One could try, but might find it impossible to handle this conundrum: Representatives of Minister Farrakhan were in town on the 12th whipping up support for something called the Millions More rally to be foisted off on the nation’s capital Oct. 14-16. Farrakhan is the head honcho of something called the NATION OF ISLAM. Should anything more be said? Imagine: at a time when people all over the world are murdering other people in the name of ISLAM’s Allah (god) in places such as restaurants, commuter trains, and on other forms of public transportation, not to mention those warriors of god who perpetrated 9/11 and murdered 3,000 Americans in cold blood, the term ISLAM (religious setting of Allah) is actually used as a tool encouraging support for anything.
MILLIONS MORE is the sequel to the MILLION-MAN MARCH of 1995, also in D.C., which the National Park Service said was attended by 400,000 people. Obviously, most of the attendees were African-American men, the group for whom the one-day affair was designed. The Nation of Islam spearheaded this event, to which men traveled from all over the nation, some bringing their sons with them. Minister Louis Farrakhan, born Louis Eugene Walcott on May 11, 1933, in Bronx, N.Y., embarked on a "World Friendship Tour" a few months after the 1995 event, visiting radical Muslim regimes in Iran, Nigeria, Sudan, Libya, Iraq, and Syria, where he hobnobbed with the likes of Moamar Qaddafi, at that time a sworn enemy of the United States.
Jeff Fort was once the leader of the Black P Stone Nation gang (sometimes known as El Rukn, Arabic for "The Foundation"). Here is an excerpt by William Grigg in the NEW AMERICAN of December 2002: In 1987, while serving a federal prison term in Texas, Fort learned that "Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan had received $5 million from the Libyan government," notes a 1997 Justice Department report. Accordingly, "Fort developed a plan to perform acts of terrorism within the United States in return for an annual payment of $1 million from Libya. In telephone conversations from inside prison, Fort discussed destroying a federal building, blowing up an airplane, killing a Milwaukee alderman, and committing a ‘killing here and there’ with his fellow gang members. Fort instructed gang members to meet with representatives from the Libyan government, which the gang members did on two occasions. Fort also instructed the gang members to purchase a hand-held rocket launcher, which they also did." According to USA Today of November 7, 2004, as of Dec. 31, 2003, about 44% of all prison inmates were black, while only 12.3% of the population is African American. In a 1994 speech, Farrakhan referred to Hitler as a very great man. So much for Minister Farrakhan, and this is but the tip of the iceberg. He purports to be prominent in MILLIONS MORE, but his presence alone is enough to warn off those whose intentions are noble.
It is interesting that women will be invited to the October occasion, unlike the situation in 1995. This may not be designed to increase the size of the crowd, but one wonders. Concerning Louis Farrakhan, about as anti-American as one can get, CNN’s Charles Bierbauer had this to say on October 17, 1995: Minister Louis Farrakhan called for "a million sober, disciplined, committed, dedicated, inspired black men to meet in Washington on a day of atonement." The African-American community -- and much of the white -- found the idea admirable. So…what was the fallout from this memorable gathering designed for African-American men to atone for their sins, become committed and sober, and dedicated to whatever? Maybe the women who have been invited this year would be especially interested in this. In the process, of course, they would be forced to face the possibility that their possible/probable dereliction in the past with respect to discipline, dedication, and atonement would be called into account. After all, it takes two to tango.
Whereas in 1970 59% of black children lived with both parents, by 1994 that statistic had dropped to 33%, cause for the actually interested participants in the 1995 march to be alarmed and consequently seriously hoping to reverse the trend. Four years later, in a 1999 study reported by the Urban Institute, 6.5% of poor black children lived with both parents, while only 3.1% of poor black infants lived with both parents. The 1995 event might hopefully have helped with the matter of illegitimate births in the black community, which stood at 69.9% then, up from 37.5% in 1970. However, in 2002, the figure was only slightly lower at 68.2%, but may be higher today. Percentage-wise, the statistics are far more condemnatory concerning white illegitimacy, the number of births out of wedlock in the white community standing at 5.5% in 1970, but rising to 28.5% by 2002, for an unbelievable 418% increase, whereas in the black community the increase was by 82%. Something actually serious akin to MILLIONS MORE wouldn’t hurt the white men/women in the country (if actually effective – highly doubtful), but that’s not likely to happen, social mores being what they are today, marriage becoming more of either an interesting anachronism or something with which to dally since divorce is so easy…and who gives a damn about the children anyway?
The 1995 affair was addressed by some speakers who either at that time or later gave the lie to the whole effort. A speaker and the chief organizer of the march was Ben Chavis, the former executive director of the NAACP who was kicked out of that office amid sexual-harassment charges before 1995. With his background, what was he doing by even being there? Marion Barry, former D.C. mayor who had served a prison term on drug charges (caught on FBI videotape smoking crack well before the march) was a speaker – why? Congressman Charlie Rangel was a speaker and, though not being slammed here for anything in 1995, made the statement last month comparing the Iraq War with the Holocaust – the Holocaust, with its 6 million Jews and 5 million others murdered? Rangel introduced a bill in 2003 mandating a draft for military service. Will he be back for MILLIONS MORE?
Perhaps the most egregious of all as a speaker or even as a man was the Rev. Jesse Jackson, who three years after the march helped conceive a child as a result of an affair with a Rainbow/Push staffer. From funds of his organization, which is tax-exempt, she was given $40,000 to relocate to California, with $3,000 a month as income, and furnished a whopping $365,000 to buy a house. At the time, he was some sort of spiritual adviser to then-President Clinton, who was up to his neck (literally) in the Monica Lewinski Affair, semen on the blue dress and all the other sordidness connected to that mess. This was the stamp left on the MILLION-MAN MARCH.
Anyone (certainly any Christian) who connects himself/herself to MILLIONS MORE, unless Minister Farrakhan removes himself entirely from it, will be sullied. Part of the belief system of his sect is acceptance of the Koran, upon the basis of which Muslims turn themselves or others into suicide/homicide murderers of innocent women and children. If speakers of the caliber of those mentioned here – and there are bound to be some rappers, devotees of rape and police-killing, in the interest of attracting the young – show up at Farrakhan’s party, the stamp of ten years ago will remain ingrained. In any case, just as the MILLION-MAN MARCH seems to have amounted to nothing, MILLIONS MORE will follow in its train. Atonement and commitment are individual matters not effected or affected by large celebrations of the human condition, whether as is or as should be.
And so it goes.
Jim Clark
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