Tavis Smiley, Dr. Cornel West, Preachers: ‘America Must Address Poverty”

On violence, Atty. Myers said: ‘We have to do what the gang boys do, organize….’

By Chinta Strausberg

 

America must begin to address the growing issue of poverty Tavis Smiley and Dr. Cornel West told hundreds who turned out for the signing of their book, “The Rich and the Rest of Us: A Poverty Manifesto,” held last Saturday at the New Mount Pilgrim Church located on the West Side of Chicago and headed by Rev. Dr. Marshall Hatch.

And to get a grip on the violence in the black community, legal and religious leaders admitted they must start all over again by rebuilding a new generation of people who value life and respect moral values. They admit it won’t be easy but for the survival of the African American race, it must be done beginning right now.

One of the speakers was former Alderman and WVON talk show host Dorothy Tillman who back in the 1960’s was sent to Chicago by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. as part of his organizing strategy.

“Dr. King told us we had to work out the death question when you’re not afraid of death and jail, then you’re free to do what you have to do,” said Tillman. “When you love, love lifts us. What made us win was because of the love we had for our people. You cannot fight when you are fearful. You got to get rid of the fear question.”

Referring to their headquarters then located at Warren Congregational Church on Madison and Warren Avenue, Tillman said, “We had a lot of ministers on the West and South Sides who supported us, but not all of the ministers supported us.

“When we came here, we had ministers who held a press conference and told us to leave,” she recalled. The late “Mayor (Richard J.) Daley organized it. They were told to get rid of us.”

Referring to the political state of blacks in Chicago, Hatch said, “At some point, we have to look at what has happened to us.” He said the reported loss of 180,000 black Chicagoans “is not by accident.” Explaining, he said, “That has been a very purposeful dislocation of black people and the economic violence against our community and the fact that we don’t pick our black leaders.

“You can’t be a state representative from anybody’s community without it being approved by (Illinois House Speaker) Michael Madigan,” Hatch told reporters. “We didn’t have a viable candidate because our community has been de-stabilized.”

“The spirit of the people is very low and that is why you see fewer and fewer people participating in the political system, and we have to find a way to revive people. This is why we have to challenge the church and our faith base community to stand up for truth and justice all of the things that inspire people because people have to be re-ignited and re-inspired. That has always been the role of the church in our community,” said Hatch.  “It’s how we treat the least of thee” that they will be measured by the community.

A product of public housing, Hatch, who is writing a book entitled “Projects America,” said his family was helped by investment in the human capital but said that doesn’t happen anymore. “If the country is going to be rescued, we’re going to have to invest heavily in black and brown young people.” He said the black and brown burst in population represents the majority. Hatch said the U.S. is fast becoming majority black and brown and many are aware of this.

“There are some people at the top who have already divested themselves out of this country, who have given up on America and we simply have to tell the truth now that it is time for a radical re-prioritizing in this country, and we have to being addressing poverty, “ said Hatch. Other ministers agree.

“I appreciate Dr. West and Brother Smiley for their courageous leadership on this issue. Many have challenged their motives and loyalty to our community for daring to challenge President Obama’s being silent on the issue of poverty,” said Rev. Ira Acree, pastor of the St. John Bible Church and author of  “In Pursuit of Mr. Right.”

“After listening to their presentation, I commend them for highlighting poverty, one of the four global giants of our day and time, the others being Illiteracy, disease and corrupt leadership.

“They are on target when they state that only political and moral pressure can force America to deal with terrorizing issues that threaten nearly 50 % of our citizens,” said Acree.

While Smiley and West are being criticized by some white and blacks for attacking President Barack Obama on the issue of poverty, Hatch made it clear about the political choices of the November 6^th presidential election.

“When you look relatively at what the choices are, it is going to be Barack Obama and Mitt Romney. We know that when it comes to the interest of poor and working people that Barack Obama is going to be a better president in his second term than Mitt Romney would be in his first term. “We have to fight that fight. While he’s (Obama) running, and then after he’s in, we have to hold him accountable.

“Those are not contradictory positions,” he said. “It really is one comprehensive political strategy. We have to speak truth to power, and we have to hold everybody accountable even to a president who looks like us.”

Hatch said he does not consider criticism of Obama by some blacks as beating up on him. “If we look at the role that different people have in a power dynamic like this, some people are outside the system.

