The following was authored by a blogger who goes by the name of Antony, is a Chicago native and has lived in Europe for the past four years. It was sent in response to the reparations debate.
Why Be A Victim
I tend to vent through you, and walk away.
A coward, far from it. American life sucked in the worse of ways.
My dad taught me that common sense is among the greatest things in the world.
Yet it is of the most sorely lacking in American culture.
Closure is the problem in the U.S, closure and denial.
I question why so many Jews always seem to write when you do an article on reparations or other such matters.
Yet anytime one brings up Nelson Mandela everyone seems to shut up.
Mr. Mandela brought closure to South African apartheid by demanding those that took part in crimes confess and no charges would be brought against them.
Confess to where you dumped the bodies,confess to the families that you pillaged against, CONFESS!!
He also demanded that the South African police be accountable!!
Yet in America, we celebrate the fallen and stong men and women while the culprits of the crimes are still alive and well!
Why is it that the lady that was the cause of Emitt Till's death has not been hounded and forced to tell the story.
Yet we speak of him yearly as if it has been in many generations past.
She was alive last I heard and living without questions or forced comments!
It is as if America wants her to die so they are not further ashamed by the present, not the past!
Should she have peace, would any other war criminal have peace because of age!
She like most others are the reason America is soooo far behind in reality when it comes to humanity.
Right up there with pre Mandela South Africa, which America sponsord by the way.
So why would a Jewish person watch so gaurdedly your column? I say they can't be Jews.
Jews come in all colors( Although in America we think it was just Sammy Davis) and only Hollywood could make one believe they are all white when the Pyramid Walls itself are entirely (pre Arab occupation) Black peoples.One of the first things a crazy person is asked to do is read the Picture, damn, any kid can see THAT even after 10,000 or so years of the sun!!
Nooo, no Jewish person would challenge American racism against blacks. It has to be the klan in disguise, AGAIN!
Any person that claims to be Jewish and does such should have to prove his heritage.
Any black that allows such, should not allow themselves to be victims of psychological warfare.
As long as Blacks expect to be treated fairly by those that profit from the status quo, forget it, your asking too much.
Even the poorest of white men in America once told me that he has it all just because he is "White", in America. (I was the one buying beers mind you).so maybe he was right....*smile*
But when one decides to fight, YES, fight...Slap, whatever it takes to be heard on equal grounds...Because I think the U.S is too far gone to listen to anything other than violence against injustice. Is it a crime to fight against injustice...no.
Why not slap the cops they have felt so comfortable calling......... feel uncomfortable commiting crimes against our humanity.
Slap...why not put the fool that planted the sock(and many a more you know) in prison or take charge and Slap him down.
Why not make the government acountable for the crimes against humanity in our own country.
Or the people that profit from these crimes feel what force is like to be free when you continue to deny and disguise to further frustrate matters.
Mitchell Column: Madonna's adoption plays shamefully clear in black, white
October 26, 2006
BY MARY MITCHELL Sun-Times Columnist
I want to be happy about Madonna. I really do. But the truth is, I can't be happy about Madonna's decision to adopt a 13-month-old Malawian boy because it shames me, and I suspect that deep down inside, it shames the people who are making the most fuss about the adoption.
After all, how many of us knew a country called Malawi existed before this?
But Madonna's Raising Malawi charity funds six orphanages there and is setting up an orphanage that will care for 4,000 children near the country's capital.
I've traveled to Africa three times, and I haven't spent the amount of time with AIDS orphans that Madonna has spent.
Nor did I feel compelled to rescue a David Banda -- the birth name of the Malawian boy the singer intends to adopt -- from the harsh reality he was born into.
So I can't criticize someone else for wanting to take that child away from the disease and suffering that continues to claim so many of Africa's children.
Still, in turning to Africa to adopt a child, Madonna has opened the old wounds of slavery and colonialism.
That's what the fallout is really all about.
AIDS stigma still powerful
The allegation by human rights groups that the Malawian government allowed Madonna to flout that country's strict regulations governing adoption because of her celebrity status and wealth is merely a smoke screen.
Not even the well-to-do can afford to drop out of their lives for 18 months so they can adopt a child.
