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The Worth Avenue Review June 1991 II Table of Contents

Techwd Diary Torrence Fike 04 -, Reagan Marries Slut/Bush Cuts Deal Paul PhlIpott 01 Thc Quick and Easy Gay Book Review Cary McKeuwn 09 Capitahsm's New Convert Stephen Danyo 11 Black Crooks Paul PhiIpou 12 The Aliens Around Us Jeffery K. Hostetler 13 Accepting or Disregarding a Religious Philosophy Rafael E. Higaldo 15 US/Japan Inte~culturalSociety Update Clinton Alvmson 16 ,- Fishwrap Artists 17 Guesswork Jef€ Cmnkhitc 53 A Two-Fa~edBush Scott Barnwell 643 I , .' The Integration Bug Paul Philpou 61 .' , Recurring Nightmares Ashley Raiteri 63

', . ... ,.

The North Avenue Revlew, dectionately howu as NAR to the contributors, is sckeduled to be published only once more during summer quarter. The open forum that the NAR represents has never come about. A diversity of opinions was expressed on a host of memorable topics from race, gender, the envlronment, war and many others yet the viewpoint of conservatives was not expressed for a Iarge part. The NAR was simply never able to bring in sufficient %'numbersof consematfves who wished to write for us. NAR died due to the apathy of straight white males.

Cover art:

I Jean-Claude Suares Is Not the Typewriter Mighter than the Gun? (1973)

~ 1 1 I The North Avenue Review June 199 1 Techwood Diary by Torrence N. Fike

The Techwood Diary is my experience in fhe Tech wood projects translated to paper. I use the word Techwood tu referto the Techwood, Clark-Howell, and Herndon Homes projects coliectjvei'y. I think this is a fair consolidation, since it's difficultfor the unfamiliar traveler to tell when he has left one and entered another. The projects are right on our doorstep, yef all many Tech students know about them is their intrinsic danger tu the unarmed. This idea is somewhat accurate, but there is much more to learn once you cross the boundary. I hupe you'II cross the boundary with me in the safety of your living-mom. Maybe you'll learn something. Maybe it will raise yuu a little bit above the pseudo-reality of campus life. At worst, maybe you'll pick up some survival tips fur when your car breaks down on Luckie Street someday.

Forward to The Miami Red Story close paraphrases of what was actually said. Since this story was recorded after The setting is the Techwood projects.The the fact, some details were lost. The Techwood Projects were the first essence has been preserved, though. I government housing projects in t he country, have attemptedto reproducetheTechwood constructed by the WPA in 1939. The dialect in Miami Red's quotes. This may be projects are located across the street from distracting at first, but adds a picturesque Georgia Tech. In fact, Techwood dorm is local flavor. actually on the same side of the street as the projects. Every couple years a Georgia The Miami Red Story Tech student is shot in this general vicinity. In the words of City Councilman Michael It was about 1 :OOpm, on a mild February Lomax, the residents of Techwood dorm day, and I was heading towards the The are "lulled to sleep at night by the sounds of Anne Wallace Library in the Techwood automatic gunfire." In the heart of this projects. I was going a couple hours earlier community is a little library, called Anne than usual because 1 wanted to work on the Wallace. It is a branch of the Fulton County computer before the kids got out of school. Library System. This is where I go to tutor I normally tutor, but ever since the library children from the area. Besides this, I also received a computer, I have also been the administer their IBM PC clone. I was on my volunteer system administrator. When 1 way to the library on Thursday, February say system administrator, I mean that I 22, 1990, to install some new software I wrote a menu'programthat allows the kids wrote for their computer. My trip to the to run programs easily. If I was still working library turned out to be more eventful than on it after school let out, I knew there would I had anticipated. be melancholy nine-year-olds waiting to play Sticky Bear Reading. If all went well The quotes in The Miami Red Story are there would be no intemption of their

The North Avenue Review June 1991 1 I I 1

- computer time. There was one spot left, but it was very narrow. As I was attempting to maneuver To get to the library Itake Techwood drive, into it he kept commanding me in which passes through campus and into the progressively more militant tones to take projects. The first light Icome to after North him to the store. I was getting very nervous, avenue is Merritts street, and taking a right and as I was trying to park, I was watching turn there brings me directly to the library Miami Red at the same time. Before 1 knew parking lot. On this particular day,, I caught it, Ibumped into the car next to me. Luckily the green light at Merritts, and was in the I was goi-ngso slow that it didn’t hurt either midst of my right turn when a group of men of our cars, but after impact, Miami Red started to cross the street. This forced me cried, ‘Yo’a crazy whiaht boy1 Yo’ a crazy to stop in mid right turn whiaht boy]*Afterthis to allow them to pass. Iwas so unnerved that As the last man got I backed up my car across the street, he and said, “Okay, 1’11 looked up at me. I take you to the store.” looked back at him, and So he began guiding upon eye contact, he me deeper and deeper -started walking towards into the projects. my car. I have had many dealings with street At this point, I could I people (and this he tell that he felt he was looked like) and am in control. As we were always interested in driving along, fur no what they have to say. apparent reason, he This guy looked like he said, “Man. Ah hate

I “Man, don t’y git hagh?” 1 said, ”No I don’t he said, “Pull ovah.” I assumed we had get high.” He seemed disgusted by my anived at the store: It’s hard to tell the answer. After a few moments of silence I stores from the homes in this area because began to get nervous. I asked, “What is they are all identical square brick buildings. your name?” He said, “Mah name’s Miami He pulled out a cigarette, tore off the filter, Red. What’s yours?” I told him, “My name and lit it up. I waved my no smoking rule, not is Torrey.” He said, “Well look Tahrry, I’m so much far his present comfort as for my gonna call yaT. T, take me t’da sto’.” I said, future health. He turned his body sothat he “Ican’t take you to the store Miami Red, I’ve was sitting with the passenger door as his got to go to the library.” More militantly he backrest,and began hispsychopathictirade. commanded, ‘Take me t’ th’ sto’l” By this time we were at the library parking lot. “Look T, ya dun me a fava. Ahm indetted to 4

uti+ The North Avenue Review June 1991 ya man. Ya kno’ whaht Ahm sayin’ man? Red be a biggerproblem than speaking the Look, ya dun me a fava. I owe ya man. universe intoexistence. I, of course, waxed Look, Ah can help ya. Ya can do me afava, this philosophical after the fact. man, I got a job fo‘ ya. You can make sum monay. Do ya kno’ what I’m sayin’ man.!? After he had ranted for a few more minutes, Look, I owe ya mad” he said, “Take me back to the libr’ty.” I’m not sure what prompted this, but I was “Man, you saw that poleece car by the happy to comply. As we were driving back libtry. The poleece see me wid rnah friends, he said, “Man, de bole projecs have seen an win mah friens murder sumbody, they me wid you. Man yo’ inshured. Ya know associate me wid it. But man, I don’t kill what Ahm sayin’ man, yo’ inshured.” I sumone unless Ah got a probl‘m with ‘em. replied, “I really appreciate that.’‘ He said, Ya know what Ah mean]?” “What chu mean yu ‘preciate it? Man, you don’ kno’ what Ahm sayin‘ Essentially this was a man!” I guess 1 have no monologue. A few times he idea what he was saying, seemed to want a response but never the less, we to make sure I was with him, were arriving at the library, but he was talking at me, not and my saga was soon to to me. At this point I must end. confessthat I wasterrified. I thought this guy was going When we arrived at the to kill me. Why didn’t I get library, he came over to out of my car and run? 1 my side of the car and ’ don’t know. I think part of asked if he could have me was frozen in fear and a another part five dollars. Usually 1 carry no money or wanted to,ride this thing out. credit cards into the projects, but Iwas slack today and had six bucks on me. He was just Miami Red went on, ”Man, Ah got all these asking, but I was intimidated, and I wantsd plates in mah body. Do ya wanna see mah this guy to leave, so I opened my wallet and gun?” He started to reach into his seven or handed him the five. He saw the one and eight layersof clothes. I’m not sure why, but demanded that, so I gave it to him. He then these guys always have seven or eight walked off. Just before he blended into the layers of clothes. I quickly interjected, “No, woodwork I heard him say, “Nex’tirneyur in I don’t want to see your gun.* He then de projecs, y’ come t’ that coma an axe fo’ withdrew his hand, but continued to rant. I me. Evrybady knos Miami Red.” really thought I was going to die, and this scared me. I would tater be ashamed of I was really shaken up by this experience. I this. As a Christian, I didn’t think I feared had been pretty presumptuous when I death. I guess a week defense for my entered the projects, thinking I was feelings would be that 1 didn’t fear death in invincible. Ilearned avaluable object lesson it’s absolute sense, t just didn’t want to go that day. Ilearned that 1 shouldn’t test God, today. The thought of never seeing my so I now I lock my doors and avoid eye family andfriends again weighed heavy on contact with street ruffians. I faced death, me. It’s so human to go to church and and in a way I lost by fearing it. I’ll be ready praise God for hisomnipotence and absolute next time, though, and hopefully next time sovereignty, and then in a trying situation the occasion will come about under more deny His power to protect. Could Miami noble circumstances, and not because I lack street smarts.

The North Avenue Review June 1991 J.fn I

.. - _.-. .I . Rsagan marrins SluttBush Cuts Deal by Paul Philpott

Nancy Reagan is a bitch and a slut, or so secure a concession-free settlernenr. charge a contrived assortment of minor socialites in the Yet Ronald Reagan’s 1980 victory was hardly country’s hottest selling book, Nancy Reagan. An assured going into the November eklion. Seven days Unauthorized Biography by Kitty Kelly. The national before the ballot, every national opinion poll separatd press has launched an exhaustive investigation, Ragan and Carter by M more than two percentage committing huge chunks of feature copy armd editorial points. with neither above 50%. Pundits had agreed for space to this titillating psuedo-topic. months that Reagan would win onIy SO long as Cafter ’Ehe same national press meanwhile ignores didn’t gct the 52 hostages out of Iran by elmion day. an wen more shocking charge, one leveled against The Reagmush camp feared an “October Nancy’s husband and advocated by respected Surprise’-a hostage release just before elecuon day international citizens eager to testify in corn Ronald that would certainly rally rhe the swing voters around Reagan, as a 1980 presidential candidate, cut a deal the president and carry Jimmy Caner to re-eIection. with the Ayatollah Khorneini to hold Lhe 52 American They had wonLO fear such a surprise. Iraq had just hostages until afkr the election so as m ensure Jhmy invaded, and Iran was desperak to close lhc hostage carter’s defeat. front and the attendant arms embargo which kept Unlike the inconsequential fodder aimed at western powers from providing rnihtary hardware. Nancy, heahgations against her husband may The “October Surprise” scenario, as ii has compel a national crisis: the impeachment of George come to be called, maintains that the ReaganDush Bush, who as a Vice Presidential candidate supposedIy camp cut a deal with heAyatollah: Iran wouId keep consummated the hostage deal with his very own the hostages until after heelection, and the resulting handshake-an act of high freasm Reagan administration would release all Iranian assets And who would add currency to such an and sell Itan as many arms as they wantcd on an outrageous hypothesis? The LWO adversarial presidents ongoing basis. at the time, Jimmy Carter and Abolhassan Bani-Sa&, Perhaps Reagan and the Ayatollah didn’t cut a believe it or not, former aids to Reagan and Carter, a deal. But they sure behaved like they did. Within tcn CIA agent who testified in federal court lhat he minutes ofReagan’s inauguration, Iran released the witnessed the deal go down, Senate Majority Leader hostages; wilhin two months, hefirst of an unending Robert Byrd, national columnist Jim Fah. and the PES secession of American arms add four billion dollars of documentary hour “Frontline”. frozen Iranian asses headed for Iran, These are not your standard glue-sniffing Most people, of course, think that Iran radicals or talk-radio conspiracy nuts. Surely their released hehostages because they Feared Ronald story wmnts more public pIay than Time and Reagan. Not truc, says Iran’s then-president Bani- Newsweek’s recent cover expaws of Nancy on her Sa&. Months kfore the elmtion, he says. Carter Back. negotiators had finally agreed to rel~sethe assets and To wit: Though we’ve all forgotten, in 1979, sell non-lethal military parts, including for exampIe an lranian revdueion repiaced a hated despot, the shah cruciaI jet tires that had grounded the Iranian air force. Rem Pahlavi, with a beloved despot, the Ayatollah A desperate Iran declined the offcr even though it Khomeini. Carter ouhgdIran by harhring the wauId have spared them ever having to deal with the fugitive shah, and by freezing billions of dollars of suppsedly no-nonsense, trigger-happy Ronald Iranian government funds that the shah had stashed in Reagan. Why? Because a sweeter deal was on the U.S. banks. Ex~emistIranian students seized the table, a deal that the American president knew nothing American embassy in Tehran and took hostages that about. they hap& to frade for the shah and his pilfered Bani-Sadr-Iong since exiled to France €or money. his advocacy of a secular, democratic govmeril- I Carteh’S FCSidellCy -bled Bs he fded t0

.yc)t I] The North Avenue Redew June 1991 1 claims that Reagan’s campaign chairman William tumd them down. He was also forced tb admit that Casey hammered out the deal in Paris that October. He the Ragmush camp did in facl monitor events and also says that vice-presideria candidate George Bush oblain dacumenls via an informal intelligence network flew in to personally consummate the deal. that operated throughout Carter’s federal government Former Reagan employees support Bani- He however insisicd hat the network strictly avoided Sadr’s charge. Former CIA agent Richard Brenneke sabotaging Carter initiatives and stealing sensitive mMmd in federal court that he auended Casey’s Paris material. mecting, and was made awm ofa consequent The contents of Ronald Reagan’s personal meeting with Bush. Reagan’s former aid Barbara campaign file cast Allen’s testimony in a perjurous Honegger now claims in a new book that indeed Casey light The file contained documents marked ‘Top and Bush cut the deal in Paris. Reagan’s Secretary of Secre-Eyes On1 y” and “SecreVSensitive.” Stale Alexander Haig, when asked about it, neither Somehow. a private citizen campaigning for president denies nor affirms the allegations, staling only hat an accessed in 1980 documents that even today the public unaccountable U.S. arms pipeline to Iran opened in is not permitted to read. early 198 1. Because the shipments violated explicit Senate Majoriv Leader R&n Byrd has since U.S. policy, he tried unsuccessfully for years to stop called for inquiries into the matter. In April of this them or at least to explain them. year, PBS’s “Front Line.” Cox News Service’s Jim Some of the most damning “October Fain, and Columbia University Professor Gary Sick Surprise” evidence turned up during the “Debategate“ (who served under Carter) each insist lhat in all likely scandal. You may recall hat a congressional hod, Lhe “Ocmber Surprise” deal went down and investigation was prompted tollowing the revelation deserves close popular scruliny. Even Jimmy Carter that Reagan preparcd for the 1980 presidennal debates himself lends credence to the speculation, with a copy of Jimmy Carter’s very own debate guide “We... had reports since late summer 1980,” and skategy notes slolen from the White House. The Carter stated in 1989,“Ah1 Reagan campaign congressional subcommittee obtained ReagarJBush officials dealing with Iranians copceming delayed campaign phone logs, diaries, and files. The release of he American hostages. As you know. subcommittee uncovered the existence of a nework of former Iranian President Bani-Sa& mas stated] that for-pay informants and Republican sympathizers such an agreement was made involving Bud operating throughout the White House and CIA. Ail McFarlane, George Bush. and perhaps Bill Casey. I during the election, this network methodidly updated have trusted...lhat investigations and historical records the Reagan/Bush camp about the hostage situation with would someday let the truth k known.” classified documents and informal tip-offs. It was that Ah, hehuh. network that provided Reagan with Cmr’s &bate Maybe rhe ReagWush team didn’t cut a notes. dd. Maybc Bush himself didn’t personally extend the Anyone who plans to vote in the next handshake that kept our hostages captive far an exua presidenlial election should consider what else the six rnonrhs. But this much we do know for sure: sukommiuee found, besides confirmation that the Reagan’scampaign team did employ dirty tricks of a Rcaganl8uSh team indeed operated under the name more S~~~OUShan the Watergate slush funds and assumplion that victory was theirs ody if the hostages wire laps; arms and assets did unexplainably began weren’t free by election day. flowing from the U.S. IO Iran two monlhs aflw Reagan In Richard Allen’s phone log: took office; Iranians did approach lhc Rcaganmush >‘I3 Octok 1980. Hostage*all back in compound team with a delayed-relcaschostage deal: Iran did fast week. Admin. embargoed intelligence. release the hoshges at a time that denied Carter any CanJrmd.” ditand that maximized the highly-desired >”Parlid rclease of hostages for parts.” impression of Rcagan as the swaggering new sheriff in Z’WO release of anyone hfore election. Want to talk town; and a growing cast of unignorable personalities to Bush.” do now suggest that such a deal went down. Allen testified kfare committee that he could Clearly our fascination with benotches on recall whal none of those hardly-cryptic, highly- Nancy Reagan’s pwse-strap should be directed memorable entries meant, although he did recognize towards more conscquenlial matters. the handwriting as his own. As more evidence turned up, he was forced to admit that he was indeed approached by Iranians trying to cut a deal, but that he

til The North Avenue Review June 199 1 This is a short list of books with my this list, but these will have to do for terms with thernsehes and each descriptiverevicwsofthcm.his not now. If I had to pick which of these oiher.(The TV movie with Marlo a complete list of gay literature or I thought you must read I’d say Thomasas themother isavailableon even a very thorough one, There’s Loving Someone Cay. Consenring videotape and almost as god as the an incredible amount and variely of Adult, and Familiar Faces. Hidden book.) gay literature available today and Lives these are the ones which most continually growing and people (gay or not) will most need Ruhyfruit Jungle & In Her Day by diversifying, hmsci-fi and murder and which everyone can get Rita MEBrown: These two Iesbim mysteries to psychology, religion. sornclhing more from even if they novels by rhis southern wriler arc and humor. Toillustratethediversily don’t need them so dcsperatcly, and each witty, intel1igent.and insightful of this gcnre let me menlion some One Teenager in Ten would make a stones of strong women-loving- books I haven’t rcviewed here like very good short introduction to what women dealing with the world fn the lifea an anthology of black gay it can bc like growing up gay. around them, Kubyfruir chniclc’s male fiction; The Spirif and The Currently two hot areas for gay the life and loves of Molly Bolt as Flesh: Sexual Riversio in American nonficlionarehistoryand hemilitary she bucks Ihe system and the odds Mian Culfure.by Walter Williams; or @speciallythe history of gays in while being true to her self. Day Bi Any Other Name,a collection of thc militruy, so I added four books centers on the relations hip bctween a essays e&. by bisexuals abut king on hissubjecl to the cnd of the list, young rddfcminist lesbian and bisexual and the wuble relaLhg to and described as best I can what they her marc established middle-aged non-bi’i; variouscartooncoIIedons; are about even though I have not lover in Ihe early 70s. It faithfully novels like Dancer from the Dance read them yet. explores both of their viewpoints

