as why Rosa Parks was arrested is lied about.
Another point brought up in the lecture was of how much emphasis is put on Rosa Parks and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. We are taught that those two people alone were the reason for the equality of Blacks and Whites. Rosa Parks and Dr. King have received reward after reward for the efforts in the movement, yet in retrospect, how could two people make such an impact on our society? Rosa Parks not getting up for a White man wasn’t what created the freedom in America, yet was the final straw that sparked a movement. That boycott involved a 381 day bus boycott that involved thousands of colored people in Montgomery, Alabama. Rosa Parks also wasn’t the first to be arrested for not giving up her seat, two women had been arrested earlier that year, for the very same thing, but we still only recognize her as "the one who wouldn’t get up".
The same goes for Dr. King. He also wasn’t the sole reason for the equality of Whites and Black; he was elected by the masses to lead them for his speaking and leadership abilities. His ability to rally the troops into fighting for equality was nothing short of captivating. Yet again we recognize him, above everyone else, as the leader of the Civil Rights Movement. Dr. King won the Nobel Peace Prize for his work in the movement. How should one man receive an award for something that took millions to accomplish? The ideas he preached weren’t originally his, but beliefs shared by every person in the movement. By no means am I putting down the efforts of Rosa Parks or Dr. King because their efforts were admirable and something that our country needed at that point in time. Dr. Kings ideas of peaceful protest, were one of a kind, and without that, the country might have ended up in civil war. What I am arguing is that we need to give thanks and acknowledgement and praise to the millions that participated in the movement, and without them we might still be separating where Whites and Blacks can sit on a bus. We pick a couple of people and give them these titles, to make it seem as though they were the only ones fighting, this way it doesn’t make us look as at fault as if we were to say that millions of people all fought for their freedom.
Another problem with our society is the blinders that our education system puts on us. We are brought up being told that the racism in our society ended after Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat, but in reality the racism in our culture is just as strong and obvious as it was then, with a different take to it now. Racism in today’s culture is just as prominent as it was in the 1960s, yet with a different twist to the traditional hate against people with different skin color. With the recent tragedy of Katrina, the true racism of today’s time became evident. Racism in this country is economical. We discriminate against people based on their economical standing, and then will come down to race. A poor Black man has a better change of being put in jail, then a poor White man. The problem with racism is obvious all over the country, whether it be in education or employment.
How are we supposed to admit our failures and fix the racism in our country, when we only give recognition to one or two people for their work in the Civil Rights Movement? If thousands of Blacks gave their lives for their freedom, how can we solely recognize Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Rosa Parks, for their equal efforts in the movement? If we don’t stop the racism in this country, or give credit to the millions of people who fought for their freedom that we have all grown up with, then there is no guarantee that our children will grow up with these same freedoms.
--Andrew Lowe
--University of Denver Student
--Denver
Too Close To Call In Liberia, West Africa
Editor:
Will Liberia elect the first African woman president? Or will an international ex-soccer player win the run-off election in this small West African country? After fourteen years of a bloody civil unrest, where the UN peacekeeping force is the largest in the world, can Liberia, Africa’s oldest republic, founded by American freed slaves, govern itself in a democratic way? The stakes are high.
In Denver, the Friends of Daniel is the connection to Liberia; a refugee family subsists in exile at the Buduburam Camp in Ghana, can’t vote--nor can all 45,000 Liberian refugees at this camp living under few UNHCR supports. Daniel, a former student of mine from Peace Corps, is a trained economics specialist with a long work history; his wife also is an accountant ... with interests in working again. Few opportunities exist for educated refugees in the camp, and the way out is frittered with red tape. Some days Daniel’s family dreams of running water, electricity, a clean commode, and a safe, new home in another strange land. Daniel and his American Mom in Denver seek a grand reunion and African feast with their American friends... The Denver connection to Daniel and to this tiny West African county can be found at our web site, www.friendsofdaniel.org, then click on Talking Drum.... Donations are tax-deductible. Send to Capitol Heights Presbyterian Church. Make a difference!
--Nancy Vorkink, Founder
--Friends of Daniel
--Denver |