The groups might as well say it -- they don't want white foreigners to adopt African children.
Does anyone really believe that had Oprah Winfrey, an African American, gone to Malawi and wanted to adopt a child, she would have been required to live in the country for a year and a half?
Or that the media and human rights groups would have hounded her all the way back to America with ridiculous questions about her motives?
Madonna told Oprah via satellite TV that she was "stunned" by the negative publicity that greeted her when she returned home.
"I'm disappointed because, more than anything, it discourages other people from doing the same thing," she said. "I feel the media is doing a great disservice to all the orphans of Africa, period, not just the orphans of Malawi," she told Oprah.
The show's mostly white audience applauded.
And why wouldn't they?
To their way of thinking, before Madonna showed up, David was languishing under a slow death sentence.
The child has already survived tuberculosis and pneumonia. His 28-year-old mother, Marita Banda, died a week after his birth, and two siblings died in infancy from malaria -- according to published reports out of Malawi.
Although the reports claim the mother and children died of AIDS, the disease isn't mentioned in most reports prepared in Malawi, which goes to show that the stigma surrounding AIDS deaths in Africa is as strong as ever.
After his wife's death, David's father, Yohane Banda, left his son in an orphanage and went back to living out his hard life as a farmer. He was quoted initially in the media as wanting the adoption and blasting the human rights groups that were critical.
"I was alone with a baby. I had no money. I couldn't buy him milk. That's why I surrendered him to the orphanage," he said.
"Where were these people when David was struggling in the orphanage? These so-called human rights groups should leave my baby alone. As father, I have OK'd this. I have no problem. The village has no problem."
Now, however, Banda says he did not understand the adoption meant he would give up custody of his son for good, although he has not demanded that Madonna return the baby to the Malawian orphanage.
Need to save African children
It isn't surprising that Banda is trying to cover his shame.
In a perfect world, Madonna would indeed be applauded for adopting a child from AIDS-ravaged Africa -- as Oprah did at the end of her interview.
But this is not a perfect world. Many of us are still uncomfortable with the reality that rich white people can go to Africa -- or to the ghetto, for that matter -- and pluck up a poor child, even when that person is well-meaning.
Despite their hardships, the people who live in such environments still have a sense of community. It is how so many of them have managed to survive.
If adoption becomes the only way to save an African child -- what, then, will become of Africa?
The fear of creating a new Black Diaspora is driving the Madonna furor.
So, while her adoption of a baby from Malawi should be a gift of joy, for Africa, these adoptions also bring tears of shame.
CONTACT: Brian Flood, (312) 996-7681, bflood@uic.edu
BOOK ARGUES RACE ISSUES OBSCURE NATION'S ECONOMIC DIVIDE
A new book by a University of Illinois at Chicago literary theorist
explores American society's emphasis on cultural differences and the
resulting lack of attention devoted to economic inequality.
"The Trouble With Diversity: How We Learned to Love Identity and Ignore
Inequality" (Metropolitan Books, 2006) by Walter Benn Michaels, UIC
professor and head of English, examines diversity in America, the
growing divide between rich and poor, and the need for genuine social
justice.
"We love race -- we love identity -- because we don't love class,"
Michaels writes. "We love thinking that the differences that divide us
are not the differences between those of us who have money and those
who don't but are instead the differences between those of us who are
black and those who are white or Asian or Latino or whatever."
Michaels contends that the prevailing commitment to race and
anti-racism initiatives associated with affirmative action, university
enrollment, and corporate training allows society to overlook the need
for economic equality.
"Classes are not like races and cultures, and treating them as if they
were -- different but equal -- is one of our strategies for managing
inequality rather than minimizing it or eliminating it."
One example of the economic imbalance is the country's education
system, where Michaels maintains the rich have a built-in competitive
advantage over the poor.
"The kinds of solutions that might actually make a difference --
financing every school district equally, abolishing private schools,
making high-quality child care available to every family -- are treated
as if they were positively un-American," he explains in the book's
introduction.
While Michaels spreads blame across both sides of the political
spectrum for economic inequality, he believes liberalism has become
"the accomplice rather than the opponent of the right" in this matter.
He urges the Left to change its course.