The Quick and Easy Gay Book Review by Cary’McKeown

w SurprisingMyself.and collections and how they cause each other to like Women on Women or Men on The Well ofloneliness by Radclyffe grow, presents beautifully crafted Men, and many others. Plus them Hall: The frrst lesbian novel? views of a variety of diver= an gay newspapers and magazines, Definitely a classic, Hall did a individuals and relalionships, and local or regional ones like AIIanla’s wonderful job of pomaying the offers intelligent insights into he Erce1era, Southern Voice, and The lifelong oppression all gay pcople meaning and pitfalls of News or national ones like Outweek, are faced wilh still today and even ‘bmovements”.(Sudden Death is also The Advocate, and Frontiers just to the burch/femme and other a great lesbian-relationship novel, name hree I how of. homophobic stereotyping can’t this time between a professor and a For these reviews I only detract much from that pro-tennis player. It ddswih he chose books I consider great and by accomplishment provided you bear uptight world of p~~sports.the the way I think hekrosexuds will in mind hat it is stereotyping. scandalhungrypress,andconniving enjoy and benefit by them just as closet cases.) These three a storics in much as gay people, the term “gay Consenting Adult by Laura 2. which king gay in today’s worId is literature” is not synonymous with Hobson: A noveI about a mother just part of life €or many of the prn as I suspect many people will learning that her son is gay by a Ch2UaCt.el-X. assume, and all in all Iiterature is mother who learned thai her son is about being human. I can think of gay. Wonderful insight inm how Lming Someone Gay by Don Clark: several other great books to put on both the parent and thechild cornc to Best desuribed as everyding you

The North Avenue Review June 1991

I ever wanted to know about being how much has changed and it? Well. I’ll have to go out and find gay, it is an excellent bok; I can’t flabbergastingtosee how littie. This the book sometime and see. possibly do it justice. For anyone book and the man who wrote it were (According to a quote by the author, who cares about someone who is ruming points in gay history it is a people just disappeared from school gay, anyone who is gay, or anyone classic. Anyway ~e library has a suddenly withoutexplanations. This who thinks they might k.gay, it copy and Ihcrc’s a paperback reprint book is a little oIder than the other offemclear insights for anyoneabout now, so ga read this hk,gay people three of course they’re 1990 so it being gay in our society. A true should lcam some imprlant history probably isn’t that old, just ’88 of classici and he importance of not letting older.) others make you ashamed for no Gay Plays,theFirsr Collectionedited reason and thc rest of you might My Country, My Right to Serve by by William M. Hoffman: acollcction learn to stop being so cocky and start Mary Ann Humphrey: The personal ofsevedgay plays, theintoduction respcting othcrs for Lhcir worh histories of 42 lesbians and gay men done informs one immensely about (Speakin’ 0’ which-some o€ our in the armed forces from WWII to gay theatcr hislorically and in modern USC reps. might learn a lillle about the present. According to the blurb times (dehing it and listing a Cew gay sludent aclivis(s hy reading il or it is “a dmumentation of ongoing, dozen other gay plays) and many of ailellstrhe chapter ritled. ‘Epilogue: institutionalized oppression, yet ., the coIIected plays are excellent The Future’. also a tribute to the fonitude, humor entertainment. and insight of lesbian and gay Unlold Dccadcs, Seven Comedies of soldiers.” I’vemdonly twoexcerpts One Teenager in Ten edited by Ann Gay Rownce by Roben Patrick: but judging ham them 1would agree Heron: Twenty-seven short pieces Like it says seven plays by Robert and highly recommend this book. on king young and gay by male and Patrick all have been performed and fernalegay youth ranging in age from each is .set in a dillerent decade from Gays in UniJorm, (he Pentagon‘s 15to24. (Thisoneandhenextboth lhe 1920s LO the 1980s. This book is Secret Reports edrted by Kate Dyer: fit in thegeneral category ofcoming- on the list simply because I like it, This boobisacornpilationcontaining out stories, so do Behind lhe Mask each amy isdrlfcreni horn the o~hers. all the reports the DOD has and The Dave Kopay Siory, there are the characiers are warm, and the commissioned to examine its policy Lars of this kind teliing how olher plays are pod. I think any gay man of excluding gays from military peopIe came-out and what it was will enjoy seeing ‘bur”relationships service since that, policy was like, or how to corne-out to friends prtraycd rcalistically and with nfficiallyadopkdin 1943, as we11 as andfamily, technical descriptions of variety inthcsc stories set indifferent some internal memos and such the ways and reaSOns people come- times, locations, and siiuauons. regarding it. Despite the out or don’t, and various fictional Reading Ihe prerace should convince melodramatic subtille it sounds like accounts of the coming-out process, you LO read Ihe plays. an interesting bookespecialIyfor the like Conrenting Adult. We’re the budding gay activist or historian, only group I can thmk of that have Military History, etc. I want to read though I suppose that the reports this exp-ience and it’s one of our these, collectively they should give themselves might be dull dng. few common bonds, so corningat quite a piclurc. From what I’vegalherea itboilsdown is very impottant u1 gay people and to this: the reports say that the policy to understanding gay people, which Coming Oul Un&r Fire: TheIIisiory is unsupported and ineffective and is why we have developed a whole of Guy Men and Women in World the memos say eithw ”That’s not category of literature devoted to it.) WurU by Allan Berube: Semsclear what we wanted to hear.” or “There enough, miliiary gays in WWII with are many well qualified personnel Familiar Faces, Hidden Lives by information hinterviews,military with distinguished service careers, Howard Brown M.D.: An records, lerters and diaries, etc. doing theirpb superbly who you are autobiography. its clearly writlen, to locate and discharge immsdiately fun to read, and it tells the story of Dress Gruy by Lucian TruscoU IV if not sooner.” being gay in America from the 40s On homosexuality at West Point. I through the 70s. Its thrilIing to see klieve it was frowned upon, wasn’t

The North Avenue Review June 1991 $ Capitalism’s New Convert by Stephen Danyo, consumer

cDonald’sgleaming yellow arches grin as I Maybe this is what is at the heart of OUT m civilization and its disconknts: crass consumerism. drive by. I can’t resist that Big Mac pheromonic amaction. and I dive inside for some healthy Our perceived quality of life is to a large extent canspicuous consumption. Quick! Off with the bag, dependent on our purchases; and purchases are off with the Styrofoam container, off with the paper depednt on how much money we have. An inherent wrapper. Down the chute goes thetwo-aII-beef- contradiction arksince no one may buy everything p9tties-specimtl-sauce-lettuce-cheese-pic~~-anions~n- they think they need, they are bund to be unhappy. a-sesame-&-bun cornrnaty. The opposite may thus be true for some Back to the street: a drive-by looting in my six people: that every pmhase, every appeal to buy, milem-the-gallon Buick. Hey what’s that? A sign. A act‘urtlly reduces the quality and value of life. So we big, bigass btllbml welling me, shouting M the world must temper our consumerist tendencies. Quality of buy this toothpaste and yw’llfuck more ofien. Yeah, I life may be found only in intangibles; only inside the thinkIneedthat, individual may the starling point for quality life be I also need a new walch. A goid om. With found (aIthough individuals clearly are greatly little hands inside the big ones that tell me London dependent MI the human and biological community for time. A Ruiex. Speakurg of time, it’s time to get more certain necessities). Robin Williams’s characler in fuel, $1-74 u gallon?I! Well, that’s not tm bad. at &ad Poet’s Sociciy declares that we must suck the lastforme. AfbrdlI’I’maTechgmduate. lcan - marrow out of life; and life can‘t be suck& ihrough a afford it. ZC could be worse you know-1 could have dollar bill or a Big Mac containcr. A more organic died for the gas pumping into my car like the blood out form OF sucking is needed. of an Iraqi child’s head.... What is needed is community. And the left- Darting through lraffic, I finally arrive at my broadIy defined-ffers at least this possibility. Being dashation: the modern day town square: the Mall. on the left dms not mean Stabnisi authoritarianism, the Only at this town square no one hows anyone. There yoke of which was sbughed of1 by East European is Iiule exchange of human information, little red popular dissent Nor should it mean big government burnan interaction beyond the salesperson/cusmer Being on Ihe left daes not mean a lifetime of ignoble relationship, no significant experience besides (he and unprcductive complaint and unhappiness; quite the Purchase. All us shoppeas are concerned only with our opposite: the left, for me as a student, as an American, next buying fix, the consumer’s dope dependency. and as a human masnot treating pplemerely as The Purchase reveals its potential with every soulless gambiing chips in our casino economy. Left glance, in every shop, on every sign or advertisement. thinking means not treating our environment mweIy as Anything my sight falls upon attempts to catalyx my a private phypund for indusay. Left thinking need to purchase things into an actual transaction. signifies a deep commitment to democracy and alI it Everything &Us me to buy b Everything begs for entails. Left thinking is fundamentally life-affirming purchase (...and isn? she gorgeous, check out her tits! and optimistic about humanity’s ability m create a I’d like to buy hr,tm ...) and I just can’t resist. I want, future that does not reinforce alienation. to create a I Reed, that jacket. I want, I need, that tummy &mer poverty-less futufe of participatory community where or miniature Mount Rushmore replia. And if I don’t Iife is indeed worlh living, Essentially, left thinking is buy whatever it is then my quaIity of life is decreased, the political manifestation of human decency. its potential unrealized, and I om mkuppy.

** I The North Avenue Review June 1991 Black Crooks by Paul Philpott White fob around the ethnicsapplaudedandcheeredascheir Reagan/Bush dynasty that mmDch country grow increasingly disgusted lmders plundered public lmstrria him, to say the very least. dollar for at -can Americansandtheirmpt and subverted democracy. dollnr, and outrage for outrage. politicians. Blacks time and again Then there's the very Ronald Reagan and George elected a pig, Marion Barry, to lead peculiar tradition of white Southern Bnsh, it now seems, as 1980 running thenation's capital; they rally arwnd political corruption. Ria to the mates, cut a deal with the Iranian Atlanta plitim who pad pubb 19705, white Sw them o& ials staged government to hold the 52 hostages paydls wirh fat salaries for their not a single democratic election, six months longer as to ensure Jimmy lackeys and drain municipal coffers sanctionedlynchingsand mutilations, Carter'sdefeat. Duringhcampaign, with sweetheart deals for their and withheld public funds from a theypaidrnoIestostedCarter'sdebare campaign contributors; they try to population of tax-payers whom they notes and classified dmuments. As nominate for the presidency Jesse deniedthevooe. WhitecitiZenShaaed president, Reagan consistently Jackson, who for years used acharity and clapped as these terrible men opposed protectionist measures (Operation Push) m stuff his bank triedm"out-niggd eachother. Some against Japanese hpwts; within account and secure government and of these criminals still hold office, months of his leaving office,Japanex industrial conmts for friends and such as South Carolina's Smm business l&derSrewarded him with a relations. The list, whites say. goes Thurmond. who rode to the Senate in million dollar speaking fee that was anandon. 1948 on an "anti anti-lynching" arranged as government business by It seems to hem that blacks platform,andV~inia'sRo~rtByrd, Reagan's chief of staff navelling to aren't fit for the public trust. theSenateMajority Landformer Japan ae public expense. Today, Aswhitesscrutinizetoday's klansman. Bush's inner circle submits lavish, black politicians, they should Mercifully, we've all been non-itemized expense ascounts even remember thal these public figures spared a first-generation of bhck as he mils against budget fat. His represent the fmt generation of politicians whoareeitheras fraudulent Treasury Secretary owns substantial African GmwicanS to holdoffice since astheir whiteanmeden tsin theNorth. holdings in banks who've extended Reconstruction. That the first or as dangerous as those. in the South. enonnous loans w the. very bahpt generation of black office holders This moderation is especially Latin counmes that helobbies foreign seem inwdinareIy cormpt should suprisinggiventhatthevery fist time aid fm (aid that they will use to repay surprise no one. African Americans held office - those loans.), Bush's own m, with Early this centuy, che firs& during Reconstruction - their no banking experience, was named to waves of white immigrants - Irish, undisputed honesty (they remain the board of directors of a Sa,and Italian,8Jewish.Slavic -elected their huttheonly American group whose signed his name to hudulent lms fellowmen to public office,and fairly fist office holders did not disgrace that he now says he hadn't the cheered as hse fmt generation thedemocraticprocess) was rewarded ex@= to understand. pIiticians transformed city cash- with lynchings. shmtings. Jubbings, Yet no one therefore boxes inmpemd tills. Their history casb-ations, and human bon-fms. dismisses white politicians in general today reads like a how-to primer for Not only are today's black as graceless looters. . all manneaofkk - scra~g,comer- politicians neither as nauseating 85 Marion Barry and her cutting, surface-skimrning, tax- their white predecessws. nor as miscreants, even Reagan and Bush, shamming, hce-pimping. drug- vitriolic as they cwld reasonably and certainly Thurmond and Byrd, running.back-pedallhg,sidetalking, justify, they're really not any more belong in prison. But contemporary deal-making and election-fixing. loathsome than their white African American politicians in From New York's Tammany Hall to contemporaries. For every Marion general deserve no more of our scorn Mayor Daley's "machine", white Barry administration, there's a than their European American counterparts.

I: The North Avenue RtvIew June 1991s I The Aliens Around Us by Jeffrey K. Hostetler

After drinking a few beers with my brothers on the rest of he animal kingdom (in an evolutionary sense) the front porch, staringat the faint smintimidated by the by our ability to choose with whom we have sex and our Atlanta skyline, conversation tends to get deep. More ability to use tools. The sex bgis irrelevant, because often than not, depending on the amounts imbibed, the everybdy knows that Tech siudentsare hard up, but mls question arises, “I wonder if there’s intelligent life out are technoIogy. This article was wdtien on a computer. there?” We put satellites into space so we can watch MTV. We I too have uttered this question. more or less in use condoms to keep those hard up Tech students from that form, wondering if intelligent life exists elsewhere in conwacting unwanted members of the animal kingdom. the universe. But after watching The Abyss for the But primates also use mb. Birds make nests umpteenth time, a perplexing idea sent me into an all too from twigs, string, andmud; we build Astrodomes. Otters contemplative mood in the middle of my English class. break open oysters with stones; we open crabs with In theabove mentioned movie, a super-intelligent mallets. Vulturesdrop bones onto boulders to break hem race of ray-like creatures has resided at the httom of the open for the tasty marrow entrapped inside: we drop ocean for eons, and when it finally meets the human race dynamite into tunnels to exposerareclcments. Monkeys. (interestingly enough, they meet a nuclear powered especially chimpanzees (the species most like our own in ballistic missile submarine). thc alien race’s intentions bothamentat andphysicalaspect),havebeendocumented are imrnediateIy misunderstood and a Navy Seal team using sticks and rocks to defend themselves which opens tries to nuke them. The intelligent, alien race professes another realm of OUT “intelligence.” the technology to control water for mechanical means, Will we compare our “Big Guns and Missiles” sculpting kautiful machines in the same way that humans with the aliens when and if they comc? Humans are an build ships and planes out of metals. The aliens can also incredibly violeni species, but Imk at what our ancestors decompress people previously at terminal depths of had to deal with (in an evolutionary sense, of course): submersion. (which totalIy ruins the movie for the people lions and tigers and bears, oh my. Neady all of our who go to a Suprmon movie, watch him fly around the modem advanas have becn at the expense of human life. world ten times and then say it isn’t distic when he It’s a fact that wartime, or preparation far it,produces the crushes a lump of coalintoa diamond, but totally accepted most innovative invenuons. The space race was started the movie up to that point). out of fear of Ihc Soviets being able to drop nuclear 1 ask, “Is technoIogy the only indicator of weapons on the Unites States “like children dropping intelligence? Do the conventions of our race, such as stones from an overpass.”It’s true hat spaceage products tools, communication, and worldly achievementssignify have improved our standard of living, but onc must look legitimate evidence on which to judge 0th~potential at the source of those advances - they are by-products of forms of intelligence?” initially military interests. At a technical school such as Gwrgia Tech. the Perhaps the aliens will not be war-like. It‘s na average student may say, “Hell, yes technoIogy is thebest wonder that they haven’t made conlact, if hey truly have indicator of intelligence! Anybody knows that aliens visited the W. lf they aren’t militarily capable of come from galaxies far, far away and would be able to destroying us, we’d capture them, run a million tests on conquer the principles of physics such as the spead of hem, and dissect them. As a visiting alien, I sure as hell light. They’ll have photon mpcdces and protective wouldn’t stand farthat -especially from a hbarian race shields - I watch Star Trek!” of advanced, hairless monkeys. But what if technology isn’t the basis d But let’s suppose that tcchnology has nothing ta intelligence? As humans. we differentiateourselves from do with inlelIigence. Humans have always had thedesire

M+ f%tlI/ The North Avenue Review June 1991 to survive. reach out. explore, conquer, destroy. and reap; sacrifice. but there is a point here that most of us miss: and we’ve done this more and more efficiently with our those whales could have left that sick whale alone to die. ever advancing tools. ’ What’s to say that what we define but instead they accompany it to its death. Whales care as intelligence isn’t mwely a banal instinct - the instinct for each other. Sometimes this is more than can be said to survive? Now that we’ve conquered our own planet, for the human race. , reaped (raped) it of its naaml resources, and pushed even So where does this leave us? In the series of farther kyond it, into space,what have we overlmked in bo& under the title,A Hitchhiker‘sGuide IOihe Galaxy, our hurry to make sure that we are “safe“ from anything mice are satirically portrayed as the most inteiligent fon that might go bump in the night. “safe“ from disease, of life on Earth. As humans believe that they are putting “safe” from invasion and each other, “safe” from hunger? the mice through mazes, testing their inlelhgcnce, he The Abyss takes place almost entirely under mice, who have the ability to travel inkrdimensionatly, water, in theocean. We have scoured the planel, and save are in turn testing the human research scientists. It’s an far a few weird sightings of Bigfoot. compiled tons of interesting idea based on perceptional relativity (big information in expensive computers to help 11s recognize words) that makes ouradvanccd scientific methods seem signs ofintelligence and found no “intelligent” life on the stone aged and farcical. land. But what about the seas? At each end of the intelligence spcmurn, all Whales are, by far. the most intelfigent animals fmdings and conclusionsremain dishearteningly relative. in the sea. Their cooperation with divers, uainws. the It’s all tm easy for humans to claim to be the mosL military, and whother Cannot h overlooked, yet we intelligent form of life in the universc, but one needs only condemn them as inferior because they do not build to look behind the Scenes of our politics, busincss, and skyscrapers. use tools, grow their own food, poIlute their social behavior to doubt that claim. If a supxior racc atmosphere. kill each other in messy wars, or screw each should descend from the skies, how would we react? oher over for a few points on the stock market. Wodd we act with the demeanor and intelligence on Communication is a tml that we as humans rely which we brag? How would the religions of the world on far survival. We claim it to be one d our greatest react? Most of hem already bclievc bat we werecreakd differentiating assets, but birds communicate through in the image of God, Pondering ihese questions can be speech, as well as wolves, elephants, bats, and primates, both a healthy and a dangerous act’ to name just a few. The complexity of these languages I crhge when I hear of our race exploding varieS horn instinctivegruntsand expressions todistinct, nuclear weapons, killing each other for luxuries, and simplified codes, but m many of the languages are wiping out entire species of organisms for farm Iand or beyond our understanding to be dismissed as random hair-care products. I believe that here is slill much to be hoots and hollers. All of the above mentioned means of leamed and even more to be understd about our planel, communication are in the form of sound propagated and I would hope lhat the masses in a democratic society through the air. As a mawof fact. sound propagates or the influential minorities in an authoritarian saiety better through water, and it has been howfor some time thmkabout the implications of their actions. They affect that whales haveaspecific,complicated language through us all. which they communicate,bulitsspecficsm’timportant When the aliens land or the whales get really whales,likeall mammalsmeafiraidofdrowning. pissed off. I hope that we’ll be honorable enough to lay It is theorized that when a sick whale panics, it heads for down our weapons and tmls and be able to share Lhe shore, just as we would if faced with the prospect of contents of our minds. 0 drowning. whales owe lived on the land and through evolution have adapted to a Me in the seas, but they die when out of the water for extended periods of time. So why do entire pods of whales follow a sick member of the pod into hazardws waters, even when that whale is terminally ill? These pods often become beached and die.’ Weashumansmay~eive~asignorantself

lrll The North Avenue Redew June 1991 @ Accepting or Disregarding a Religious Philosophy