“In the tradition of the black church, the prophet stands outside of the tradition and speaks truth to power, speaks truth to the king and at this time, Barack Obama is the president of the U.S. If he is going to be a great president, particularly for the interest of black people, we have to hold him accountable just like anybody else.

“Mitt Romney is not an alternative,” said Hatch. “We’re going to vote for Barack Obama, and we believe that in a second term given the way the political dynamics are, he’s going to be more free. He’s going to have a two-year window after re-election to look at himself in the mirror to determine what his legacy is going to be and he will probably be much truer to himself even as a political figure. That is normally the way it’s going to go.”

Asked why are African Americans killing themselves, Hatch said, “It is a deeply spiritual really depression in the black community. When we talk about poverty, we also have to talk about the culture of poverty.”

That culture of poverty, he said, includes “the ignorance, the depression, the rage that goes along with who we are and the condition we’re in, the fracturing of our families, the wealth we have lost in this great recession, people who have pain and depression they often turn on each other, not to each other.”

Reminded that blacks have been poor for generations, Hatch said, “We have not been as spiritually poor as we are now, the spiritual poverty. We need to address the idolatry that is in our community. We bought into this consumerism and the kind of hedonism…the bling bling culture.

“We really value things more than we value people, relations and love and this place where we’re at, we’ve not been before,” said Hatch who calls this current culture the “BETitization of the black community. What we see on BET not only reflects what happens in our community but is now driving that debauched culture.

“We have some serious spiritual work to do,” he said explaining he preached his first sermon 30-years ago on April 25^th. “I called myself a nationalists then and I was in my 20’s, but I knew we could not have a nation without a moral foundation. I commit myself to organize religion because I thought the best way to transfer values from one generation to another we needed these faith based institution to do that.”

Asked how can he help heal the black community given the violence including shootings, Hatch said, “That’s going to be very difficult.” Located in West Garfield Park, Hatch said the per capital income in this area is $23,000. He said in 1999 when Chicago led the murders in District 11 “we led the city, and this beat led the district. Statistically, it was the most violent place in America.

“I think where our people are to some great degree is we know we want to save all the young people, but at some point we have to start over.” Hatch said that is why they have invested into earning programs, looking at their early childhood development center “to merge right in this village, on this corner in our community.

“In some sense, we have to look at how we are raising our children. There was a time we were the best in raising children and the best in instilling values in children. We not only raised our children. We raised other children. We’ve lost that skill set. We’ve lost that ability to be able to transfer from one generation to another, to really have a child-centered community, which is what our values were in our village at one time. We have to go back to that.”

As a minister, he said the faith community “must create counter communities in the midst of the madness. We use our faith communities to begin to transfer these values to build institutions. To some extent, we are going to look at what it means to almost start all over again with a new generation even as we try to save those who lost their way.”

In responding to the violence in the black community, Attorney Lewis Myers, who teaches criminology at Kennedy King College, said, “There is no reason” for the escalation of black-on-black crime. We have to look at the multiple reasons that go into the making of a criminal mind and criminal conduct.”

He said its lack of education, lack of housing or environmental factors. “It’s all of that and more. What we have to do is to begin to develop a broader perspective of understanding the big picture before we can say what is it to address this problem. There is no one answer to it. It’s a multi-dimensional problem that requires an overall view of how you approach it,” Myers said.

“At the end of the day, there is a place where they (gangbangers) fit in and there is a way we have to deal with them. The preachers, lawyers…can’t solve it. We all have to come together, and we have to sit down in an integrated setting and work together to bring about something that is rational, reasonable and something we can live with,” Myers said.

“I believe we have to organize up. I don’t think we can do it from the national civil rights organizations. We got to start in the neighborhoods,” he said explaining he spends his time in Englewood where he is a board member of Teamwork Englewood. “I work with the community gangs over there, like projects. I believe that organizations have to start from grassroots, do the same things the gang boys are doing, organize block-by-block, street-by-street, corner-by-corner and build up. The leadership does not come from the top. The leadership comes from what you develop from this organization….”

Chinta Strausberg is a Journalist of more than 33-years, a former political reporter and a current PCC Network talk show host. You can e-mail Strausberg at: Chintabernie@aol.com.

Caption:  Urban Prep students pose with Dr. Cornel West each holding his book, “The Rich and the Rest of US: A Poverty Manifesto”

Photo Caption: By Chinta Strausberg