Correspondence

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...a territorially ambmous and ruthless Syria, a Mushm drive to consume not only the land of the Jews but also the land of the Lebanese Chnstmns, the perfidy of Qaddafi, the msamty of the Ayatollah, ground for the bulhes on the block, and the bullies' agent, the Soviet Umon And where the only real free country m the region's h~story--and I mean history, dating back to Babel and Ur--~s treated like the kid whose parents send hun down to play on the street m kmckers and a sweater What the desperate hypocnsy of the Iraq, s, the bulhes wall not learn is that the k~d nailed hun a long tune before Backhanded Compliments As the subject of Mr Rachard Gremer's article "The Machismo P~ety of Marlo Cuomo" (TAS, November 1984), I'd like to clear up a few misunderstandrags in the piece...

...Waste YOUTH EXCHANGE Pueblo, Colorado 81009 fashion or another dependent upon the government " One may quarrel with the lady's THE AMERICAN SPECTATOR JANUARY 1985 41...

...a useful Khot, never A It is a testament to this nation's baptism m blood m the Middle East by the three Lebanese bombings that the movie seems to have drifted not into a serious depIcuon o f the IsraehPalestlman problem but rather into the fourth or fifth paragraph of an Anthony Lewis column So much so that the movie includes the following comIn order to impress upon the PLO her fidelity to their cause, Charlle makes reference to "Jew bastards " Whereupon a PLO commander (in a Moshe Dayan eyepatch) turns upon her leader (who, as portrayed by the French actor Sanu Frey, is as charming as Cary Grant, and has no whisker growth that nnght render hun physically unappeUzing to a movie audience) is really foolish enough to be taken m by her, the Mossad probably would have and sancUmomously shouts" "Never say something hke that) We are antiZionists, but we are not anti-Semitic)" Of course not [~ CORRESPONDENCE ly Summtt, whwh was dtscussed by Wdham Tucker m the July tssue, I Let me share w~th you several comments John E Jacob, President of the thought our readers might be m- NaUonal Urban League, made at the opening session of the Black Family terested m Mr Wdhams's report on mspiring developments within the black Summit commumty --RET We have to recognize that some of our problems may be self-mfhcted, that we may have allowed our just anger at what America has done to obscure our own need for self-discipline and strengthened community values In concentrating on the wrongs of discrimination and poverty we may have neglected the fact that there is a lot we can do about our own problems ourselves further into what ~s really a major Government and private sector action is a development within Black America necessity, but so too are the services and Speofically, it ~s a growing sense of the concern black organlzauons can provide into" the Democratic party, even as he (substitute Boston for New York and French-Canadian for Italian and you will not be far from the mark) The Party having become what it is today, however, I am an apostate--and Governor Cuomo knows apostates are very hard people to bring back Unlike the I have no desire to prolong this corGovernor, I went to university and respondence but the reasonableness spent many years abroad, mainly in evident in your letter has encouraged France, have seen most varieties of me to share a few additional observasocialism at first hand, and decided I tions w~th you My purpose In so dodidn't hke any of them I ask the ing is to share w~th you some informaGovernor to reflect on my considered tion that m~ght encourage you to look view that our DemocraUc party is now under the control of people who, on balance, may be farther to the left than, for example, France's Socialist party responslbihty that middle-class blacks Nlet-sche predicted that dechne in and the restitutions they support are rehglous froth would bring about a vast assuming for the well-being of less forrise m secular utoplamsm and, lo, it has tunate blacks The Black Family SumSo I am not enUrely at ease even w~th So from the outset it was clearly understood that the Summit was not to be a hand-wringing session focused on how bad ttungs are, but on what the black commumty could do on its own mlt was a manifestation of this development since its basic thrust was President Reagan's 49-state victory to develop strategies through wluch the black community itself could help Therefore attention was directed to the reverse the deteriorating phght of formulation of community-based strategies that could be implemented at the local level This was not a meeting to beat up on the Reagan Administration, to call force it once was, and this means more This process was enhanced by the than waving the Stars and Stripes We exchange of information on a wide for more welfare programs, or to are locked m what John F Kennedy trumpet the charge that all the prob- variety of successful programs Incalled a "long, twd~ght struggle" with cluding the Adopt-A-Family Program lems affhctmg Black America can be an unplacable adversary Wherever I go started by a physician in Los Angeles, laid at the door of racism Rather, it in Western Europe, not to menUon in which a group of black professionals was a gathering of the family, or the Poland, people assure me that if clan if you will, to discuss the things literally adopt families in trouble with America goes down, our kind of free that only it could do the purpose of helping them set their society will disappear from the face of lives m order, the Shiloh Baptist Fami- In the not too distant past, such a the earth Now we will see who is ly Life Center in Washington, D C , meeting might not have been possible perverse which serves a low income area in that Middle-Class Responsibilities city and is supported by the middleclass members of that church without But what we have seen recently is a growing awareness that we, as blacks, must accept at least some of the As James D Wdhams of the Nattonal responsiblhty for what has occurred in government aid, and the House of Umoja in Philadelphia which has established a remarkable record in Urban League and I have had further all too many of our communities and correspondence about the Black Famt- act accordingly THE AMERICAN SPECTATOR JANUARY 1985 tober issue and I want to congratulate accurately you for the excellent piece on Guatemala by Mary Ball Martinez As a long-time observer of the Latin conclusion, but one should quote her -James D Williams Director Communications Department National Urban League New York, New York Guatemala" by Mary Ball Martinez in your October 1984 issue I found this piece to be of great interest, as Mrs Martinez shows some amazing insights Let's hear more from Mary Ball Martinez in the Spectator' Kudos -Virginia McNamara Erie, Pennsylvania boot A friend let me see a copy of your OcAmerican scene, I found it a special treat to read something on a Latin American country that is not only knowledgeable, but well written to -EA Augustine Thousand Oaks, California I want to commend you for including for Next "What article the rehabilitating delinquent black youth Through the Black Family Summit a series of recommendations were developed that laid strong emphasis on the black community doing for itself I should note, that contrary to Mr Tucker's observation, there were a number of recommendations having to do with developing black business and creating jobs to employ other blacks I also note his observation "All everybody ever talked about was how to get other people to do these things for them, and how to get more money out of government " This comment really hurts When you look at the reports that came out of the workshops and the recommendations, it is clear that Tucker's observation is totally wrong The participants at the Summit were interested in seeing what they, as black people, could do for other black people That's the real story And things did not end in Nashville Already, similar sessions have been held in more than a dozen major cities to bring together black institutionsincluding the church, fraternities and sororities, the professions, business groups, social organizations, etc -to put the recommendations of the Summit into effect at the local level The Black Family Summit was a watershed in the black experience, and in view of that I am certain that you can understand the frustration and bitterness that I and many of my colleagues feel when it is projected in an unfavorable light This is not to say that we have any quarrel with the right of any journalist to interpret events from his or her perspective, but we do feel that such an interpretation should at least correctly state the facts One final observation, and then I will close In his article, Tucker quotes one speaker as saying "Every immigrant group has climbed the ladder by forcing the government to give up its share of wealth in American society We are all in one fashion or another dependent on the government " As part of International Youth Exchange, a Presidential Initiative for peace, your family welcomes a teenager from another country into your home and into your way of life . The student goes to school, learns and grows in your community...