Atheists ~IKI by Rafael E. Hidalgo Jus€ Like the religious individuals solids that genemte are generally not idealistically one clear shadow, the religious compatible with each other. The athekt amuses religions individual's thoughts are always ch. Religion offers of restricting independent hougbt, while religious stability and direction to the thinking pmxss. The individualsshunatheistsfortheirdisbeIief on the existence consequent drawback. though, is that such a philosophy ofanomnipotent cream. Theessentialdifferewebetween guides thoughts to such an extreme that it hits these two viewpoints. though, lies not in their beliefs. but independent thought. Referring again to the model, this in how they deal with new ideas. In other words, the mind idea is represented by the fact that a dominating light of the atheist is structured to deal with each new idea and source will expose only one side of the solids. Thus, all experience in a manner much different to that of the thoughts are directed adclear, but incomplete. religiously inclined. Theirparticdarsbuctmsof thought must therefore be understood if an individual is to decide In contrast, the thoughtsof theatheisthaveno guidelines which palh to follow. This knowledge would alw help to follow. Consider a group of objects exposed to mu1 tiple towards the mutual understanding belween these two sources of light. Each solid generates multiple Contrasting viewpoints, superimposed shadows; this results in an unclear persmtive of the dimensional qualities'of the object. As an explanation example, consider the following Similarly, the atbeist's thoughts are exposed to so many patallelism betweenshadowsandemoiions.Theshadows different viewpoints that the possibility of discerning any that solid objects generate due to the dispIacement of coherence behind all these external ideas is very low. incident fight serveasproofoftheirdimensionalexistenm This is he main drawback of the atheists. The natural In a similar manner, the emotions generated in the mind advantage, though, is the inmsedmount of information by the expwience of external ideas give evidence of a to which they are subsequently exposed. For example, mn'sconscious existence. Thus, by comparing asolid theobjects in such asituationmightnotgenerateonecl~ objectexposedtoincident lightwith themindexperiencing sbadow,butall theirsides willbeexposed by themultiple external ideas, the interpretation of ideas by the human light sources. This implies bat the atheist's thoughts are, mind can be paralleled with the displacement of light by more informative, even though they are diffused by the a given configurationof solid objects. This paradigm can multiplesourcesofexternalideas. Thisclarityof meaning be develop furher by comparing an established experienced by the atheistscan be exemplified further by philosophy, such as a religion, with a dominating light considering the overall landscape of their ideas. sotme. For example, a person who faithfully follows the teachings of Buddhism would be paralleled by an object Consider a bunch on solid objects grouped together; that pmduwone single, clear shadow due to the presence tfitsrepresentsthemindoridea~~~ofanindividual. of one main light source (Le. Buddhism). This functional If this bunch is exposed toone light source, each object in model can now be used ta Contrast the mind of the atheist the pupwill generatean independent,divergingshadow. with that of the religious indivdual. In other words, the thoughts of the religious individual will naturallydiverge from any conclusions. On the other To compare both ideologies, lets consider the hand, consider this same bunch ofobjects u)be smunded consequences of accepting M disregarding a religious by multiple light sources. Each object will generate philosophy. Refearing to the parallel model. faithfully multiple sha@ws that will eventuallydiffuse with others. following a religion is repmtcd by a group of solids The result is an overlapping of shadows horn difkrent (Le. ideals within the individual mind) exposed to one objects, This overlapping can be considered m rqmsent main light source (Le. a mIigjous philosophy). The aconmtingof ideas that will naturally lead the hdividual advantage of such a limited exposure is focused thought. to informative conclusions. Therefore, the lack of a

** * The North Avenue Revlcw June 1991 religious philosophy allows the individual to experience a clarity of meaning hard to experience otherwise due to the US/ Japan lack of contrasting idea. These observations are very I. helpful in reaching several conclusions hutthe need of Intercultural accepting or disregarding a religious philosophy.

The principal why most individuals embrace a Societv UDdate reason 1 J, religion is the security feeling it represents. Not only do religons provide mental stability, but they project this stability into the future. In other words, relig~msprovide the individual with a predetermined ideal path through the ,As you may have read in previous years in exchange for faih. The problem lies in the NAR issues, we have been busy fmning an imphtionsdfahhhl worship. It means not only believing intercultural scciety. purpose of everything taught by the religion. but usually shunning The US/ Japan is to provide a support base for anything it disapproves of. Therefore. as a trade-off for mental peace, the individual sacrifices expanding his Japanese students and faculty at Tech, and to knowledge beyond those ideas encompassed by hislhers effect cultural interchange. At this time, we particular religious philosophy. In conmst, the reasons have been online for about six-nine months. behind thc dccision to be an athcist are very different from We have been chartered as a Graduate those just discused for the religious individual. Student Organization, but welcome all interested faculty, staff, GT students, and The choice of healheisi is one based on a craving for language institute students. knowledge. As was previously discussed, the dmegardof We are in the process of forming a religious philosophy allows he individual to explore pockets. Pockets are small groups of . many varied sources of ideas. Because of this craving, members who will meet regularly and learn though,atheism in fquenrlyassociated withegmnttism. about each other’s culture. Pockets will atheist. everyone, is searching for The like constantly effect cultural interchange by providing something to Mieve in. By dimgarding religion, this day- to-day search for inspiration will usually turn inwards, towards social activities. We meet monthly, the self. Thus, the misinterpreted selfishness of which and at each meeting we have a speaker. atheist are accused is nothing bur a natural scrtrch for In particular we need American inspiration. There is one main advantage for the atheists, students to get involved. The potential for though. By taking heriskof not folIowing areligion, hey growth and learning in this group is are free to find their own path. Thus, as a trade-off for unlimited, Please direct inquiries to the knowledge,theatheistsacnfrces thementat security offered address below. by religions. . US/Japan Intercultural Society In conclusion, there a& advantages to hthaccepting Programs Area and dmegarding a religious phiIosophy. The choice is Student Center simple:accept thestabilityoffeaedby~ligion,orriskitfor Campus the sake of increased understanding. The division does not have to be as clear as that. though. The trick lies in gaining understanding of be implications of both choices before selecting either one. If both alternatives are properly considered, once Ihe decision is made, the individual will remain sympalhetic with the other persuasion because he/ she will better understand the motivations for following the other path. Thus, choosing a certain path wilI stop implicating the rejection of the other.

The North Avenue Repitw June 1991 HWI

Y I LUNACY The thooghhts of a person The Truth WiIl Out who truly wonders if he is (another aspect of being pissed off) iniane How many peopIe have never on a a collection of been poem and prose date with a member of the opposite sex? Please tell me I’m not the only one, and don’t assume by Hiram Horton Hanthrope I’m homosexual. (Nooffense tothe homosexual community. I believe you have the right to have Pissed Off feelings for of the same sex, I just (and not willing to do anyrhing abut it) someone don’t share these feelings.) I did try to get adate Today, I am pis& off. I’m not sure why, there in high school, once. Of course, I failed is no valid reason: I’m just pissedoff. I told my hendthat miserably! Those kinds of results can sure put I felt this way, and he said How can you be upset on such a damper on any future attempts. My record is a nice, warm, sunny day? I told him it was a shilty day! now 0 for 1. If T knew I could change this to 1 Besides. the weather is absolulely meaningless when one for 2, I might try; but then the prospect of being is in such a mood. How clueless could he be to make a 0 for 2 just destroys all confidence. How does stupid comment like that, but E knew he understood; he one overcome such a deficit? I would probably just didn’twant to let me spoil his day, for which I’m glad be a bachelor for the rest of my life if I failed for him, I guess. twice. I hope some of these feelings actually It rcally isn’t safe for me to drive today. I hear ring home to you, I hate to think I’m all alone. brakes squealing and pcopIe swearing at me over their (I do also pity you if your life is as miserable as horn blasts. Fuck them! Thcy should know better than to get near me when I’m in this md.It doesn’t mawr that mine.} Alone is definitely not what I want to be. it was my fault, I just don’t care anymore. I should know, I’ve experienced it for 19 years, My friend also mentioned that I should be and I’ve hated every bit of it. I will admit, it is thankful just to be alive. Yah, Righl! What hnd of life my fault that I can’t get a date. I have absolutely do I have? Even if I did enjoy Me, who the hell am I no self-confidence when it comes io women. I supposed to thank for it? have this petty infatuation for a certain gal who I think I know why I’m in this mod, it’s a girl. I am too afraid to ask out. “Infatuation” is the Isn’t it always? (Nooffense ladies, but you must feel the perfect description here, because I think she is same way about us guys sometimes, too) I find her absolutely perfect and truly believe she does attractive. and I think she and I would be great together. share these feelings about me, In fact, I doubt But I’m she has absolutely no interest in after all. sure me, she even knows I or cares for that she’s a senior and I’m a sophomore, but what’s a few who am, matter! (I told you I have self-confidence.) years between us, besides the fact thai she doesn’t even no know who Iam. Sure, maybe1 should try and ask her out. Sure, maybe if I were to ask her out I would that’s what everyone tells me. But I don’t see them know all the answers to my questions and self- practicing what hey prcach. The chances of me asking doubts. That’s probably exactly why T haven’t hwout areprobably less than thechancesofyouwinning done it yet. I use the word “yet” because I still heFlorida lottery without a ticket. My life would be a have an inner desire to how these answers, hellof a loteasierif she would just askmout. Do women even though I don’t want to know them. I hate actually ever do such ihings? Even if they did, it would that! I wish she would walk up to me and telI me never happcn for me! I have absolutely Mself-confidence. that I am a total jerk, then I wouldn’t care Don’t you realize that’s why I’m pisscd off in the first anymore. I never get what I want. place? H.H.H. H.H.H.

Tho North Avenue Revlew June 1991

I My Feet Axe Not %ad

why are my feet $0 ghostly white? My legs are dark, even somewhat red An Imaginative Concept And my arms and hands show a reasonable tan. For all the sun I get, I ~lcewas told I cannot alter the hue of thase ghastly, ghostly feet That the onty thing I could Be sure d Maybe it's beEause I'm always wearing shoes? Was my own existence. Ah,but this reason is too simple1 That it was perfectly That whiteness is death, my Feet represent Reasonable a part of me that is dead. To assume all others and all events This part of me paled, lackmithe bldof life Are a figment of my imagination. And stank the stench that maks me vomit I know this to not be true! a For if all things around me Yes pan of me is dead! Were created within my mind, But I know CPR Surely I would be happy. And tomom I Why would I surmund myself shall revive it. With a sea of people who do not For tomorrow I shall wear no shoes. Make me happy? Why would I imagine an environment And all shall stare in awe! As dreary as its name, 'Tech"? H.H.H. Why would my Life be a cms&.int Struggle to define myself for mysem Only if I could take my imagination, And turn it into reality....

H.H.H.

Know It All: Know Nothing

I must say more. for I have so much more to say. Those wbo speak Greek would refer to me as a "wise fool." For although I how much, truly 1how but nothing. After dl that I have been taught, can I say I have learned anything? Am I now able to give answers to the questions of the world? Will I now pass the lest of life? Will my existence and my deeds ever be of any consequence to others but myself? No, No, No, Maybe! Maybe, just maybe, I can enlighten others with the knowledge that they, too. will enlightened. Knowing this, they will know all here is io know.

H.H.H. 1 turn to you with bubbling gagging pteas burning the lining in my throat pouring from my sockets in foamy white poison 1 lift my eyes to you showing redlined rims showing sleepless hours revealing my insecurities I spread them around you like yardsale trinkets I watch you I can't tell for sure run your fingers over them Myinitial doubb wem absconded, ' appraising them But as time worn on, New doubts m. as I stand behind the tree peering over roots Now I question mywE around limbq DOESIXREAL;LYMAXTEEt? and peeling, bug-filled bark I set off in searchof I see you noticing fulfdhent of ancient, forgotten b my humming throat then I hear it too It wouldn't have to me and I wonder Hadthingsgone as planned. can you explain to me were just object the ph You an in , the meaning of my tone You wemn't supposed to come to life. the meaning of the sale the sale of my parts but you turn you turn your eyes and hands to the scattered wares fingering them once again, with the clumsy hands of a bored consumer as I cringe sweating sadness and restless hope wondering daring to wonder do you ignore me or are you thinking searching for me there?

4123191 By Jeffrey K. Hostetler

Pastor Willams walked suburban, pre-planned housing had kept his doors open on gracefully through thechurch’s development had made several Christmas Eve and every year dimly lit halls, his Ioose fitting builders very rich and given was pleased to find that a slacks swishing. The sterile Texas one of its most successful pastor’s presence was always stone floors and cream colored public school systems, Thehigh necessary. Even though walls made the church look like school, middle school, Newgate Forest was a model a school, but the elegant elementary school, and community, functioning like decorations and woodwork kindergarten were all Iocated some well oiled American were breathtakingbinthe main in a centralized location, the machine: Christmas decora- gathering room, a maximum other feeder schools residing tionscontests, capacity crowds capacity facility capable of on the fringes of Newgate’s at basketball games, EasterEgg seating fifteen hundred sprawling borders. It was a hunts, beautiful prom night worshipers. mdelof planned progress. The gatherings, monstrous Fourth Williams had come to pastor’s brother, Vincent, had of July parades and fireworks the New gate Forest subdivision also started up a church in a displays, community -wide ten years ago when it was not similar situation created by the Labor Day block parties, yet completed. The church had same contractors, but it was in unmatched football game grown from a small the first stages of development, attendance, and a Halloween II congregation dwarfed by their consisting only of forty night that lived in youngsters’ surroundingsto an overflowing compIeted homes Williams minds forever, not to mention a mass of worshipers which looked forward to its success, PTA, homeowners association, required three Sunday masses though; hundreds of homes Rotary CIub, and Women’s and a Saturday mass in order to were in the works, and Club that pulled the several fie them all through that Vincent’schurch was growing. hundred home community their souls would be saved for Pastor Wiiliamspushed together weekly; Newgate was another week of sin. the cracked front dmrs closed not without its common family Newgate Forest was against the bittercold and biting problems: teen suicide, drug neither a nch neighborhaxi, nor wind outside. It was Christmas abuse tearing families apart, did it cater to the poor. This Eve. For eight years Williams minorcrime,death, depression,

The North Avenue Review June 1991 --

broken hearts, and general civil Newgate Forest’s constables. and moisture with him. His disobedience. Their inflexible temperament breathrattldand wheezedfrom On Christmas Eve never worked to a teenager’s between white lips. especially, these problems advantage, and in Josh’s case, “Whoah, young man. seemed-to seep up from the this rang true. So Josh had What’s the-,” ordinariIy sane woodwork of hoofed it to his girlfriend’s The boy’s eyes were family holidays and wander house and then to the movie. wild with fear. Panic had taken their way into the church, Then the fireworks started even controlofhismind,buthissense crying, flushed, confused and before thecartoon was finished. had remained long enough to broken. The pastor had just Josh was reported as having get him in &e direction of the driven a balding man in his late slapped the girl in the theater, church. forties home after he had causing her to flee in tears, and “Help me,” the by stumbled into the church in then left out the fire exit at the whined, staring out the front tears, crying for his lost son, back of the theater. The police window, trying to penetrate the The boy had run-away three had checked up on this story, darkness. The pastor watched weeks ago and not returned. the last time that Josh was seen the boy’s face intently, seeing The police had had no success by human eyes, and told the the youth and terror there, in finding him. Jim Brantley’s father who toldpastor Williams. feeling the magic of that sonhadbemahighschooldrop- “I’ll have to do combination. “It’s coming - out, a dope head, and a general something about those it’s coming for me!” nuisance to the community - constables,” Williams thought “NOW calm down, until December eighth when he aloud, staring out the front young man,” Williams said didn’t return home after window next to the doors. It smoothly, taking the boy’s walking to the near by mall to was raining lightly, but the wind shoulder and leading him into see a dollar movie with his girl and intense cold made it almost the auditorium. The boy was fiiend. Josh, heboy in question, unbearable to stay outside for shaking uncontrollably; icy had lost his driver’s license two any extended period of time. droplets of water ran from his months before on DUI and MIP Williams turned around soaked hair and dripped fmrn charges. He was stopped by a and walked toward the his shirt. He wore no coat; constable and busted forhaving auditorium’sdoubledoors. The “Awfully chilly out. bad breath and an empty beer soundof shoes slapping through Where’s your coat?’’ the pastor can in the front seat of his puddles made the pastor turn asked in vain. The boy merely Mustang. around. A boy of sixteen burst looked around the familiar If there was anything through the front doors, church, peering behind every Pastor Williams disliked it was bringinga gustof freezing wind pew and into every shadow.

-~ ~ The North Avenue Review June 1991 “Young man, you’re driving accident, not her fault, - “Well.. .hassmokin’. going to have to tell me your sister of eighteen, lived in the My dad and me were fightin’. name kfore I can help you.” East Section, attended church He hit me,and I ran out. Th-th- The boy’s blueeyesmet regularly - Sunday service, then it came!” The boy’s eyes William’s dark brown ones, and second. had gone back to their glazed, his tongue loosed. “Does your fatherhow wiry state, dancing around in “Matt. . .Matt Willres.” where you are?” Williams their sockets. “NOW, Matt, from asked. Williams could feel the whom are you running on such Matt shook his head; his boy’s heat, now. It came off of a dreadful night? You should big blue eyes looked as delicate his young body in healthy be home with your family.” as the day he was born. waves. His breath, though, still Williams could see the boy “Does your sister wheezed, evidence that slipping away from him again. know?” smoking was taking its roll. He was regaining his body heat, Again Matt shook his Williams pitied the youth who and his hands had stopped head, but very slowly. ruined their health and minds. trembling, but his eyes still “Hmmm?” They were useless baggage on searched for a way out, an “Well, she hows that I humankind’s briIliant tour. emergency exit for an unseen was in the bayou . . .” Such unhealthy cattXe needed emergency. “What were you doing to be slaughtered, When so “You do live in in the bayou?’’ Williams asked, many worked so hard toachieve Newgate, don’t you?” picturing the drainage system’s goals high above their peers’, The boy nodded, equilateral walls and tunnels, their struggles should not be c relaxing a little. He and the each ravine twenty feet deep. It devalued and held back by so pastor were standing half way was a hang-out for playful many worthless stragglers, down the center aisle to the youngsters and, unfortunately, sponges on scciety, leeches on main altar. Williams could the rebellious teenagers who the body of humanity. . smell the fear on the boy. He had gotten into drugs and found “GOsit on the frontpew couId also smell the irritating a safe place to stash their dope and prey, young man. I’ll call presence of stale cigarette and piIls and other your father. He’ll be relieved smoke. Looking into his paraphernalia. to hear from you - you could earmarked family files, “Nuthin’.” have frozen to death outside!” WiIIiams tried to remember the Williams winked at the Matt wanderedforward Wilkes family. Soon it came to boy and said, “Come now,you and fdowed William’s orders. him: father of forty-three, no can tell me. I won’t tell your The pastor walked briskly to mother - killed in a drunk father.” the front door and awaited the