"We must shift our focus from cultural diversity to economic equality
to help alter the political terrain of contemporary American life," he
writes.
Michaels, a UIC faculty member since 2001, is considered one of the
country's leading literary theorists. Much of his work examines
American literature and inequality, specifically issues of race and
class.
He is the author of "The Shape of the Signifier: 1967 to the End of
History" (2004); "Our America: Nativism, Modernism, and Pluralism"
(1995); and "The Gold Standard and the Logic of Naturalism: American
Literature at the Turn of the Century" (1987).
UIC ranks among the nation's top 50 universities in federal research
funding and is Chicago's largest university with 25,000 students,
12,000 faculty and staff, 15 colleges and the state's major public
medical center. A hallmark of the campus is the Great Cities
Commitment, through which UIC faculty, students and staff engage with
community, corporate, foundation and government partners in hundreds of
programs to improve the quality of life in metropolitan areas around
the world.
For more information about UIC, please visit www.uic.edu
Several bloggers have forwarded me the following chain letter.
It has probably been bouncing around blogs for quite some time. Although I don't usually post anonymous posts of this length, the unknown author has raised points that are routinely asked by whites. I have answered some of the questions (in parenthesis). I'd like to here your responses to the generalizations made by the author.
Subject: Are you a racist?
>There are folks in cyberspace who dream up this stuff and send it around
>the world, just for fun.
>It rings so true when you turn it around.
>
>
>You pass me on the street and sneer in my direction.
(How many whites have had this experience? I'm too busy trying to get to my destination to pay attention to whites on the street, let alone sneer at them).
>
>You call me "Whiteboy", "Cracker", "Honkey", "Whitey" and you think it's
>OK.
(These terms are racial slurs. What I don't understand is why white audiences pay huge sums to hear black comedians use these terms?)
>
>But when I call you, nigger, Kike, Towelhead, Sand-nigger, Camel Jockey,
>Beaner, Gook, or Chink you call me a racist.
(These terms are also racial slurs, Frankly, except for the n-word, I've never seen any of these slurs in print,)
>
>You say that whites commit a lot of violence against you, so why are the
>ghettos the most dangerous places to live?
(I've never heard this claim)
>
>You have the United Negro College Fund.
>You have Martin Luther King Day.
>You have Black History Month.
>You have Cesar Chavez Day.
>You have Yom Hashoah
>You have Ma'uled Al-Nabi
>You have the NAACP.
>You have BET.
>
>If we had WET(white entertainment television) we'd be racists.
>
>If we had a White Pride Day you would call us racists.
>
>If we had white history month, we'd be racists.
>
>If we had an organization for only whites to "advance" our lives, we'd be
>racists.
>
>If we had a college fund that only gave white students scholarships, you
>know we'd be racists.
>
>There are over 60 openly proclaimed Black Colleges in the US, yet if
>
>were "White colleges" that would be a racist college.
(There are still private organizations, churches and schools that are all-white in this country. Historically Black Colleges and Universities were founded because blacks were not allowed to go to schools with whites. Those schools have continued to serve predominantly black students although whites are not barred from attendance, and in fact, have attended HBCUs.)
(The observance of Martin Luther King's Birthday is a national holiday, not a black holiday, )
(The United Negro College Fund raises money to provide scholarships for black students because historically, this group of students have been unable to afford college tuition. On the other hand, private universities and colleges that are predominantly white institutions have hefty endowments (very old money) to provide scholarships and assistance for their students.)
>
>In the Million Man March, you believed that you were marching for your
>race
>and rights. If we marched for our race and rights, you would call us
>racists.
(The Million Man March was not about "race and rights" and certainly had nothing to do with whites. It was a gathering of black men who came together to support each other in an environment of atonement and humility).
>
>You are proud to be black, brown, yellow and orange, and you're not
>afraid
>to announce it. But when we announce our white pride, you call us
>racists.
(What do you call the Columbus Day Parade? Isn't that about Italian Pride? How about St. Patrick's Day, isn't that a demonstration of Irish Pride? )
>
>You rob us, carjack us, and shoot at us.
>But, when a white police officer shoots a black gang member or beats up a
>black drug-dealer running from the law and posing a threat to society,
>you
>call him a racist.