...The speaker to whom he was referring was Dr Bernadette Chachere, Chairman, Department of Economics at Hampton Institute She spoke at a dinner session that was open to the media She did not have a prepared text but her remarks were taped and have been transcribed What she actually said follows "Finally, there are no groups in the United States that have not historically or contemporarily looked to the Federal Government to promote its interests We are all in one Help bring ng the world together...

...to ~ts deadening preposterousness Nonetheless, what is most interesting about The Ltttle Drummer Gtri ~s how m~ted m the past ~t really ~s In 1984, the idea that the real problem in the Middle East has somehow to do with the d~splacement of the Palestunan Arabs--a self-d~splacement, by the way--m 1948 seems laughable One of out o f drapers try to play power games the few gifts the Israeh action m with one another It is a breeding Mossad agent, never...

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...If the supposedly bnlhant PLO Lebanon has given the world ~s the sight o f a M~ddle East stripped of the distraction of the PLO...

...Putting aside the puzzhng task of figuring out exactly what is meant by "machismo piety," I allude to one other pecuharity Mr Grenier's opening paragraph, which depicts me peddling "the inside word" to New York editors that "Mondale and Hart are dead ducks " This is, as your readers should know, a canard I found the rest of Mr Grenier's piece, by turn, amusing, fiCtlVe, insightful, and perverse I conclude that Mr GrenIer has paid my book, Diaries of Mano M, Cuomo, a wonderfully backhanded comphment and presumably sold a few more copies --Mano M Cuomo come to pass New York, New York Rwhard Gremer rephes, and, operating by instruct as much as Naively, I thought I paid Governor anything else, I have chosen Governor Cuomo's book a very forehanded com- Cuomo to again make the Democratic many black families phment when I wrote that it IS party the stro'ng, national, patriotic "fascinatmg " But I shall now go further I believe it is the best description I have ever read of what it Is hke to run for public office, in addmon to revealing a great deal about one of the most complex and compelling personahtles in American politics today Everyone interested in politics should read it As for what "machismo piety" is, the Governor must ask R Emmett Tyrrell, J r , who is more clever about this sort of thing than I I thank Mr Cuomo, in turn, for hts backhanded compliment As he just might suspect, my background has much in common with his I was "born 40 the cowardice of Hussem and his fellow "moderate" Arabs, and the precariousness of Israel's socialist economy The Middle East is not a stark allegory being played out on the hot sands, whipped by the noisome sc~roccos It is a region where nation-states that, in any rational terms, are barely m kmckers lS tougher than they, and cleverer Charhe, as played by the astomshmgly aged Diane Keaton, seems to view the Middle East as a pohtical fimshmg school, where she wdl be taught not only how to act but how to be a grownup, responsible cmzen of the world An ~d~ot, maybe...

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