The North Avenue Revlew June 1991 arrival of the other. They enhanced its night vision took one last lwk at the pastor, it was waiting outside, in the same manner. hissing in humph, revealing a looking in the front window. It Now those eyes thin, white tongue that flopped hew the boy’s whereabouts, scowled at the pastor, and it hungnly in that pernicious maw. but was hesitant to enter the hissed like acat,revealinglong, And it slid into the auditorium church’s respected and pointed teeth where sane, flat silently. The doors closed on hallowed halls. The pastor teeth should have been. They themselves with a double click. opened the front door and also looked feline, carefully Seconds laterthere was a girlish motioned for the creature to adapted to tearing flesh, scream, a slurp and wet tear of enter. Even afterthe doors were especially that of the throat. ripping flesh, and the sound of closed, a cold draft came from Williams shook the feet being dragged effortlessly the creature’s direction. creature, speaking in a rasping along thick carpeting. “The boy is near the voiceinto its ear. Thecreature’s Williams walked back altar, He is full of warmth,” the attention, despite its origin in down the dim hall toward his pastor said, looking into the great intelligence, was office. Again the pastor’s slacks creature’s bloodshot, yellow incredibly hard to hold Like a swished around its gaunt iegs, eyes. cat, its mind worked a simple “Constables,” it It could be easily equation of chase. Little could mumbled, gracefully striding mistaken for a man: it moved distract it from its goal. down the hall in a thoughtful with a human’s signature gate “The boy is warm and trance. It stopped in hntof a and wore a man’s clothing and calm. You arecold as the night, large mirror that had been wench coat, but one look at its half dead, and hungry. Feed donated by a now wealthy face would tell the truth. It my son. Feed.” Williams let go young boy whom Williams had looked past the pastor, staring of the creature, releasing his helped get into Yale some years at the crack of light in the grasp on its bony, but powerful back. My how WiIlams had auditorium’s double doors. shoulders. loved that boy. Today he was a Williams slapped the The creature glided to successfu~corporate iawyer in creature to get its attention. Its the doors, moving with a grace New York Ciry, and the minor skin was ice cold and fm,and lost by the human race cans was one of the pastor’s favorite its eyes burned with an intensity ago. Its yellowed, gaunt body donations. I found only in the greatest of was a tangle of tension and “If only more human predators: the reddish brown strength. Long hands grasped children were as productive,” it I ovals seemed to glow in the the auditorium’s door handles, sighed, winking in the mirror, dimly lit hall, but it was only a and curling fingernails, admiring the way that its eyes trick of reflected light, like a formerly talons, clicked reflected the dim lighting - like cat’s or dog’s or deer’s eyes. wickedly against the brass. It cat’s. The North Avenue Revlew June 1991 I by Jillanna Babb

She remembered hating the visits to Aunt Sometimes, for no apparent reason, one of the geese Vera’s house on the hill. Her mother would force her would gurgle or squawk as if sommne had called it a to go, not physically, but through the art of dirty name and lunge at Clara or her mother, usually at I manipulation. She would Imk down on CIara Clara, with its sharp beak open like scissors, ready to disapprovingly, her brown eycs radiating golden shards slice an ankle or at least ruin a gdskirt. At first, of blame into Clara’s pale blue ones until the gd feIt Clara would scream and hide behind her mother when too guilty not to go on the monthIy and sometimes one of the geese had a fit Ilke that, but she learned hat I weekly trek to the old woman’s dark, hickly decorated they were as easily scared as she was and she began I house. They would trudge up Ihe mountainside reacting with angry words and flapping arms. Once driveway, lifting their skirt? high to kmp them from when she ran ai an offending goose in this manner, she dragging in the rcd mud They couldn’t drive up the caught a glimpse of herself as if from the outside and driveway, ironically, because it was so dceply rutted she felt a horrible meIting sensation in the core or her and perpetually quicksandlike. even during ihe summer belIy. She was acting jus1 like one of those ridiculous droughts. that no car or truck or even four whcd dnve geese, she realized. She felt disgusted with herself. jeep with chained tires could manage the ascent. She said something about it to her mother, who As far as CIm knew, the old woman had shrugged and said, ‘That’sthe only language they never left her hdl. Perhaps she was m feeble ta walk understand, I guess.“ down thc mchcrous driveway. She had no mson lo “I guess,” Clara agreed reluctantly as she leave, anyway, because she grcw her own vegetables in -picked up a sparkling piece of fool’s gold and iossed it the srndl but fruitful garden behind her house, Squash, at the hissing gmse, “I hate these stupid geese!” green beans, tomatoes. and even a few corn stalks The guinea hens never tried to auack Clara. sprouted alongside parsley, carnip, sage, and many They were bo silly. They couldn’t even walk straight. more mysterious herbs which Clara did not recognize. The cluckmg, murmuring birds walked around wih Once she had venturcd ta ask the shrunken old woman their kaks hanging open, just like that rcmdcd boy in abut he herbs and had regretled it, Aunt Vera knew Clara’s class at school who never closed his mouth and numerous uses for each herb and she recited them all to drooIed on his misused (in CIara’s opinion) norebooks. the fidgeling Clara. her bright marbled blue eyes The guinea hens wandered around in circular patterns, rcflccting Lhe late afternoon sun like a placid lake. unabIe to break from their winding and rewinding, like Clara had not been able to listen to the old woman’s a tape player with only two buttons and no PLAY or explanations kauseshe was hypnotized by those EJECT. Their circles and figure eights sometimes inuiguing eyes. In hem,green dgae swayed and widened and shiftcd to other parts of the yard, but the squined fish flashed their scales flirtatiously. Aunt brainless birds never went far and they never broke Vera’s feeeble voice could not compete with the life in from their patterns. They ran into ucm and walls and her eyes. Instead, it faded to background noise, sometimes hey even collided with the legs of a goat or blending with hedistant croaking of the bullfrogs and the milkcow. Once when Clara had commented to her the cluchng and fussing of hegeese and guinea hens mother about the ignorance of the birds, her mother I that pecked at the dm in the driveway and chased each told her that when it rained he hens would stand out in olher like ill-mannered children whcn one of them ii with their necks tilled back and their beaks open and discovered a grasshopper or a crunchy tee&. =me would drown. Clara could picture the dumb Clara haled those birds. The growling, buds drowning themselves in the rain and she wished 1 hissing gcese and he stupid, gadding guinea hens that shc could see it because she would laugh rally hard. always greeted her and her mother as they ascended the Clara wasn’t sure if she bated the geese or the boot-suchng driveway were the worst part of the guinea hens worse. She did know. however, that she visits. They would hobble towards hw and her mother, hated Aunt Vera more than anything that lived in her clucpng and whining like spiIed children. yard. She hat& eniering that dark, stagnant-aired

I The North Avenue Review June 1991 I

house with the stained doily tablc tops and singing lcamed to sulk continually. Soon she did it water pipes. The plumbing in the house had a life and unconsciously. She kgan to sulk even when she was pwnrmlity of its own. The shower drip@ in erratic having fun, even when she wasn’t at Aunt Vera‘s. heartbeat rhythm, the water heater wheezed and , Aunt Vera never commented about Clara’s coughed, the faucets whined and complained and wen sulking, but her mother reprimanded her for it sang the blues sometimes in the late dternoon when incessantty. the sun shone golden and mukd through rhe frayed, “Your mouth wiIl freeze that way!” She molded curlains of the kitchen window. Clara never would warn Clara with a frown. Clara would just tum spent much time inside Aunt Vera’s house. She felt away. She despised her mother for making her go to like an imposter, Aunt Vera’s cats glared at her hm Aunt Vera’s. She just wanted to go home. She felt their hiding places in disbelief. How dare sk invade very insecure at Aunt Vera’s, as if someone had taken their dark, mothball-scented sanctuary? away all of her hlongings and she was left, all alone, Aunt Vera’s house was full of cats, and they standing defenseless on the sharp end of a needle. were always hiding. If Clam sat on he couch, a cat Aunt Vera didn’t cmif she visited. she thought, would scurry out from under it, only to disappear as because they rarely lalked or even looked at each other. quickly as it had apm.If she cIosed a door, a cat She and her mother would knock on the crooked, would gaze at her resentfully, angry that its hiding shrunken door if Aunt Vera was not outside in her place had kendiscovered. Thcre were cats in the garden and she would come to the door a few minutes kitchen cabinets, cats in the claw-fmtcd tub, cats on later, followed by a train of opium-eyedcats, and greet top of the doilied dresser, between Chaucer and an Clara’s mother with a toothless smile. She either encyclopedia of herbs on the bookshclf, under the ignored Clara or asked who she was. Clara’s mother television, on top of the tclevision, behind the would say, ‘This is my daughter, Clara May.” Aunt television, on Clara’s discarded jacket. Everywhere Vera would gaze into Clara’s eyes wilh her tiny blue she looked, a cat was hiding. ones, which lay cushioncd in folds of sngging skin like Aunt Vera talked LO the cats more than she sapphire marbles dropped in mud. Clara always ’ Wed to Clara or her mother. She had named every looked away first Aunt Vera and hcr mother wodd animal, all fifty or sixty of Lhcm, and shc called each’ disappear together, usualIy. leaving Clara to entertain name when she fed them. She sounded likc a herself. The cats woddn’t play with her, hegeese perversion of Santa Claus. were too mean and the guinca hens ma boring. the cow “Here, kitty kitty! Here kitty! Hcrc Leslie! was too placid and the goats wcre too wild. Clara Here Renal Here Isis and Sissy! Hcre Keila! Here spent a lot of her time silting in the yard, wishing she Nina! Here Ruth and Suzanne! Here Karen1 Here could go home. Aaron! Here Binky! Here Rosc!” “Why do we have m go to Aunt Vera’s It took her half an hour to feed the felines. again?” Clam asked her mother one especially languid She fed them twice during every visit that Clara and day in Iate August. She’d asked her the same question her rnolher made to the hilltop house. The suange part several Limes but had never been satisfied with the was that every cat knew its name and they always answer. materialized in the order that she callcd them. This “Because she‘s lonely, Clara’s mother told ritual intrigued Clara. her, her eyes fixed on the rutted mud of the driveway, Actually. many things about Aunt Vera’s “She dmsn’t have a family.” house hrrigucd Clara. She felt rcpulsed by her Clara had known that. She had never really interest. however, because she hated going to Aunt thought abut why they cdled her Aunt Vera, Vera’s, and she didn’t want to enjoy the visirs. however, and il suddenly bothered her. Clara spenr most of hcr time at Aunt Vera’s “Why do we call her Aunt Vera if she’s no1 sulking. She sulked as she watched Aunt Vcra feed the even kin to us?” she asked her mother as she scanned cats, she sulked while she helm her mothcr pluck the way ahead for angry geese or silly guinea hens, green apples from the gnarled. bcnt tree beside be “Urn , .. I’m not sure,” her mother struggled bam, she sulked as she I@ to milk thc peaceful, She slipped on the rust red mud but regaind her drum-bellied cow. In wmweather she sulked as she balance before her knees could hit the ground. sat in silence under the blossoming pear uecs, “Granny always called her that,” she said. watching the white petals fall like Spring snow, and in “Oh.” Clara murmured. still unsatisfid. cdd weather she sulked h the house as she shivered by Aunt Vera was so old that Clara could not the fire, wrapped in one of Aunr Vera’s quilts. She even guess her age. She had been visiting her for as

~~ ______~ The North Avenue Revlew June 1991 .

I long as she could rememh and she couldn’t picture knob until the noise stoppea.) ‘I her any older or younger than she was now. She didn’t Clara never would have thought back then lmk like anyone’s aunt, either. She was crouched, like that she’d wntinue visiting Aunt Veta even after her a crab, with stiff-angled elbows and soft, melted mother died. ActuaIIy, she never would have imagined mozzarella skin. Her age-bleached hair grew wild on that her mother would diwver. But she had. ha head Bewheat on a hiIlside. It was Iong and she Cancer. The same kind that Mkilled Clara’s never bothered to puU it back in a bun like Clara grandmother. With both women it had begun in the thought all aId Ides were required to do. Each strand ovaries and spread. Eventually it reached the throat had a life of its own and her hair stood out several feet and lungs. Clara didn’t know much about the disease mund her face and shoulders, making her small, thin- except that it had killed her mother and her mok’s I featured face shnnk to he size of a walnut. Her eyes mother, weakening them first as only a cowardly saved her face from fading away altogether. They disease like that could, and wearing them down into scinlillated with unnening brightness, the sunlight pale skeletons of their former selves until they kind that causes blindness if stared at long enough. eventually succumbed, mercifully. Clara had seen both Clara feared Aunt Vera’s gaze. although the old women die and she feared the disease more ban woman never recognized her. She dways knew anything, even Aunt Vera’s geese. Clara’s mother, however, and had no problem During the months when Clara’s mother was distinguishing between hcr cats. She could recognize fading the fastest, after her once Iuminewnt brown any one of them all the way across heyard. She could eyes had lost their flecks of gold and gmn, Clara had even recognize them wer. Her recognition surpassed not visikd or even though about Aunt Vera. She had the limits of vision. never gone there wirhout her mother. She had never Clara had never asked her mother who Aunt desired ta go. Standing in the throbbing heat of the Vera was or how her grmdmother had known her, but July sun at her mother’s funeral, however, she thought that had seemed irrelevant back then. Besides, she’d she saw Aunt Vera standing right outside the crowd of fell as if Aunt Vera was just another member of the shn-faced, church-clothed relatives. She realized that family, anoher elderly kinspcrsun she was obligated tr, she was hallucinating, however, because, number one, L visil. But Aunt Vera was very different from Clara’s Aunt Vera never left her hihp house. and number other relatives. She never demanded kisses, she never two, the Aunt Vera she saw ai the funeral was nude commented on Clara’s growlh, she never gossiped and laughing. Clara was appalled. She completely lost about other family members. In fact, Aunt Vera never her composure and stood, mouth gaping like one of talkcd much at aII. Nor to Clara. She always gnnned those silly guinea hens, until she blinked and the image her pink-gummed, IipIess greeting when Clara and her disappmi. molher visikd and her sentences were invariably short Although Clara dismissed the vision as a and praclicd. hallucination caused by tm much sun and grief, she ”Want some raspberry tea?” still couldn’t get Aunt Vera out of her mind. That “What a pretty dress.” night as she curled in bed with her knees pressed “Would you like a gmse egg omelette?” against her chest, she realized that she wouid go back. “Bella died yeslerday.” (Attached as she was Climbing the mud-slick driveway the next - LO her cats, she never showed emotion when one d aftmoon, Clara feIt a strange calm wash over her them dicd, In Fact, once when an old calico, Namha. mind. She felt for the first time a cmnection to her gave bitlh to four dead kiltens, she merely dumped the mother, to her mother’s mother, a connection sa strong tiny pink corpses in the herb gardcn, where they were that she felt as if the two women were there with her, immedialeIy discovered and devoured by the geese. ascending &e slippery, steep driveway to visit Aunt When Clara had expressed concern. Aunt Vera croaked Vera and her geese and her cats. For the first time, she in her tin foil scratchy old woman’s voice, “That smiled ai the guard-dog geese. For the first time, she happens aII the time. If I hadn‘t fed horn to the geese looked forward to seeing Aunt Vera with a gentle Nalasha would’ve ealen thcm.” Clara had fell so longing. For the first time. she walked into Aunt disgusted and sick as she watched the growling, hareful Vera’s dark, cat-infested house without looking at her geese pxk ai the Lender flesh of the hairless kittens watch, Aunt Vera smiled and in her eyes, which drew that she ran into the bath- to splash cold water on €ha lowards ha with the gravity o€ twin suns, shone her face. The pipes groaned as if she‘d disturbed their recognl tion. &moon nap. “Oh, shut up!” she grumbled impatientIy, twisting the intricately fissured porcelain

The North Avenue Review June 199 1

1 THE BLHCK STRTION by Christopher Aniedobe

I am now a young adult, HS you probabIy know by Christopher Aniedobe I am still black, but now a man, and a jail bird my eyes are no longer a wellspring of tears I am not a writer as myglands have long since crusted up. ' Iarnapainter All night long, I stay awake I paint with words trying to understand the belligerent racism that took I paint on the walk of your mind you from me All I scck is share visions with to my you. longing for your balmy embrace to soothe my shredded heart I lift my brush, mother, I As fecau as I live in constant fear of the society to which I was my childhood days when ow tears mingled freely born. and our lachrymal plea for mercy from our landlord And in my solitary moments I cry. 01 thunder and your nightlong sobs that broke my fledgling heat was hou not created as I was and drove away deep From my young dreamy eyes what fairness is there that I should live in awe of thee? and while still an infant, I lost my childhood heinnocence which other children took for and Standing upon this ground. where once, with OUT feats grailled we watered like adult, I kameplagued with matters of as, an mother, grant me your support as only you can survival so that !may sing I sought understand the crime whereof, as to of my Shore me up from side to side being was me Set me on a pedestal, from where I can look down on born. my audience Start up my imagination Mother, let me recall I Tune up my limbic system the tearful days in the homeless shelter so that I may send them home awash with pathos whm with pride death you starved yodfto Let me sing my sorrowful songs when it dawned upon you you could not give me that but let my sortow be not prolonged. the childlmd that you never had that you wanted dearly for this precious fruit of your This is no song of love, it is a bad song womb. Ilke a sad song compased by a benevolent spirit in a remote place, upon seeing human cadavers- When you gave up your life, you aIso gave mine up human flotsams of a terrible wreck. as without your makrnal guidance my teenage years It is Uc a song rendered by a mourning bird wasred away no virtuoso itself system that plucked a rrewhrn from his mothers The like a duet composed by two orphans breast both feeling the need to commiserate the other beset me behind, kfore and allover and there was defiance, but it was human, therefore and branded me dysfunctiond we must listcn. as it sought other mnsto demy me.

you were alive. would k ashamed of me If you Hark! sad songs of defeat. that your that once overflowed suckled breast with Hark! a piercing sigh as of victims of perfidy. pride Hark! the gmnsas of a woman in travail you that once held drmsof grandeur before my misty like the wailing of a mother, an African mother eyes. who returned, smiling, graceful, with victuals and all

~~ The North Avenue Revlew June 1991 to an empty house, victims of inhumanity. She wailed because her children had been abducted if your htfriend who was black got off hm and the viIIagers by now accustomed, gathered around do not let motions ovawhelm you wondhg whase turn next time around. do not go searching for hhor her you might be called a bkk lover How can a harpooned dolphin pull on the chords of do not even think about it, just move on. jusrice? With an arched back, it reminds nature to ac!judW If that cute little black girl sitting beside you on the suppression of one cream by another. wants to get off at the blaclr station what plea O! falcons do not resuain her to thy favor by the falconer. do not plezbd with her do not try to understand the lugubruity in her eyes This is the land of falcons. it is the black station let her go. She belongs here if you come to it, do not stop Her father is here, so is hex mother if it comes upon you, close your mind to it just move on. Do not stop hause the blood of innocents were spilled here SiIence. Silence everywhere and 1w1laughter can k heard Silence as of a grave yard in the middle of the night Here, infants were trampled upon Silence Eke a thick fog surrounding the black station and the unborn are in dent perpetual vigil. If you look up the= is a thick black canopy of silence do nat contemplate upon it This is the black station do not Iet guilt feelings about your political inaction where heros cannot be found conflict with enjoyment of your middleclass priviieges justice was murderad, evil is served here just move on. lives are begrudged and there is no sanctity for human life If the old woman sitting across from you and the living are not welcomed. wants ul get off here do not let her bony framework bother you This is the black station this is already a repository for bones where dew does not gather at dawn If you could, help her get off even the wind detours from it as your eyes fall on her puckered skin and notice ita and its only river mourns along its come maculation and there is an eerie stilhess of melancholy as you notice her thick arteries nmning wildly hugh and vengance is written everywhere in its unseen her hands somberness like the work of a bad plumber- and mly the macabre song of the dead may be head do not let her remind you of your old age do not contemphte on the smoothness of her thighs - 1 This is hebkk station of you might learn the futility of lust where still buths stop to anmunce their futile efforts and despise your spouse and your own sensuality. and ahrted children congregate lo meditate upon Do not let her mindyou of the inevitability of the trezhery that beguiled them change. and drink the puss of their mothers’ rnddecrepitude. Let he go. Just move on.