(Black criminals, rob, carjack and shoot a lot more black people than they do whites. As for black drug dealers, like white collar criminals, they still have constitutional rights.)
>
>I am proud.
>
>But, you call me a racist.
>
>Why is it that only whites can be racists?
>
(A racist believes that race is the primary determinant of human traits and capacities and that racial differences produce an inherent superiority of a particular race, according to Websters. ) Historically, blacks and Jews have been the groups victimized world-wide by people who hold this point of view.)
So much of our history is lost to us because we often don't write the
history books, don't film the documentaries, or don't pass the accounts
down from generation to generation.
One documentary now touring the film festival circuit, telling us to
"Always Remember" is "Black Survivors of the Holocaust" (1997). Outside the
U.S., the film is entitled "Hitler's Forgotten Victims" (Afro-Wisdom
Productions) . It codifies another dimension to the "Never Forget "
Holocaust story--our dimension.
Did you know that in the 1920's, there were 24,000 Blacks living in
Germany?
Neither did I.
Here's how it happened, and how many of them were
eventually caught unawares by the events of the Holocaust.
Like most West European nations, Germany established colonies in Africa in
the la te 1800's in what later became Togo, Cameroon, Namibia, and
Tanzania. German genetic experiments began there, most notably involving
prisoners taken from the 1904 Heroro Massacre that left 60,000 Africans
dead, following a 4-year revolt against German
colonization. After the shellacking Germany received in World War I, it was
stripped of its African colonies in 1918.
As a spoil of war, the French were allowed to occupy Germany in the
Rhineland--a bitter piece of real estate that has gone back and, forth
between the two nations for centuries. The French willfully deployed their
own colonized African soldiers as the occupying
force. Germans viewed this as the final insult of World War I, and, soon
thereafter, 92% of them voted in the Nazi party.
Hundreds of the African Rhineland-based soldiers intermarried with German
women and raised their children as Black Germans. In Mein Kampf, Hitler
wrote about his plans for these "Rhineland Bastards". When he came to
power, one of his first directives was aimed at
these mixed-race children. Underscoring Hitler's obsession with racial
purity, by 1937, every identified mixed-race child in the Rhineland had
been forcibly sterilized, in order to prevent
further "race polluting", as Hitler termed it.
Hans Hauck, a Black Holocaust survivor and a victim of Hitler's mandatory
sterilization program, explained in the film "Hitler's Forgotten Victims"
that, when he was forced to undergo sterilization as a teenager, he was
given no anesthetic. Once he received his
sterilization certificate, he was "free to go", so long as he agreed to
have no sexual relations whatsoever with Germans.
Although most Black Germans attempted to escape their fatherland, heading
for France where people like Josephine Baker were steadily aiding and
supporting the French Underground, many still encountered problems
elsewhere. Nations shut their doors to Germans, including the Black ones.
Some Black Germans were able to eke out a living during Hitler's reign of
terror by performing in Vaudeville shows, but many Blacks, steadfast in
their belief that they were German first, Black second, opted to remain in
Germany. Some fought with the Nazis (a few even became Lutwaffe pilots)!
Unfortunately, many Black Germans were arrested, charged with treason, and
shipped in cattle cars to concentration camps. Often these trains were so
packed with people and (equipped with no bathroom facilities or food),
that, after the four-day journey, box car doors were opened to piles of the
dead and dying.
Once inside the concentration camps, Blacks were given the worst jobs
conceivable. Some Black American soldiers, who were captured and held as
prisoners of war, recounted that, while they were being starved and forced
into dangerous labor (violating the Geneva
Convention), they were still better off than Black German concentration
camp detainees, who were forced to do the unthinkable-man the crematoriums
and work in labs where genetic experiments were being conducted. As a final
sacrifice, these Blacks were killed
every three months so that they would never be able to reveal the inner
workings of the "Final Solution".
In every story of Black oppression, no matter how we were enslaved,
shackled, or beaten, we always found a way to survive and to rescue others.
As a case in point, consider Johnny Voste, a Belgian resistance fighter who
was arrested in 1942 for alleged sabotage and
then shipped to Dachau. One of his jobs was stacking vitamin crates.