Do not stop at the black station Ifywseeablackmanayingtbgetoff it is Ihe graveyard of the oppressed and dispossessed do not wonder about his place here. it is the practice pund of neosiavery mentality A victim of repression, he was politicaUy infm ad do not search the faces that get off here he had no real €reedom, tk system overwhelmed him. and if your mind lingers upon their sadness. blank it off If he looks fatigued and battle weary do not dtak upon it or try to understand it do not empathize with him just move on. do not look inside his eye \

~ ~ ~ The North Avenue Redew June 1991 or you might see the pain it tears. since when did kinder and gentler become synonymous If he has a basketball or football with kind and gentle do not wonder if recreations are held in heblack or is kind and gentle not B virtue to be pursued? . station. Ah! political chicanery, you subtleties astound Ir is only a momento to remind him even the profoundest thinkers that he fought a tactless battle How you spill your wiliness upon the hearts of mod this was a warfm of the mind men that he fought with bare hands and rnobidify their minds his muscle clad My belies the emptiness that he feels and you let anchor men, mongers of melodramatism, do not think about it, just move on. unschooied in morality, bmeharem of nationaf conscience And if you see a pregnant blackwoman by you these falconers plead insanity trying to get off here by you they espouse political mafioso do not worry about the fate that will befall her unborn and yet even you cannot assuage the humar'm@y child of the black station. the judge said she was just a womb for rent and all the hormonal changes she underwent had its If chants of lamentation break the silence ofthe black price station ' ten thousand dollars to be precise a welcome song for its newest inme and all the community of women moved on do not look for me I am not there Do not uy to console her, this is the black station If you are terrified, do not reach out others moved on, do wjt ny to be a hero consolations are not offered here there are no heros here, just move on. you might loose your soul Do not look for me the maker of sad songs As you move on, close your ears with your thumb I won my manumission, when I mea the teacher or you might hear the silent drums of lamentation in prison, I cried out in desperation and he came to me and be lyrics of animosity * then I begged the teacher and he taught me ' and you might lme it like I did I am spinning along, along with the teacher i and let the black station become your monomania; along my path. destiny's path. How I came by the black station. I do not how So just move on until you come perhaps it was thrust upon me so that I may tell its to the meeting point of life and deah sw there, a buffer mne for all souls in h-ansit and I suffer a devastating lingering of its sadness there a pageant ground for the gods that spwn and haunted by the images I beheld inttigues hence, 1make songs of this killing field. there you will be med as a culprit Here many lives were quelled in their springtime and be found guilty of your political inaction and many a practitioners of false morality corne and of pursuing a beam that is founded in inequity. to collect dubious credits on a regular basis. What can the falconer say for the falcon Reagan was here, $0 iS Sununu far together they looted the world that was to sustain these folks uphold the black station to main& all. pli tical constituency With the teacher, I shall be present in the end and perpetrate political savagery against their beuer to witness your home coming song. judge men t David Dukes reside here permanently 01 raging bull, without maradors gods' messengers thou would loose anarchy upon the world.

Mr Bush drapes it in white just a new habilement, still the meessence

~ ~ ~ ~ The North Avenue Review 'June 1991 “a..,. b...” The child’s eyes strained& remember. Sweat leaked from his trembl Ing brow. “E: d .,..e..f..gC’ Hls young hands trembled as he clenched and uncl enched his fists. “ ... h. i.j..k.. l.m...n... ” The veins bulged out of hls supple neck. Blood roared In his ears. 11 ‘I . .. o...p..I q. rs..t ... Rebel Exposed He paused and swallowed a harsh gulp. His nostrils flared and Hey young rebel ... his smooth face burned. I see you with radicaI idealism.

‘I...u.v ... w..x.y...” You have strange clothes.. . A buzzer sounded and the boy All black, maybe sandals too, twltched and gave a sharp cry. No, wear the combat boots. ”Times up,” said a booming . White face and a weird haircut. volce. A black clad man stepped Oh, you don’t ever cut it? out of the shadows, raised a silver Say rebel, don’t you think pup gun, aimed .it at the child’s mouth, Culture feeds the idiotic masses? and gent 1 y pu 11 ed the trigger. Your music is so violent, angry, obscure. Blood exploded on the wall behtnd Ilikeit. . the chi 1 d, and even before he had a chance to collapse, two short ,and T am a young rebel now also. def orrned beings caught hi m and I am unique. ’ dragged hlm away. Today a man asked me why “Next,” said the booming voice. We become young rebels. And I toid him the truth... We do it for attention. David Klein -Michael David

The North Avenue Review June 1991 -1

Spirit Dreams of the Lost A mismo que, my beloved Just the same, what may Jeannie, Emily- I &-if you do not love As I view you in my mind, Me the same? I long for those days that Havepassedintomemwy. May I want Not? Should Days that may only be cherished I continue or leave you in peace? Life is so precious- Jeannie1 wish for @ sienta que no puedo vivir A better understanding En su vida real. berween us. For all those wants we Life is pmious. yours is most Had Y- ago, yet Especially so. What more may never realized, 1 wish Be done to see the true we could have Spirit of stars and Earth? fuulFilled them. Of the wonder creakd within I long for ohe omunity This world? To k again a part of your F. Pahicio Ruis Life.

Emily-also, I wish to Again see you. The . character that shine

’ forth from you is I rare in-. Naranjas To hold you once mm- A dream,yes, but As I watched you through the years ‘worth all I have yet the pride and jealousy lying dormant {seen on this within, Earth. I wished many times to be with you, ’ - I , to be by your side. Fiends once, always, perhaps again. It may be said people do no1 find their To live wirhout the substance Bctter halves but for once in a life- You bring to life is La media naranja. not life in truth.

How dms one find, though, . When the better half has dipped away? E Patricio Ruis

E Pahcio Ruis

The North Avenue Redew June 1991 I walked the line, the delicate lirie The silver line, imniersed in -time Ahead i stared, for what I feared 70 left and right, nothing neared Again 1 stepped, with trembling foot Towards the door, where Someone stood My face was blank, for kick of sigh? Oh yuivwing legs, drive to Phe 1igh.t €ncccsed in dccrbhess, Po0 .thick to breathe 1 cried in grief for my reprieve 7he C?OOT grew closer, und closer s4iH Ny tense saul's screums became so shrill And as 1 tripped ulong the line The doorway figure kecume defined With sbimmcring hair ctnd lips so sweet, Broken chuins C(TOUY)~her feet, Outstretched urrns that CC4llEd nse near, And dark eyes ckctr, hut fil/~dwifh fears far loss of words, 1 .touched her pcdm Her seuring warmfh filled me with ccdm Etut smner thccn I c@ulddo more Fwull my grief, she closed the do,or. Duvid Klein Caustic Cosmetic

Fear and Longing Piles of dead cells I rememk the Heaping # sweetness of Sprouting Your image. Growing - Thesweemessof Flowing Inner strength And character Curling You maintain. Bristling Colors Burning 1 wish, among bops. Of reds and browns That we could see Oranges and blacks Each other Once more. Whites and yellows Let me run my fingers through the death, It has been too Long For your hair is quite beautiful. these years, Most especially David Klein The last.

I care for you More mwtbm I could ever Admit to you.

I wish now, More than ever, Ihadhadthe Courage then.

F. Patricio Ruis

The North Avenue Redew June 1991 I A~ Marie Selck The poet in me reigns free : this eve Though of nothing I' implore thee My mood aloof, my spirit grey b mind astray I shall not beg you words to Weigh The wars we fought are done they say most far awayawav And kknowing this we've naught to say Disfigured people have ambled home Their faces stone ' My pergonal guilt, to whom atoneI?. Foolish, ignorant, joyous mass Who's techno-crass Excited by Lockheed's newest blast

mile economy drops, ita all the'low I No jabs to show llnd children live with streams that glow But if f must, and yes 1 must remove the dust And speak my mind with courage thus then I 'd speak with passion bleak and voices meek ftd whisper in a softened tone SILENT POETS' DESTROY OUR WORLD 1 d let the poets mpeak

Know It All: Know Nothing

who J must say more, for I have so much more to say. Those For although I know speak Greek would refer to me as a "wise fool." 7 much, truly I know but nothing. After all that I have been taught, can I say I have learned anything? Am I now able to give answers Will to thc questions of the world? Will I now pass the test of life? my existence and my deeds ever be of any consequence to others b& I Maybe, just maybe, I can enlighten f myself'? No, No, No, Maybe! others with the knowledge that they, too, will never be enlightened. Knowing this, they will know all there is to know. I H"- she rides in the night Are those my fmgers? into oblivion Are those my hands? the last of her kind Are those my footprints in the sands? her time is lost Are those my legs? Is that my skin? eyes blaze darkly Can the Ocean cleanse my sin? memories of friends lost Is that my mouth? her blade hungers for release Are those my eyes? and she willingly obliges Will the gulls ignore my cries? Are those my arms? blue-white flames dance Are those my toes? on the dark, sharp blade Are the waves my friends or foes? as it kills her enemfes ' Is that my hair? as it finds its way in the night Are those my ears? Are those my thighs sinking in tears? sated and spent Is that my chest? the blade surrenders itself Are those my knees? to her sheath Is that my mouth tasting the sea? she rides on Is that my spine? Is that my tounge? she seeks her enemies Is liquid death flooding my lungs? she rides in the dght Is that my heart? her eyes are dark and her name is Oblivibn by David Klein C.A.

a flag on the mantle

It is cold and misty today. They came to me today and said that you were dead. You always wanted to die like that. In the line of duty, in honour. Well, I hope your death served your life well. As well as you lived. Because all that remains of you is a picture, some ribbons, and a flag on the mantle.

C.A. -~ The North Avenue Review June 1991 Incubus

I awaken almost every night when I feel him between my legs and I am always shocked, even though he bas been raping me in my sleep for many ymrs-many more years than I can even remember. Sometimes I n-y to go back m sleep because I how that nothing I can do will stop him and he even likes it when I resist He thinks it is a game. He laughs at my struggle and says I look sexy when I squirm. He lkes it when he has M hold me down. I won’t give him the satisfaction any more. If I can’t go back tb sleep, which is usually becase, I pretend I am asleep. Somehow, that gives me a sense of power. Ef I act like the things he dmto my body do not affect me in any way, then maybe he will get bored and leave. At least that’s what I thought years ago. He hasn’t stopped yet, though. One time 1even tried to talk to him. I said what he did LO me was wrong and I didn’t want to do it anyrnm. He didn’t understand. He said our Imd~eswere our own to do wilh what we liked. I think he missed my pint. Then I said that I didn’t like what we did, but he said I was just tM, young and inexperienced to understand. I knew then that he would never empahewith me. He bdn’t want to. So 1told him that I would tell my mother if he didn’t stop. He just laughed at that. I hate his laugh. He sounds as if he can’t catch his breath. He wheezes, He always wheezes when he rapes me. too. He breathes into my cringing ear with hesow breath of a thousand mmmgs, sometimes whispering nauseating words which I ryu) block oul by thinking about lacy snowflakes falling on the noses of Alaskan sled dogs or on the beautiful stained glass windows in the church that he and I both frequent. Somehow his disturbing words always break into my thoughts, however, melting the snow into toxic sludge. You’re so sexy. I want io spend rhe nighr together. You have such cuk liztlc tilzies. Why are his ahminable whispers so Ioud? The words resound against my eardrums like nuclear explosions. “I’m going to tell my mother!” I would warn him sometima when I didn’t think I could take it anymore. He told me one night that she wouldn’t do anything about it because he did the same thing to her. But he didn’t say it that way. He didn’t say that he did anything to her. He said we do the same thing. He actually thinks the raping is rnutuaI. I guess he thinks tears and protests are natural female reactions to sex. Or maybe he just docsn’t see or hear them. Well, I’m going to tell someone else, I told him. I’ll tell them about Mother too. He wheezed again. Who are you going io tell, weelie? Who? not a woman ou there who will care. nor a woman out there who will I There’s There’s do anything about it. You knav why? Do you want IO know why? Because I visit them svery nighr ioo. I even visii ! mm ofrhrn during the day, at work or ar school. I never leave some ofthem. I thought 1 was going tn vomit. He wheezed Ius laughter at my widened eyes and bent down to scrape his jaw against my chat. I knew then that the only way I could survive was through denial. I had ~1ignore him. I had to prctend I was asleep all the time. I had L to pretend for myself, pretend to myself, that I was asleep. I had 10 fool myself. That was the only way I could remain me-if I wasn’t insane aIredy. Just think. Soon we can be together all day and all night, LOO. Won’r{hat I be nice?

by Jilliana Babb

The North Avenue Redew June 1991 the reaklng gray eyes Vengeful Vegetable seeking through the fog In soulful meadow I did walk an answer To leave my troubled truths behind not forthcoming I stepped among the seedy stalk To disregard my seething mind the searching endless Footfall the soil did sooth prey on elusive Soon lost, was I, in natures cares seductive yet not I Bliss prevailed, for I did loose pleasureable Myself from galling mournful snares a race to be completed As through expansive land I wove not won My orbs of sight were caught by light And to the flower of light I strove By no means was this flower trite C.A. Its beauty was beyond compare And in my youthful lust and greed The coiling roots I did tear From the earth that it did need

But as I realized my mistake I was entwined in squirming roots h my heart fear drove its stake As vengeful soil engulfed my boots

My legs kame the greenest stern The fullest leaves sprung from my side

by David Klein

The North Avenue Redew June 1991 A LElTER TO CLARA by Zwana Thomas Dear Clara, I am writing this letter ta you, and I am looking Irt your beauty while you are sleeping. X am quietly sitting in the dark with only he light of a street lamp. You know, I don’t want to awaken you. You are slqing so sweetly as I am writing to you. If you saw me now, you would smile, mess me, and ask me why I am writing to you when we are so near each other. Believe me, I have a gmd mind to stand up,kiss you and talk abut your beauty and my love for you. But I can’t do it. That is why I am wriling to you. This is the only way for me to speak to you. Our relationship used tn be heaven. You were the frrst woman whom I dlyloved and cared about more than myself. I was happy every moment we were together. But suddenly, you becarnc very cool towards me and said,”Our relationship” (for me a para-) “ is gone.“ I really don’t know what you told me after that because I wasn’t able to listen to you. I looked at your Iips, eyes, and face because I believed that I was seeing you €or the last time. It was a great blow to me. one that I had never expected. I have always covered up my deep emotions, so you wouldn’t know that I had lived only for you. I thought that I would lose you if you knew it. You see, on that day, when we broke up, I hid my emotion again, so you thought that I had taken your decision easily. You went out quickly and Ieft me to die. Yes, Clara, I fdt that I had died. My lack of emotion was only a cover, nolhing more. I can’t tell you how much I suffered because I would only remember those ugly days and hours. . Afm two weeks, when I believed that you had gone forever, and t was alone, you came to me. You were- so beautiful that I quickly forgot what you had done to me. You smiled at me, and I invitcd you in. You told me what you had bsen doing, but I didn’t listen to you. I just looked at your lips and into your eyes. Just before you left my house, you invited me to your apartment. I don’t rernembex what you wanted, but I was sure that you w-anted to make up without any words. I was looking forward to seeing you soon when I came to understand one imponam thing. But hfore writing it, I want you ta howsomething. My dearest Clara, you are heonly woman I have ever really loved. I dream about our life togcther although 1 know that it will never come true. You have been refreshing water for me. enabling me to five in the middle of a desert. I drank your cup fully arad felt that I would neveh die. But suddenly, you said,’Thisis the end,” and the cup cmked. The water spilled out, and the dry ground soaked it up. When I had fmally gotten uscd to living without your water, you appeared and off4me a new cup with fresh warn. Now I am gtving it back to you because I could not survive your leaving me again. Oh, you moved a liule bit Maybe you are awakening. I must not see yaw appealing eyes because I would tear up my letter. I am leaving, Clara. I am leaving in order to never see you again. / I I i

The North Avenue Review June 1991 1

The Teacher and I by CHRIS ANIEDOBE

I THE LEGEND OF THE FARM Did not my parents name me “I do not understand” hkabuwanamuzubengbulie and the farm keepsaid, hoping that I’d grow up to ernbdy the psitive sicks %why don’t you ask if you do not understand?” of lzaka Then I asked and the farm keeper says, and have I not grown up OthenVise “why don’t you understand?” rn be me, a humble legend of the farm Then. I said, a detached inquisitor to the nature of man? “Hurrah, Hurrah to the Uogicality of power Hurrah to the animal world I am the legend of the farm, f am free. Hurrah to us that do not purport wisdom I do not grapple, I do not snive Hurrah to us that do not seek understanding I am civilized in being uncivilized Hurrah to the mind of an animal, Tomorrow is not uncertain, It will be like today we are not wearied with information for I will eat my grass when I like When they turned away from their maker, I will mount a mare when I am aroused they filled heir memory cells wilh garbage I will roam the plains and the fields and the hills but if they turn back to him, if I so desire. it might please him to instill in them, I do not compete the wisdom of life.” I do not have a need for followership I do not cantend They live in mansions and they complain I do not have friends or enemies They eat the finest foods and lhey are not satisfied I do not associate They wear the finest clothing I do not recognize a king or a Servant bedecked with jewelry, but see not the beauty of life. My world is devoid of class, I am free. I do not live in mansions,I live in the fields When I see the farm tender fret about llke one of their kind who had no where to lay hs head I say, “surely, it must tK a curse to Lx human, I do not seek the finen rood, surely, intellect is a scourge to humanity”. the gdLord provides for me They must deal with good and bad like he provided €or a mighiy prophet of old fleeing and that which is better than good from a king and thus their mind clucters up I do not seek fine raiment and their freedom is removed from them. I live like the voice from the wilderness, thc announcer Thank God, I am free for I am the legend of the farm. 1 am free. When I lmk up, I see the glwy of God and when I look down, all I see is divine provir Then. I look at the farm keem and absent rninddy reflect‘on how he must have lost Ii THE TEACHER AND I touch with his maker One day, a teacher came by then I bend down to fdon the grass “Whcre have you been”, said I that the good Lord has so graciously provided. “From going up and down instilling pcein dismught SOUIS“ said he I said to the farm keeper, Then I said, “0 warden of peace why do you look sad,

The North Avenue Review June 1991 why is my lords visage drawn out Like the farm but did not acknowledge him keeper’s?” ’Ihey saw him whom they did not see And the teacher said, and the heard him whom they did not’hear ‘The human kings are with a warped mmd because they had eyes that seeth not Did not one fellow pray for wisdom adthe had ears that hearcth not desiring the knowledge of Worn for how can one recognize him upwhich I told him that Jesus was Lord whom they do not how And the fellow said, even if he is seen by them “Was Jesus white or black hence did he not say, “Blessed are those who do not Wasn’t be a revolutionary, a renegade see Wasn’t he a radical dissenter but believe“ Wasn’t he a homosexual, if not who was his girlfriend Wasn’t he a woman hater, how many women were his ”Then I said, 0 blind and insdvable soul, disciples Pray that your eyes may see Wasn’t he a hippie, he wore his hair long” Pray, that your mind so heaviIy littered may be cleaned by heavenly garbarge collectors ‘men said I, ‘‘ 0 raging mind Then pray again for wisdom II so that It might please Lord send you a teacher” be quiet I may teach you the to I That which is simple is profound That which is complex is superficial He is truly learned who subscribes to the simple truth IlI THE FARMKEEPER’S PRAYER of life I One man by tmhg himself and enduring Then, I said to the teacher, the sadomasochist system of worldly education “How might the fannkeeper regain his freedom?” became learned in such matters And the teacher said, “Let the farm keepttr pray thus, but peace eluded him So many honors did he win ‘Take my life and la it be and so full was he of himself msecratedLmdMee

that one day he said to the Lord Take it not king made fuller by it I 1 Tome let us arm wrestle with our minds” instead a loss. but so,you will not be denied and we snuffed off his tortured mind.” that which is rightfully yours “Then I said to the pupil, ‘Take my mength and let it be That which is permanent is impermanent yours thyand 11 my days thak which you see, you do not see Take it not because you are made stronger by it and that which you know, which is what you see, but so that I might learn to rely on your protecGon you do not know. “Take my eyes and let them be, “Then he said, “Science. Science men, ScientlTic yours, a useless contraption to me this I know mehod for it would be better to be blind and led by you Science,the great beacon of western civhtion than to have eyes and not sce at all Bring Jesus to me, LRt us verify that he is Lord “Take my ears and keep them close to you Let us put him to a test Let them be intent and earnest upon your word kRt us make him do supcmatural lhings And if today your voice is finally heard Let us set a control with a human being my kart be soft and yielding to your will. Let us conhthat what he can do a human king cannordo . ’Take my voice and kee~it far from me Let us thereby thoroughly understand him Restore it not, but for your glory Let us model him w that we can predict him If restoral let it loose the ability to utter any afterwards unkindness Then will I be satisfied that Jesus is Lord” Let it loose the coarseness borne by greed Let it be soft and mellow and remorseful of its ignoble ‘men I said, 0 fickle mind past The Jews of his day, with whom he dwelt saw him And when it speaks as it seldom should

The North Avenue ZLeVitw June 1991 ,ktit speak only of thy truth “Why should it matter to me if a man comes from Iraq or the. United States of America? “Take my intel&t and wrap it up Out of the depths of the w I raised both countries Keep ik let it never be part of me I gave them their bounties and their splendor FOTnow I how that a howing mind begets a troubled I put Mississippi in one and Tigris in the other I WY I raised Abrahams in both countrieS Through one, I radfor myself prophets and pattiachs “Take the rest of my faculties and let them be Through Abraham ofLJh in hq, yours to dispose of as you wish I raised for myself the children of Israel and let my &ys be spent in humbIe resignation to your Through Abraham of Uh in hq, Will I mkdfor myself the children of Ishmei I raised Jesus born among the midst of Jacob’s children And Mohammed from among the midst of Ishmel’s children And when the cries o€ Negro sp~tuaiSrose to my presence I raised for myself Abraham in the United States and relieved the oppressed Africans of their burden I am the Gad of Love, I do not discriminate, I reward justly.

“Men conduct wars on the relative worth of a peoples life but I judge all men on their hearts disposition towards me Come bringing calm and peace to my sorrowful mind Presume thenpot to be honored of your Gad Come and disperse this deof misery Presume not chosen and in harmony with me I Come you will be loved” Presume not my interest, that your enemies should 4 perish Presume not God,

“YOUbear your technology a1 heart And I said to the teacher, And you come seeking divine approbation for your evil “what may I say to the people in the midst of whom I ways dwell?” And you rewrite my laws, And the teacher said, “Thus says the Lord; hoping to glaze over your permissive ways And you say, “the God of Jacob is our smnghold“, “TObe rich is as futile as to be yr and yet you have departed from the ways of Jacob, To be ioved by mortal man is as unnccessary as to be hated by him “X have seen the segregation in my churches, This generation of infidels put their trust in technology a testimony to your obtuseness but technology will not avail an insahable soul. You adore my Christ. but you do not recognia universal brotherhood “They come to me singing with affected piety under him but all I see is fats of greed dripping down their faces You read abut the scribes and the Pharisxs I They come to me singing of love And you say, “Thank God I am mt like hem” yet they hate one another and discriminate with utmost and yet you say to me “I am white. 1 howI ought to belligerency k.rewarded They come to my church, hoping to be rewarded like more han blacks” Jacob And you say to me, I‘ I am black, you will destroy the But I who made Jacob made the rest of the world. whites I am the God of Love, I do not discriminate, I reward you will extract my reparation from them, you will ;‘lStly. avenge my loss”

The North Avenue Redew June 199 1 r

“Why should a man take me to task for maktng them to XRt us magnify the Lord together my dclight? for we all tell the story of the glory of Gdd” Behold a man dclights in beauty. in variety and in color And he tsmed. And the glory of God was manifest and he faults me for raising in their midst, And I thanked God who made me an animal. races, each according to my delight. I am the God of Love, I do not discriminate, I reward jwtly. V THE PONDERER “Man of himself, by himself is of no reckoning Here might I lie Let not mortal man presume that his actions has a until the wind of hate is past direct bearing then to continue my pumey to my makers home. on the wclhms of his maker. Walk into my presence, humble and solicitous of your Here might I lie own welfare humming the tunes that were instilled in me and desist from arrogance hat is festering your minds. in harmony with the music of creation hence shall I arise and retum to my hbm. “Am I impressed by dudery and foppery that you walk with haughty contempt into my house? Here might I lie Indeed what do sxk in my house? pondering on the exile horn my home of unbounded To be entertained by choirs and fiery preachers? butY Behold, 1 am not moved by the outwardness of sensual longing for the day I shall again see the face of my men God. or the untowardness of their verbalism What hen do you came lo my house for? But my trance soon took leave of me TO sway me by the gaiety and swaggery of fanciful and my troubled mind seized upon me clolhes? md I began to ponder on the nature of my kind. Behold, do I not how that beneath each dress is a rump that spews forth faeces. Have 1 not applied my mind to the toils of man u1 all the businesses about which his life is contained “You cackle like birds in their breeding season and bve I not Seen like the Preacher, that alI is futiIe and stru~from aisle to aisle and slriving after the wind. accompanied by bells and whistles and impertinences hugging, kissing and exhibitioning Why does a man shive from morning till night claiming you are stars strayed from thdr paths and from night till morning seeking to be magnified in the presence of your God and grapple ceaselessly all the days of his life? I am the great and terrible God. I wlll reward jusuy. What is the true nature of my kind? Why does a man conduct hmself with arrogance “Come, commune with your hearts and be simple $0 palpable that it stands in the way of his progress? Cornc into my presence proclaiming the greatness of If this is not a psychological mom your God is it then a subterfuge Come bringing your thanksgiving, singing for joy or is it the wanton expression of abysmal ignorance? I Cornc, it might please me to renew your flagging spilils Why does a man need to be civilized, and teach you wisdom in your secret hearts erecting structures and substructures in every facet of Lcr all who are wearied slither to the house of salvation his life There to dwell in the shadows of their God in a feeble attempt to freeze unpredictability? For the day of reckoning is drawing nigh and all account shall be rendered fully, without Are men thus motivated by uncertainty omissi on or by the needs of men and all sons of men shall be judged according to that or by the uncertainty of the needs of men? which was instilled in their mortal conscience.” Are the needs of man to make certain that which is inherently uncertain? Then I, the legend’ofthe fm said to the teacher, Are the purposes of the toils of man then to ehinate “Pray, tarry yet awhile uncertainty Let me bring together al1 the animals and plants or to reduce it if it cannot be eliminated

The North Avenue Review June 1991 or to modify it if it cannot be reduced? of our cause Is man not then plagued by the falsity of hii truths Arise, pick arms and inm the wind of hate charge or the truths of his falsities? Let new lines of war be drawn, the civil war ancw Let Armageddon be, Getlysburg in our hearts. 0 thoughts so far strayed it cannot ke. rescued Let the guns of battlc rage on 0 that a teacher may sever our irksome association Let all Lhe cannons roar and calm may again fall on the troubled watets of my Lei he muskets throw up thcir conlents in anger mind. And let men who are still intent upon slavery. slip and be routed Gettysburg in our hearts. Upon whose head should it lie I m reorder his neighbor's house? Let us fight on, One whose house is disordered? until the wind of hate is drivcn to he outshrts ol town Not upthe head of an impostor. away from the boundaries of the union I and then only then lo the ends of the earth Upon whose mind should it rest and political and economic emancipation is won a vision of peace and calm to a hubled world? first for all Americans and then for herest of ihe One whose heart is calloused beyond the pleas of world, I I compassion? Gettysblrrg in out hearts. i Not upm the mind of an imposmr. Yes let us stomp away with righteous indignation Upon whose head should it then lie? upon the fortresses of injustice Upon the sickled head of a mindless rnmn? Unlil from Alaska io Australia Upon the blazing head of a busy sun? and from Chile 10 Sibcria Upon the twinkling detachment of B distant star? all mns of men raise their hands in triumph No. Upour heads, all of us prwlaiming in unison, proclaiming slogans ancw Upon us who estemeth not our lives worthier than Dignity, at last dignity. Others I Upon us who emhceth not, When the dgmty of man is found at last k a false foundation for a universal order of peace then the rat race is finally run Upon all men desirous of me freedom all aching feet shall be lificd off the ground i relentless pursm, hounders after the quarry of and all wandering minds a refuge found universal justice all listening ears shall hear the sweeI songs of ne

I Upon all men who wait not to pay their dues of liberty brotherhood. and all seeing eyes shall see spring ancw and I everlasting When the dawn is over, it goes to sleep and awakes in the morning When the dignity of man is found at kt Let us not wait for the dawn to awake all hands shall with one accord be joined . i Awake and awake the dawn and there shall gush forth from hewind Let the reel of a new and just history roll songs of praise to our God, mighiy. powerful and I kt us not wait for the wind of hate to pass fearworthy II The wind of hate stalls and con~olutes by whom dl withered plants shall be revived i Round and round it goes and all desolate lands rejoice wilh verdure \ nutured by the ideals of treacherous men and the iumult orjoyous ululation will be seen upon . i and racial supremacist the face of the sea. t and stoked by institutions where men of learned unrighmusness Awake. Awake from your spiritual slumby. awake

are gatheml, to breed unrighteous haws Awake with flures and drum, awake I far removed from the exigencies of fairness and Awake with inslrurnenb of souli-ul music Awake for the wonderousncss of our God shall be I distributive compassion revealed Instead, let all soldiers of justice arise Who with man on carlh would ,dwell. 4 BWd,whiks, yellow and red, arise Arise h ye sefumly of rhe rightemmess .,; . .-,:5'

~- ~ Yd The North Avenue Redew June I99 1 L VI A PONDERER’S PRAYER that impresses upon the JCW that his life is not worth more than that of his Arab cousin and on the Arab that Grant most blessed, mmt gracious, a Jew deserves a safe and secure life as a matter of most inexhaustible source of all goodness, fundamental human right. And on the white South Grant that I may die giving, African that his black compatriot, being human, is giving my gifts of blackness to the whok worId. subject to the same sensitivities. It is the establishment Grant that I may die accepting, of the spitit of camaraderie that cncourages all mtingpeoples gifts of whiteness, yellowness, Americans to work side by side in equal opportunity. redness, blachess without fear or favor. It was an elating feeling to see American troops return Grant that I may die shouting, 1 victorious and virtually unscahed, bui he hearts of may my voice not k smothered by the caucous din of rtK test of the world was saddened by the fact that the vioIent men. Adminismtjon’s vaunting over thc outcome of he Grant that I may die defiant, war was no1 tempered by deep feeling of sympathy cmfronting the men who still drive slaves for over a hundred thousand Iraqis thal lost their lives. protesting casekssly the end of slavery. It is e sad arithmetic to try LO persuade the world that Grant that I may die a noncomformist, Saddam Hussein’s life is worth that of over a hundred with by back turned against the ways of sorrow, sin thousand of his countrymen or hat an Americans lire is and hate worth over a thousand Iraqi life. and the arrogance which deaden men’s conxiewe. Grant that I may die standing. A new world order must be based on the conccpi of besiriding the thinning river of injustice one wwid peoplo, one life. TL should be a self policing dying as a world citizen, embracing the universe that world where the banner of universal Iove is held aloft; gave bh to me flapping ahtin rhe breeze o€ our unflappabIe bequeathing to her the fruits of all my labor of lave. commitment to equality and freedom; beyond Lhc reach of dictators, despots, self seekers and powerful nations , with multiple standards. VEI AFMALNOTE Und we learn to respct other ppleand heir ways of Today, the foreign affairsdepartment of all nations is life, until we begin to understand hat the lives of their gaming department. It is the place where everyone is interconnected, until we wly appreciak political jugglers and sleights of hand am gathered and the fact that the economic reasons that lead Lo the charged with a neloose game with the rest of the deforestation of the Amaxon or the growing of ctxa world in B winner take all. plank in South America would have dire consequences for peopIe everywhere. then until hen, would we know For ova 40 years, we stdanxiously by and watched peace. Then we would charge our foreign policy the superpowers throw out their cards in a dangerous depatunents to conduct their affairs in a win win game that could imperil the whole world, In a post situation knowing that what befalls one wouId colonial world, as part of their strategies, they sought ultimately befall the olher. Indeed, an systems, to increase their sphere of influence and dished out . physical, chemical. biological. sociological, economic, foreign aid as a vehicle for cultural. ideological and all systems however arbitrarily defined have an technology transfers and in the process underdeveIoped irrepressible tendency to drive towards equilibrium and hrest of the world. those who resist peaceful Lransitions from one state to another, leading ultimately to a stable state of sadly enough, this dangerous game has not yet ended. equilibrium wouId make violent transirions inevitable. It has taken a new dimension, fired up by a very It is timc to lhink of the world, not as comprised of unsettling vision of a new world der. A new world many nations, but as comprised of one world people, order is not the imperialist domination d the rest of the united in a common quest for frcedom, equity and world. It is a world where the dignity of man is held mutual prosperity. high in an unambivalent new Iight. Hence. hefight before us is not one that would be fought with high tech weapons. It is the restoration of the dignity of man. It is the restoration of world peace in the light of the concepl of the universal man or the Oneness of man. It is a sacred feeling of universal brotherhood

The North Avenue Revlcw June 199 1 I

And there is DEATH L

But in between shall exist the N0”GSS From which all of us strive to ESCAPE

and I

:I d

What would be the point in EXISTENCE

In the end, everyone is caught in the middle.

“.Ix

L IIlFLUERGE b9 Francis Flick

by Steven Arnold

Imkinto a pond and spit For I Q raot want him as hollow as me.

Look forth fos a mind, The Mywill wane with time. With a will of his own And some left to guide me. Make him naf dull but with a subtle wit. Open enough to understand my madness And strong enough to withstand it But not 80 smng that I wiI1 be smash&. Forgiving - but remembering - So I will not forget tm often.

A fiw * showing ~ture'sbeauty in youth. A heat strong enough to outlive me, For when I find him I do not want To be left behind.

The North Avenue Review June 1991 +rt.4 The North Avenue Review June 1991 -* The ernpkess of this place sickened him. He was bruised down to his soul, and he sa^ motionless on the concrete block. He looked around at the gray steel walls around him once again, There he sat in the cenm of it all, heonly color in the colorless mom. A red spot caught IS eye - a spat of his own blwd on the slick, pkid floor. They had laken him away from his abde. Visions of the meadow permeated his mind. He had never wanted to lose it. When they tmk him away he put up a fight, but to no avail. The confusion and sickness mounted up Lhrough his stomach and rib. It had all happened so quickly. He never even saw hitfaces. He had Iought hem, yet he knew not who they webe. His last vision had been the bkk gloved fist angling mward his face. Now he was hying on a dirty slab of concrete. Again he passed out. His dreams were filled with birds. He m Lhrough the high grass and danced to their songs. One perched on a branch close to the ground He Jowly reached out his finger to touch it, but recoiled in horror as the bird burst into flames. He awoke in blinding light. After avening his eyes. he realized he had been s&g into the sun, His face burned fiercely, but he ignored the pain. for there was no apparent method of relieving it He was being drug over white sand by two towering figures, bah idenucally built and cIad. with gray robes and hoods that covwd their faces. Each had a rum grip on his arms with heir black gloved hands. He contemplated snuggling, but he knew it would not do any gd.Lnslead he directed hs energies into observations. The sand stretched as far as he could see, which was not far, for the intense light of the sun reflected off the sand and forced him Lo squint so hard hat his eyes were nearly closed. He attempted to gain the identity of his captors, but even though the sun was igniling the landscapc, nothing but blackness cwld k seen within their hoods. He glanced back at he mil that his dragging legs had left in the sand, and sharply drew in a breath when he learned that those were the only marks behind htm - hegray ones left no fm~~+~ts. Suddenly, his head jerked forward as Lhcy came to an abrupt stop. &Is captors yanked him to an upright position and mka step towards him. They bath faced him, one at his fkmt and one at his back. Slowly, they advancd Forward. Their gargantuan bodies began to crush his comparatively small frame. He couldn’t mwe. All he codd SCC was he gray robe ha1was smothering him. He felt a sharp pain in his midsection and heard a sickening snap. The pain in his head was so severe bat intense lights flickered throughout his vision. He then lost consciousness. He awoke once again wilh severe pain throbbing dl over his body, but pain soon gave in to anguish and panic as he realized hathe was inside a small wooden box. The boa was the length of his body and just wide enough that he could move his arms, but not very far. He was in a coffin. A deep and acute sense of fear rose slowly through his innards. He began muttering insensible sounds, but slopped when he heard a muffled voice coming from outside of the coffin. Upn closer examination. he found the voice u, be rather several voices in unison. “He is dead. We may now construct as we choose. He is dead. We may now construct as we choose. He is dead....” The voices became fainter and fainter as the sound of soil striking the coKm kameheavier and heavier. Within minutes all was dark and dent. He kgan to move his lips before he spoke. as if to wt his saneness. Then his voice ratdeh off of the sides of his new abdc -“I am not dead ....y et”

by David Klein

The North Avenue Redew June 1991 My object is 'not toI patronize the radicals by patting them on the head as "in advance of their time"--that tired clich6 of the lazy historian. In some ways they are in advance of ours. But their insights, their poetic insights, are what seem to me to make them worth studying today.

Christopher Hill, The World Turned Upside Down Guesswork The Pseudoscience Behind the SAT by Jeff Cronkhite

More than turo million students lake the SAT evwy year, to maintain the social order that existed in America in the bwhgthat it may be the major factor in determining early 20th century, That social order conferred severe where they go to school. Colleges and scholarship- disadvantages to certain groups of people, and the biases panting agencies nationwide use the test scores to help that existed against those people were explicitly decide who gets in where and how much money they get, incorporated into the tests. and an entire industq has devdoped around training students to improve their scores. Why do the SATs have so much clout? For one thing, the SAT is a fairly Dubious Origins suu;essfulpdctor of students' fhtyear college grades. Moreover, the Educational Testing Service (ETS) of the Psychometric testing in its modern form began with the , College Entrance Examination Board (CEEB), which development of the first inteelligence test by Alfred Binet administers rhe SAT, claims that the reason for his in France in 1905 for the purpose of identifyrig children prediction vdue is that the test measures intellectual who might benefit from remedial instrucuon in school. abilities fundamental to success in colIege. And suldents ?he Binet test was translated and hprted to the United have been conditioned to believe this is me-that be. Statesseveralyearslater,pPincip~Jyby Henry Goddardat SAT measures how smart yw are and, therefore, how well the Vineland Training School in New Jersey. Robwl you'll do. Yerkes at Haward, and Lewis Tmanat Stan ford. Terman was Lhe author of the now familiar Stanford-BinetIQ test. But istheclaim me? The answer takeson added impwtance now, since the ETS announced It was Goddard who first in Octokr of last year that it importedand mslatedrhc Binet pIanstomakesweepingchanges scale in America. Although his to the SAT, ostensibly so that it lest was derived directly from will better measure those Binet's, he made radicaIty abilities it is supposed by ETS different assumptions regarding (and most of the rest of us) to its meaning and interpretation, ' measure. Toaddresstheissue beIieving the scores were a of what the SAT measures, it measure of a singkqinnate entity will be helpful to take a look at which cwld be used to rank all where it came from-the field of psychomeiric testing. Ltis people according to inteIIectual worth. Goddard wrote in from here that the SAT draws its claims to validity, 1920, ". .. our thesis is that the chief determiner of human conduct is a unitary mental process which we call The SAT was not invented from scratch. It draws upon intelligence... this process is conditioned by a nervous ideasand mhniques from the Same branch of psychology mechanism which is inborn.. ." Goddard used his version which gave rise to IQ and other mental tests, and is based of the Binet scale to identify pplehe. labelled as"faeb1e- onthesame~umptionsabouthumanrnentalfunctioning. minded", with the intent of ClrrtaiIing their breeding to It is widely believed by psychohgm (as is often asserted prevent deterioration of the American stock. Of such in introductory texts) to mmure the same thing as IQ breeding he wrote in 1914: 'If imfi parents are feeble- tests. Thedefinitionsufllallygivenbypsychologistsfor minded all: the children wiU lx feeble-minded. It is 'kh~lasricaptitude" and "inkUigenc&' are identical , obvious hat such matings should not be allowed..." What most people don't know is that the origins of these tests wexe not only unscientific,but ahbased on a desire Lewis Terman was the primary popularizer of IQ tests in America, and it was his work that led to their widespread use. The Stanford-BinetIQ test developedby Terman has

%#8G+ZWHThe North Avenue Review June 1991 bocorne the standard against which most other such tests commercial products, and make value judgements about are vdidated. Some howledge of Termq’s wark is a given situation. One question on the Stanford-Binet therefore important to a general understanding of the showed the child who was being tested a picture of progression by which today‘s tests evolved. several human faces andasked, ‘Whichis preuier?“ The mtanswer is the face having classic white Angb- In addition to the original Stanford-Binet, which was Saxon features, while the incorrect answers are thme administered to individuals onean-one, Terman aIso possessing features common to other ethnic groups. Not deveIopedaversionof the testwbichcoddbeadministered surprisingly, all of these questions satisfied the to large numkrs of people en masse, paving the way for correlational criteria of social class, etc. mentioned more widespread testing and the growth of IQ testing into above. a multi-million dollar indusby. He constructed his tests by first writingquestiMls~believedm~~intelligence Once the &st questions were ked and the tests and administering them to a group of people. The results administered to a group of people. Terman arrived at an were then s~udiedlo Find correlations between successon IQ score fm the raw scwe by dividing by a factm mt questions and various criteria of intellectual succesg, COlTecting forage (hence the name intelligence qlrolient) such as scholastic perfomance, teacher evaluations, and andstatistically standardizing the scores fm Ihe popuIaiim. in the case of adults, educatid and mcupational level. The age mtion factor was designed to reflect the Thus, €or example, if well educated professional people belief that intelligenceis an innately fixed quantity which tended to do well on a certain question’while poorly cannot change as a person grows older; the observed fact educated laborers did prlyon hatquestion, the question that scores tended to increase with age thus necessitated I was incorporated into the final version of the IQ test. If the CO~tiOn. the opposite occurred, or if no diffemw was -among individuals in perfannance on a question, that question Today, with the benefit of hindsight, it is dear IO us from was modified or thmwn out. Terman aIso made sure that IQ test questions constructed by Terman and his cach question was wellcorrelatdwith theotherquestions conm~sthat they held 3 view of intelligence on betcst. This wasdone to makethetest consistent with smgly conmxtd with their beliefs abut class, race, Terman’s belief that intelligence is a unitary quantity and social standing. It is also clear that these views were which encompasses many different aspczts of mental ckly related to Mkfs about social and economic functioning (in agreement with Goddard). Aperson with justice. To most psychorneeicians of the day. IQ was a high inklligcncc should then begdatall tasks embodied masure of a person’s economic potential. Since by intelligence.with no possibilityof being accomplished intelligence is innately hed from birth, ~eybelieved. at some IQ-related tasks but poor at others. Hence, if two and since it is rhe primary determinant of a person’s quesdons were well correlated with scholastic ~Stimatesuccess in life, one wuld conclude that existing performance, but not correlated with om another, tbey inqualities of wealth and mid status were due to could not both be part of general intelligence. Even on differences in natural inkIk.ctuai ability. The prwere much later versions of the test, this strategy was pursued; those whohad fallentothebottomofsocialranksbecause in Terman’s words (with Merrill), “Tests that had low they lacked he genetic capacity to do better, while the correlalion with the total were drop@ even though they genetidy welladowed nanaally rose to the social and were satisfactory in other respects“ (Terman and Med, mmkpinnacle. Moreover, since intelIectual ability 1960,p 33). As for Terman’s mewof constructingtest was an unchangeable quantity, there was nothing that queslions from scratch, this is rather fuzzy. Terman often coddelimime existing inequalities. Goddard. spiking stated as his theoretical definition of intelligence ‘We hfore a group of Princeton undergraduates in 1919, ability to perform abstract reasoning,”but never showed stated: ”...wmhen may have a 10 year intelligence how one could rank concepts in terms of“absmacmess,” while you have a 20. To demand for him such a home as or even what criteia could be used to determine which you have is ... absurd ... How can tha be such a thing ~ypesof reawning were abstract. How Terman might as social equalitywith this wide range of mental capacity?” have used this definition of intelligence to conslrucC test Terman pmlaimed that professionsof prestige and high questions is unclear. Questions commonly appearing on income were virtually closed to people with IQs Mow Ternan’s test asked he examinee to idencify Earnous 100,andhopedthathistestwouId’‘determinetheminimum pple such a sports ham,recognize brand names of ‘intelligence quotient’ nccessaq for success in each

*M ltll The North Avenue Revlew June 1991 M $%% lMding occupation". He wrote in 1919 that"the feeble- accmnplished exactly that. Immigration from Eastern minded, in the sense of social incompetents, are by and Southern Europe (including Jews attempting to escape definition a burden father than an asset not only Nazi Germany in the 1930s) slowed to a hickle under the economicdIy but stiU more because of their tendencies to law's restrictive quotas. Congressional hearings and become delinquent or criminal..." debates had continually invoked the immigrant €Qdata and Brigham's analysis, to which a parade of American This use of IQ tests to justify the prevailing social der PsychologicalAssociationemberstestifiedhirmppt. found what was probably its greatest influence in the arena of immigration. Henry Goddard, on the invilation There is no evidence that the views of Brigham, Goddard, of the United Slates Public Heallh Service, administered and Terman wm in any way iconoclastic in the his battery of tests to newly arrived immigrants on Ellis psychological community. In all the hours of testimony Island. He dutifully reported thal83% of the Jews, 80% becore Congress leading to the 1924 Immigration Act of the Hungarians, 79% of the Italians, and 87% of the there is not a word uttered by any psychologist to the Russians were "feeble-minded." This information was effect hat the immigrant IQ data were being abussd M later made part of imporlant testimony during the misinterpreted. And Terman was electedpresident of the Congressional hearings that led up M the infamous American Psychological Association in the year Immigration Act of 1924. Sa was the work of then Brigham'sbook was published. Brigham himself would Princeton psychology profcssor Carl Brigham, eventually Ix elected to the secretaryship of that same body. But his immediate work was pursued as secretary Carl Brigham wrote what was then considered a landmark of the College Enmce Examination Board. where he book, A Srudy of American Intelligence mnceton used his expertise in psychometrics to design and develop University Ress. 1923). In it he analyzed data compiled the Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT). MI immigrant IQ, and came to essentially the same ConclusionsasGoddard hadearlier,Ihatreceniimmigrants, In retrospect, hrnthe standpoint of attitudes that have parlicularty those of Alpine and Mcditemnean ethnicity. changedover~ixtyyea,itisobvi~usthattheLhe~ing scored far below the American average (and below behind the tests of Terman. Goddard. and Brigham was immigrants of Nordic origin). In an inkresting addilional full of holes. Withw t the burden of the biases that blinded analysis, Brigham discovcrcd Ihe "very remarkable fact" the early psychometricians, we can today easily see their hat among immigrants IQ was related IO years lived in elT0n: America; those residing 20 years or more were equal in IQ 1. Test questions were written without any to 'hative" Americans, while Lhase who had lived here definition of inteUigenR to serve as 3 guide. No theory less than five years wwe feeble-minded. Instead of of intelligence existed, and the tests were never checked suspecting hatthis finding suggested thaiIQ scares were to s~eif what they actually measured corresponded LO the heavily influenced by exposure to American culture and definitions of intelligence given by the testers. Hence. language, Brigham urged the abandonment of "feeble there were no constrainurn prevent the personal biases of hypothasesthat would make these differences an artifact Terman and his conlemporariesfrom affecting thc type of of the method of examining," and proclaimed, "we are test questions they constructed. It is thus no surprise m us forced to... acceptthe hypohesis that the curve indicates that the tests did not measure what the test authors a gradual deterioration in the class of immigrants.. . who believed was being measured. came to this counny in each succeeding five year pod 2. In attempting M validate the notion that IQ since 1902." Continued immigration and racial measures intelligence. the testers committed Lhc old ermr mongrelization. Brigham argued, raised the specter of of believing that correlation implics cause. They took decline in the level of American intelligence. "We must correlations between test questions and various criteria faceapssibilityofracial admixture herethat is infinitely such as scholastic performance to be indication that IQ worse than that faced by any European country today, for measures ?hecause of people's performance in the areas we are incorporating the negro into OUT racial stock, while coveredby the criteria. But it never occurred ta them that all of Europe is comparatively free from this taint.,,- In non-Anglo children might lend to answer wrongly to the final sentences of the book. Brigham recommends "Which face is prettier?" and to do prlyin school for thar "Immigration should not onIy be restrictive but compkkly different reasons. highly selective." And the Immigration Act of 1924 3. It was assumed hatintelligence (as measured

MtMwrtrw#aizw The North Avenue Revlcw June 1991 by IQ) was an innately fixed, unchangeable quantity, suggested we avoid the dilemma by simply defming even in the lam of cvidcncc which could havebeen taken intelligence to be whatever IQ tests measure. Many to canmdict this (e.g., the immigrant IQ data). psychometricians wish to avoid Boring’s tautology, and attempt hand-wavingdefinitions of aptihde. By far the These are not the only emrs made by the early most common of these is Terman’s own -“The ability to psychomeirists, but they are the ones I considw most do abseact thinking,“ Test manuals often cIairn this important because they are centrat to the conceptual concept is utilized in the construction of test items. A foundation of mental testing. They dso have in common vocabulary~tionIwhichvirtuallyalIsuch~tsconlain) thc mcundcrlying flaw, which heartypsychometrists may thus begin with the explanation that the words are fell back on again and again: a faith in assumptionsw hich ordered according to increasingverbal abstracmess. This haven’tbeenverified.Brigham’sanalysisoftheimmigrzlnt point is usually supported with a self-evident example. 1Q data exemplifies this flaw. When his data showed a The word koure, the example says, is low in its level of trend which could have challenged his beliefs abut IQ abscractness’whilefairnessandli~~~arehighlyabsuact. and ethnic origin, he invented an interpretation u) get Upon closer inspection, however, one does not find the around that challenge; since his interpretation hadn’t wordsf4irness or liberty anywhere on the test. Why not? hndisproved, he felt free to believe it. I’ve therefore Because these are words which vittually every college named this claw “Brigham’s Credo”, after the SAT’S age American understands, even those who score very inventor: “Lfan assumption hasn’t kentested, it musth low on aptitude tests. Instead. one finds the test full of me”. As for hethm specific errors that havegrownout words which express simpIe concepts in obscure terms - ofBrigham’s Credo, 1’11 call them ‘Terman’s Errors”for words like redolent, veranda, talisman, coniigmrous, ad fuiure reference. palisade [A. Whimbey & L. S. Whimbey. Intelligence Can Be Taught, E. P. Dutton,l9751. Serious attempts at ordering ideas in terms of abstractness have led to the Modern Testing: If It’s Broke, Don’t Fix It conclusion that for the vast majority of concepts there is no objective basis for scaling abstraclncss [Keith Haycs, IQ and aptitude tests have undergone periodic revisions Psychoiogicd Repwfs.19621. This explanation does nol and rewrites since their flawed beginnings, and modem provide even a superficially convincing case for what testing advocates assert that Way’s tests reflect an aptude tests me8sucp. improved underslanding of thc abilities they attempi to measurc. But despite the fact that the most egregiously Terrnan’s fmt Error contains what is from a scientific biased questions have bcm moslly eliminatd (although perspective an even deeper flaw: no way has kenfound be19~versionoftheStanford-Binct~tained~“Which toverify whetherteslitemsrneasurcwhat they mclaimd face is prettier?” question), so-called intelligence and to measure. Even if a theory dquately describing aptitude tests, inchding the SAT,still suffer from a11 aptitude did exist,there isstill the pmblem ofdcmonmling three of the errors (outlined above) that were that a test actually measuresaptitude. The claims by ETS responsible for theabusesof theearliest tests. Today’s that various SAT questions measure “mathematical tests may be more acceptable to us because they reflect reasoning” or “reading comprehension” ,have no our modem beliefs about what “aptitude” is, but these foundation beyond one’s willingness to believe them on bclicrs have no greater xientific foundation than did the basis of Brigham’sCredo. Thisproblem of untestability beliefs that werecontemporaryin he 1920s. Itiscommon of the tests by itself renders the claims about what is being to think of our ancestors as fmIish and ourselves as measured entireIy unscientilic. enlightened. Of course, the Same was true in the 1920s with respect to previous em. It reflects the prejudice and That point made. I could end the discussion of Terman’s parmhialism of what people think of as “modern times”. fust Error here. hapurely scientific forum,I would. But I am often amazsd to find that people (inchding many Teman’sErmr Numberone. No themyof “inrelligence” psycho1ogists)are usually inclined lo ignoce this flaw and or “qritu&” has ever been constructedfiom which 1Q toUow Brigham’sCredo, accepting the assenion that test and aptilude test questions can be built and verrd questions measure some particular aspect of “aptitude” Even he definition of thcse concepts is elusive, so much without any evidence whatsmver. People with this bias so that the famous psychologist E. G.Boring has even will often believe any unsupported assumption provided

wvrw The North Avenue Repitw June 1991 pf Mg @ I

I it conmbutes to theargument that the tests are valid. I am director at ETS). -the test still measures rding the one who is unreasonable. they argue, fQr failing to comprehension, even without the passages. The students recognize that what is king measured example, are simply correctly reading and comeending the ..I on, for I the reading comprehension portion the SAT is “pIainly questions. of II obvious” from inspection of the qucstions. Because of ’. the popularity of these kinds of prejudces surrounding Setting aside the problem of their mutual contdiction, aptitude testing, the defacio burden of pmf lies heavily the question remains whether ei ther of these explanations (and unjustifiably) on those who would criticize the tests. is plausible. To find OUL, I mid Katz’s experiment on myself by trying to answer reading comprehensicm Which is not to say that such proof doesn’t exist. questions from a previous SAT mieased by ETS. While Psychologist Stuart Kau of the University of Georgia in doing so, I tried to pay attention to what skills I might be Athens (Iknow, I know... but he is a very respected using to answer the questions without tho benefit of researcher) administered reading comprehension information from the passages. Alhough there isn’t questions horn the 1983 SAT to a group of 197 college space here to include a discussion of a11 the questions I students, none of whom had taken the SAT in 1983 answered,here is an example which I found to be typical: [Psychdogicol Science, 3/90]. The reading comprehension portion of heSAT requiresthestudcnt to The “youth market” in our country answer a group of multiple-choice questions based on informationstated or implied hashort passage preceding A. refers to others besides teenagers the questions. In administering the questions, KU B. refers to adults who act like teenageas introduced a novel twist: one group of students tmk the C. is mnfined to “Beaade-worshippers” and testin the usual way. whilea secondgroupwasgivenonly “pop-art”devotees the questions to answer, wilh the reading passages deleted. D. has come into being wilhid the last few years Theresdts showed that the scoresof the students whodid E. refers to anyone who feels young not mad the passages before answering the questions were much higher than what would be expected from Bascd on my previous knowledge of the the phrase chance done. Furthermore, the students’ scores rn “youth market” I immediately eliminated answers B and Kak’s expimental reading comprehension test were C BS being absurd. Answer D seemed unlikely for the strongly correlated with their pre-collcge SAT scores, same reason; aIso my experience with this tvpe of &st whether or not they were able read the indicated answers which are ina diiYerent caw.gory from regardless of to . passages beforeanswering the questions. In other words, the others M stand out as different aren’t cmt(D is the the no-passage test is about as effective as the test with only one that doesn’t answer who “youth market’’ dm passagesat assessing which students are llkely to do well to). Answers A and E are similar, but E Sasubset of k in colIege (as predicted by their real SAT scares). Thus, I bereforechoseA, which tumed out to be corrat. From the SAT reading comprehension slim does not thisanalysisitseemsclearLhatlusedprevicwsknowledge, distinguish between god and prstudents based on an understanding of the lesl-makers’ thinbing,and finally their ability io extract information by reading passages. a little common sense (to choose A over E). Apparently When conhnkd with Kau’s data, ETS psychomeaist the human mind funclionx in a more complex way than Cathy Wendlehargued that thisis because the test measures advocates of the “plainIy obvious” view (which clearly ugeneral verbal reasoning skills” rather than “reading includes ETS) would have us beIicve. But this shouldn’t 1 comprehension” many other specific slcill [ScienceNews. surprise us if we mall that claims abut what the test 3/31/90]. If this is so. one might be inched to wonder measures were never verified in the firs1 plac~

why the passages were ever includd in the fmt place, It I isalsoprudenttoask how theETS knowsthisexphauon man’sError Nu mbcr TWQI Test makers believe the hlhecomtone. Wasadetailedscien~ficsludy conducted false assumption rha correlarion impiies cause. The I to arrive at this result, or has ETS resurrected Brigham’s justitiiatim used by ETS for including any individual li Credo? Ma study was conducted, it is ralhercurious Lhat questionisthaiitcomlates with meappmpiatecrimia I B Mfeent ETS official, Irving Broudy, gave a different The technical name for this is itcm analysis, and it is explanation whencdmntedwith thesamedata[Discowr, Ternan’s methd unmdified from its fmt use. Most I 8/39]. According to Broudy (who is administrative students have encountered this practice directly; tk SAT

mnue Review June 1991 nearly always containsone “experimental”section which measure intrinsic intelligence as is claimed, then clearly contains questions (items) which are candidates for it is better to be born rich than smart.” Could a similar inclusion on a future test. The decision of whether to case be made concerning the SAT’S ability to predict include an item dependson how well performance on hat first-yearcollegegrades? To find ouha similar statistical item correlates either with students’ first year college manipulation could be performed for family income and grades or, what is more often the cam, their performance all of the 0thmyriad characteristics one might imagine. on the cmnttest. Conklations are measured on a scde Of come. for those who accept Brigham’s Credo, the from zero to one, with zero representing no prediction SAT-grade correlation can be taken as an indicator of value and me representing prfect prediction. On this causation without any such test. scale thecorrelationswithcollegegrades are .35 for SAT- math, .40 for SAT-verbal (according to ETS; independent Whilecamlation dms notimply cause, lackof correlation reviewers have reported simple arithmetic errors by ETS does imply lack of cause. It is therefore informative to which make the figures inflated W.V. Slack and D. look at some things with which SAT scores do not Porter, HawardEd. Rev., 1980]), and .52 fw high school carrelale. Numerous studies have shown that college gdes. But the assumption that this says anything about students’ SAT %ores do not show any consistent why the SAT is so correlated is a classic, even clichb, comelalion with their actual accomplishnts in social error. We saw earlier that the Stanford-Binet contained leadership. thc arts, science, music, writing, and speech items which correlated with school performance but were and drama [e.g., Holland and Richards, 1%5. and Elm absurdas measures of itscause. Mostpeoplecanprobably and Shcvel. 1969; Research Report nos. 1 and 2; Iowa think of @rids in their own experience which arecorrelated City: American College Testing Aograml. Not even a but causally unrelated (e.g., my age and the price of a six small tendency exists for better-scoring students to pack - both increasing). outdistance prerones in the “real worId”. The same has knshown lo be true for college grades, even in the case As in the case of Terman’s first Error. my experience has ofhighly’‘intell~t~al”careers suc h as scientificresearcher been that people are often inclined to ignore the flaw of [Taylor et al. , in Scientjfic Creativio, ed. Taylor and the mrelalion-and-cause error, preferring to maintain Barron, 19631. One might wonder based on this why their pro-test biases. Comments We the following, born collegcs have any inkrest in freshman grades. let alone psychologist Aurthur Whimbey, are common: “...scores SATscorcs thataresupposedto predictthem. Apparently, on the Slanford-Binetwmlateashighly with the SAT as the interest shown in correlations by ETS, the College they do with any other Imhtional IQ test, indicating that Entrance Examination Board (which created the ETS), all such tests measure basically the Same rncntal abilities.” and college admissions officers has its limits. ETS states that a correlation ccefflcienl is “gcneraIIy the most accepted” way to “desaitibe haw closely what he Terman’s Error Nu mber Tb. It is assumed that the test giver wants u3 know corresponds to what is actually tests measure somrhing unchangeuble, even in the face measured.” Obviously, an example is Once again in uf conirury evidence. ETS has long claimed in iur order, Consid,er the correlation htween a person’s infomation lmklets rhat coaching or drilling for the childhood IQ and adult socioeconomic status (SES), SAT does mt significantly increase one’s scores. ETS which is as high as .85 according to =me studies. has, in fact, conducted studies which ttied to improve Psychologxts have long taken this to indicate that IQ is a students’ scores hrough special mining and failed to do major cause of success in life. But it was shown in 1974 so. But this does not indicate that there is no way that any that when one considers only persDns of similar childhd mining course can improve test scores. Many studies family income, the IQ-SES correlalion all but disappears have shown, from the 1930s on, hat various approaches [S. Bowles and V. Nelson, Reviews of Economics ond can improve IQ and other aptitude scores in children and Statisrics. vol. 56, p 391. Conversely. thc correlation adults. In 1965, Joseph Marron conducted a study to between childhood family incomeand adult SES remains determine whether full-time preparatory schools that high even when one considers people of similar IQ. In train students for the SAT actually get results. Marron other words. childhood IQ predicts adu1 t SES only because pointed OUI that the coaching programs evaluated by ETS it is a rough measure of chiIdhd family income; when and the College Entrance Examination Board (CEEB) it fails in that respect, it also faib to predict adult SES. As had kenlimited to one or two hours of practice per week geneticist R. C. Lewontin has quipped, ’‘If 1Q tests do over several months. He studied the scores of students

The North Avenue Review June 1991 +W attending ten SAT prep schools across the couniry which Marmn’s data,I often hear something hke, ‘Well pwhaps gave intensive ?raining for roughly six months. The one can raise scores by 136 points, and this is certainly rcsults showed that student’s SAT scarks improved sipficant, but I would stiIl think that really Iarge gains, significantly, averaging 136 points higher than they had say 300-400 points, are not possible.” But his is an been before the training. One might think that ETS and entirely arbitrary assumption. Why choose ta believe it? the CFEB would, based on these results, recommend that “You are biased,” I say, and point out that the Milwaukee colleges adopt programs for incoming freshmen to raise Roject did achme equivalent gains in poverty children 011 students’ scores (and therefore. presumably, their (average IQswent from 94 to 124). But this simply elicits college grades), Instad, both organizations continued a new iound of inventive assumptions. It is the same over the next 20 ycars to asmthat scores could not be technique used by ETS in response D Katz’s reading significantly affected by such coaching, onIy dropping comprehension study: if the results don’t suit you, simply this claim a few years ago following widespread publicity concoctamson forthern mnotrnattcr. Given Brigham’s surrounding the score-raising successes of high-priced Credo, this method will flyjust fine. Most of us (excluding prep programs such as thePrinceton Review. The testing ETS, I thmk) do this noi hause of ill intentions. but organizations cannot claim ignomceof the 1965mdrs; kcause what is really bias often comes disguised as it was the CEEB hat funded Mamm’s study. Thus, we intuitive Truth, so obvious and clear that to question it at fmally witness the abandonmentof Brigham’s Credo,but allmayseemabsurd. , only in favor of the new poBcy, ‘ETS’s Credo”: ‘Xveo if an assumption has been tared, and proven wrong. it still The existence of these popular biases puts a limit on the must be true.” (For details of the scanddous suppression ability of science to debunk aptitude testing myths. No by the CEEB and ETS of the large body ofevidence about matter what research results hke those of Mmnor Katz coaching, see chapter 6 of David Owen’s bkNum of show, true believers can always fall back on Brigham’s rk Above). Credo. invcnting arbitrary assumprims to explain the evidence away. Often the results are simply ignored. Like the other two of Tman’s Emrs. the bcEef in Does this mean the tests wiIl nevergoaway? Perhaps not unchangeability of test scores is both widespread and Terman,Goddard, and Brigham all uItimateIy renounced hard to challenge. I have often read published mearch their racist, hered~tarianviews abut intelligence. But papcrsin which theauthorsshow apreferemfor“genetic” they did not do so in respnse lo ncw evidence. It was explanations of human mental maits without substantive only during a time when such views bcgan to fall out of evidcnce. The authors of a widely publicized study from fashion in academic circles that heyrecanted. Likewise, the early 1980s purporting to find a difference in men’s the aptitude testing morass in mhy’s miety is not lrkely and women’s average mathematical SAT scorn, for to change significantly unless we as a socicty can part example, came down on the sidedinborn diffmnws as wilh the underlying biases hat alIowed us to become the cause, with the justification that no other explanation seduced by psychomarks in the first place. could accounl for such a Iarge difference. The difference of which hey wrote was smaller than the improwmen& / seen in Marron’s 1%5 study. among others. In thenextissue,I’lldcaI with questionsraisedincritiques of this dcle, including the problem of what shauld Despite Lhe blatant lack of scientific merit of the SATand replace the SAT. other aptitude tests, their use has persisted because the unfounded .kIicfs about what they measure have flourished. Why has this happened? While ETS and the CEEB cerlainly W some responsibility for promoling such Micfs @artly through deceitful misrepresentation of evidence), it is my opinion that we. the test-taking public, are very much toblame forouragemess toaccept them without explicit justification, and even to go out of our way to avoid any evidence which dmCau them hint0 question. When I counter pple’s helief in the unchangeability of aptitude test scores by telling hem of

Urrw- WMw & rfff The North Avenue Review June 1991 .. by Scott Bainwell .--’

soles of the feet). All of these reports are consistent with ‘Theterror Saddam Hussein has imposed up Saudi Arabia’s patterns of torture in recent years. the Kuwaitis violates every principle of hwnan decency. ’ Egypt-Arbitrarymt,detentim withoutcharge Listen to what Amnesty International has documented: atrial,andmearewidqreadpracticesof theEgyptian ‘WidespreadBusesofhumannghtshavebeenpe~~~ authorities. ‘Emergency legislation” provides the by hiforces..arbitrary artest and detention without Egyptian police lo carry out these practices under . trialof thousands... widespread torture ...imposition of the promtion of Egyptian law. SystemaLic methods of death penalty and theextra-judicial execution of hundreds torture including the use of elechic shocks to the genitals of unarmed civilians, including children.’ ”There’s and other sensitive parts of the My.and suspension by no horror hat could make this a more obvious conflict of the wrists from barred windows have been report& in gadvs..evil.. Daily his troops cornmitautxitiesagainst dozens ofcases. Torture by theEgyptian officialsap- Kuwaiti citizens. This brutality has reverberated to be on the rise in recent years and there has been no throughout the enhworld. If we do not follow the indication by the government that any investigationswill dictates of our inner moral compass and stand up for take place. human life, then his lawlessness will threaten the we Syria - Thousands of non-violent political and democracy of the emerging new world order.“ ’ prrsoners have been brutally tortured in Syria, another The statement above was written by none other strong ally of the U.S. in the Persian Gulf War. Like than our fearless leader George Bush just one week before Egypt, Syria has implemented emergency powers the start of the Persian Gulf War. It is obvious that he has legislation which serves to protect their horrid practices. faithintheresearchcarriedoutbyAmnestyIntemational. Torture victims also include non-Syrians arrested or On the surface, it appears to be great justification for a abducted in Lebanon. More than 35 different forms of US.led offensive attack against Iraq. I am sure George tonure have been described by victims to Amnesty was counting on the ignorant masses of the United States International researchers. Some examples of mure LO interpret his statement in this way. committed by Syrjan officials include the extraction of However. I am &ply mubled by Bush‘s fmger and toe nails. Also used is the Black Slave, condemnation of human rights abuses in Iraq while at the strapping the victim onto a device which. when switched same time many of our so callcd “coalition partners” are on, inserts a heated metal skewer into the mu. Officials committing equally atrocious acts. Our fearless leader may aka torture or sexually assault the victim’s relatives has made no mention of the disgusting realities of in his or her presence. The Syrians have even built government policy committed by every Amb member of specidly equipped torture charnters to facilitate these the coalition. Following is a brief sampling of these practices. policies, information obtained once again by the London- Obviously, many of our alIies are committing based Amnesty International. mitiesequal to that of Saddam Hussein. However, it Saudi Arabia - Thousands of Yemencse people is clear that Georgc Bush has been quite selective in his living in Saudi Arabia have ken forcibly departed from mentioning of human rights abuses in the MiddIe East. In Saudi Arabia solely because of their nationality. Most of fxt, he has done nothing more than exploit the sufferings those interviewed reportedill-treatmentand torture whle of the innocent Kuwaiti people in an effortto further his being detained prior to their deportation. Some still own geopolitical and geosmegic interests. In other showed marks of torture- scars, bums, welts, and bruises. words, his message to the American people is nothing Many claim they had been kicked and txaten at the time more than 1 message of hypocrisy. Until he can see of arrest . Forms of torture mentioned include electric murder as murder, torture as torture, and rape as rap, he shock treatmendxatingson the head and body, enforced is nothing more than a hypocrite. As Resident of this standing, deprivation of sleep, and falaga (lmtings on the nation, George Bush has a responsibility to institute a foreign policy which is consistent worldwide.

MiwM The North Avenue Review June 1991 +ctr %&ff, btTr r-

by Phil Philpott

Integration has crippled the African American districts amted consumers past an array of black community. enterprises: grocery stores and movie houses, banks, The horrible processbegan in 1947 when Jackie shops smffed with clothes, furniture, and appliances, Robinson abandoned his Negro Baseball LRaguein favor drugstores with their quaint soda fountains. and filling of the white majors. That tragedy animated one of the stations. They passed boutique law hs,well-appointed saddest social pathologies in all of history. doctors’ o&ces,anddestateagencies whoselive~ihood Once the miserable fever of integration infected depended exclusively on the amelioration of African the Negro League baseball, it spread with a dreadful Americans and the homes they lived in. They also passed quickness. Within thirtyyears.integrationhad waylaidin black-owned news stands bpensing African America’s every major American city vibrant business centers and primary informa tion source: the black-ownednews-. the cohesive cultures that surrounded them. We today They even passed black-owned record shops that sold find in their stead the dysfunctional ghetto communities LPspressed by black-owraed labels, performed by mists that some ~ioIogistsfear will last Ionger than the managed by black administrators who booked them institution of slavery. exclusively in blacb-owned concert halls and who Integration is indeed an infectious disease, and jawboned their songs onto the playlists of black-owned its terrible symptoms -as well as an unlikely antidote - AM mdio stations. reveal themselves if we examine the story of the Negro The Negro Baseball LRague prospered in a Baseball League. bustling,self-su€ficientAfric~-Ametican business cycle Organized professional baseball began for that now seems like a fairy tale. African America in 1885. Local black-owned ms Its owners leveraged their collective future barnstormed the counhy,pIaying each other for money in against an ambitious platform of growth that restBd on black-owned stadiums packed with cheering families on two assumptions, One, that tbe Negro hgue and the summer evenings and Sunday afternoons. As baseball white majors would each make more money if their two became an integral part of the African American camps merged, and two, that their black teamscould beat experience, those stadium owners borrowed from black the white teams. They negotiated exhibition games banks to upgrade and expand their facilities several times against the white franchises to prove their assumptions. over. By the 1930s. Negro League mmowners rented Indeed, those games did generate sell-out crowds and out and Fd1e.d to capacity for their bigger games major demonstrate tlae supremacy of the bkkms. league venues such as Chicago’s Comiski Park and New. The Negro Baseball League proposed a York’s Yank Stadium. graduated interntion. Teams hmeach camp would As this indusiq thrived. so did the Black play each other regularly during the seamn and in the community. The Negro Basebd League was big business, playoffs. Black banks would provide capital to upgrade and a11 its attendant beneficiaries were black the team the Negro League’s stadiums wodd soon fa with owners, concessionen, lawyers. accountants, insurers, white fans and broadcast crews. Rem on investment managers, coaches, and stadium proprietors. andp~yersalarieswauldsoar~majorleaguelevels,and Families before and after hegame would nosh the goveming Mesof each camp would merge. Owners snacks and sip beer at fashionable black-owned bars and from each camp would trade foreach orhas’ players, and restaurants (not just comer kitchens and rib joints, mind their managers, COaEhes. and adrninisimm would shuffle you, but restaurants, with waiters and chefs and table wound the inteptd league as they do now in search of cloths and tipping). The traffK through the black business promotion from club to club.

I $%%H %+ rn The North Avenue Review June 1991 Eventually, there. would be only one camp, the It should not surprise us chat,the dismantling 2 truly integrated major league. the black emnomic cycle has coincided with the acsentioa The existing Negro League teams were to have of Patrick Moyneiahan's "cycle of poverty." grown into enmous franchises m the mder of the Only one component of the old black business Chicago White Sox or the New Yak Yankees. Judging community endures: the black college. Most black by the large numbof subsequent major leagueexpansion business dismicts had one. From Atlanta's prestigious1 franchises, there was indeed mrn for such growth. Morehouse/Spellman complex, to Houston's Texas But itwas not to be. The white teamsconstructed Southern University, toNew Orleans' Dillard, Yearsago a heinous countcr scheme, terrible in dimension. but students at those schoolswalking to morning class nodded simple in structure. I hello to familiaralumni: lawyers, accountan&,managers. White owners plucked the best ballplayersfrom and enirepreneurs on their way to work. Today students the black teams. Starting with Jackie Robinm, they atthose samecampu~sracetotheircarsafteranevening's offered more money than the black teams could then librarys~dy,boundedbycrackheads.tee~edgangsters, afford. Within adozen years, the country's most exciting and idle adurt males. players had abandoned the institutions that had nurtmd They may not suffer such menace much longw; them in favor guaranteed affluence and national as those colleges one by one begin to close Lheir dam. recognition. They were not permitted to bring with them Black spdents and faculty increasingly snub the bla4 the coaches and managers who developed them, the colleges that nurture scholarship and instead join white owners who risked their fortunes on them,or the business research facilities that pasture as universities. As Ibe community that interdepended on them. percentage of black students and professars who choose Thus today. while Africans fill-up the lineup, white %universities" increases, so does the percentage of only a smattering of them coach or manage, much less black colleges that are pressed into dcsperatc financial own the teams and the stadiums. or the concession, straights. All over the country, chese colleges- many of awwriting. and legal conmacacts. them overa hundred yearsold -choo= lxtween shutliag This never would have happened had the players down and being co-opted by nearby white schook . of the old Negro Baseball League stood by their owners. Just as black sports fans visiting he cold Instead. the league folded. as did the original notion of section oftheirfirst w hite ball park began to wonder if the integration. Negro Baseball League was any longer necessary. blacks After takingdown the Negro Baseball League, on white cam pukes nbw openly question the relevike of this mutated strain of inEgration therdfe.r infected and black colleges. killed every pteviously mentioned institution, from black- The history of the Negro Baseball League owned butcher shops and bmk stores. to black-owned suggests that the survival of those schcals is crucial toany hotels and shoe shops. Ironically, African American hope of evw reanimating the black economic cycle, If liberators inadvertently excited the spread of integration me, today's African American scholars and professors when they finally vanquished Jim Crow and the northern confront an exciting if not inconvenientchallenge. They Black Codes. Black consumers and professionals were can stand by the black sc hmls-not by cheerleading from ben as free as Jackie Robinson to abandon the institutions the dons and faculty lounges on mine white mpu- that segregation bad once bound them to. As 8 result, but by enrolling and teaching there full-time; in thatcase, more bIacks now than ever shop at Macey's and work for the African Amencancollegeswill grow into universitia LBM, but there is no black-owned Macey's or TBM. offering the same hcrative and highly-visable positians

I All the old black profit centers are gone. long that now only the white research facilities can. On ck since co-L pted or crushed by white competitors. From other hand, African American students and profesgoPs mod labels like Motown and Soh. which are now can instead follow as they have the tragic lead of Jackie owned by white companies, to the old arenas and movie Robinson; in that case, however, their personal sums theaters, which awnow abandoned hulks targeted by may lx overcompensated for by a larger loss. white gentrifiers.

WW! The North Avenue Redew June 1991 ww ktf rrrrltif MU.H.3Mt I by Ashley Raiteri

I have been having these dreams lately. It’s always the same concepts, maybe different details but the same concepts. When I was a student in high school, we wanted to give our lives to the causes of the Great Communicator. I formed a young Republicans dub for my town, and‘ we started to work on keeping the Reagan influence pervasive in society by campaigning for the election of George Bush. We stuffed envelopes, compiled mailing lists, called people (mostly Democrats who had voted Republican in the Iast election,) and anything else we could do to spread the pro-Bush pm-establishment propaganda. Bush won. And then I grew older. I sometimes feel like Paul the apostle, from the Bible. Like the way Paul was persecuting Christians, I was heIping to oppress people of color, women, poor whites, and anybody the establishment oppresses. So then God blinds Saul and Sad changes his ways and becomes Paul. So I grew older and now, one of the things I Iike to do is persecute the Christian Church. But I didn’t change my name dong with my political philosophies. So I must be a little womed my past will catch up to me. On with the dreams. The former actor, Reagan, and the current New World Order Leader, Bush, keep showing up. Dream one: Bush invites me to the White House to celebrate the opening of his new environmental proposal for the nation. T travel to the White house on this mega-huge highway complex that recurs in dl the dreams of Bush and Reagan. There are forty or fifty lanes. Everyone is moving at a few hundred mph, and the smog is so thick we have-to track our position by radar. What you can see is that where fields of grain should be there are only Oceans of cement, and plastic trees. When I arriving representing the Left, I discover the package is a sham that doubles the number of McDonalds sites and puts Exxon in charge of the world’s natural resources. So of course I’m enraged to discover I was being used to give credibility to this atrocity. But instead of just punching George in the nose like I wanted to, I got a little league baseball team to clobber him with their aluminum bats. Dream Two: Reagan and Bush come to my parents’ house for dinner. I attempt to argue with the two about what is necessary to save the inner cities and help fight patriarchy and care about a nation of individuals. They respond with comments like, ‘‘ If we could get it through Congress, we’d like to require applicants for welfare consent to be fixed so they can no longer reproduce.” After a few of these, the battle gets intense and George calls me a communist, homosexual, ignorant, snotty, bleeding heart, prepubescent, 19-yr-old kid who barely knows how to wipe his ass. At this point, my parents apologize for my behavior and begin to tell me that “you just, don’t know what it’s all about. You don’t understand how the world works.” I understand enough.

1“ $$gE#% The North Avenue Revlew June 1991