Risking his own life, he distributed hundreds of vitamins to camp
detainees, which saved the lives of many who were starving, weak, and
ill--conditions exacerbated by extreme vitamin deficiencies. His motto was
"No, you can't have my life; I will fight for it."
According to Essex University's Delroy Constantine- Simms, there were Black
Germans who resisted Nazi Germany, such as Lari Gilges, who founded the
Northwest Rann--an organization of entertainers that fought the Nazis in
his home town of Dusseldorf--and who was murdered by the SS in 1933, the
year that Hitler came into power.
Little information remains about the numbers of Black Germans held in the
camps or killed under the Nazi regime. Some victims of the Nazi
sterilization project and Black survivors of the Holocaust are still alive
and telling their story in films such as "Black Survivors of the Nazi
Holocaust", but they must also speak out for justice, not just history.
Unlike Jews (in Israel and in Germany), Black Germans receive no war
reparations because their German citizenship was revoked (even though they
were German-born) . The only pension they get is from those of us who are
willing to tell the world their stories and continue their battle for
recognition and compensation.
After the war, scores of Blacks who had somehow managed to survive the Nazi
regime, were rounded up and tried as war criminals. Talk about the final
insult! There are thousands of Black Holocaust stories, from the triangle
trade, to slavery in America, to the gas
ovens in Germany.
We often shy away from hearing about our historical past because so much of
it is painful; however, we are in this struggle together for rights,
dignity, and, yes, reparations for wrongs done to us through the centuries.
We need to always remember so that we can take steps
to ensure that these atrocities never happen again.
For further information, read: Destined to Witness: Growing Up Black in
Nazi Germany, by Hans J. Massaquoi.
RACE GENERALLY LESS IMPORTANT FOR
MINORITIES FARING WELL ECONOMICALLY
EVANSTON, Ill. --- Racial minorities who experience equal
opportunities and relatively higher economic status tend to place
less emphasis on racial group concerns in their evaluations of public
policies, according to a new Northwestern University study.
But despite the growth of the black middle class in the post-civil
rights era, that is not necessarily the case for African Americans,
according to the study.
“Because African Americans continue to experience higher rates of
discrimination, even when they do well economically, they are more
likely than Latinos and Asian Americans to identify with their racial
group,� said Dennis Chong, professor of political science.
“The Experiences and Effects of Economic Status Among Racial and
Ethnic Minorities,� by Chong and co-author Dukhong Kim, appeared in
the American Political Science Review, a journal of the American
Political Science Association.
Chong and Kim based their study on data from a national survey
conducted in 2001 by the Washington Post, Kaiser Family Foundation
and Harvard University. The survey over-sampled African American,
Latino and Asian American respondents to permit a detailed comparison
of the effects of economic status across groups.
“For individuals in all three groups, the effect of socioeconomic
status depends on the experiences accompanying that status,� Chong said.
African Americans report suffering the indignities of prejudice and
discrimination to a greater degree than do other minorities and are
more likely to regard their interests in racial terms and to evaluate
public policies from the perspective of their effect on group interests.
Still, once experiences with discrimination are taken into account,
all three minority groups respond similarly to changes in economic
status. Improvements in economic status tend to diminish racial
consciousness among those who experience little discrimination in
their daily lives. But better off individuals in all three groups who
frequently encounter discrimination continue to call for greater
attention to race in public affairs.
Nonetheless, compared to Latinos and Asian Americans, economically
secure African Americans were more likely to support government
efforts to achieve racial equality in education, employment, health
care and the administration of the law even when they had a favorable
assessment of their opportunities in society. These remaining
differences across racial and ethnic groups may be attributable in
part to the positive legacy of collective action among African
Americans and to the presence of institutions such as the media and
churches in the African American community that continue to promote
the importance of support for racial group interests.
“African Americans have a great legacy of collective action,� Chong
said. “Their awareness of achievements of the civil rights movement
reminds them of the benefits of group solidarity.�
The study highlights that the successful incorporation of a minority
group into American society is contingent not only on the actions of
group members but also the reception accorded that group by the
majority population. When society provides equal social and economic
opportunities to individuals, minorities have less incentive to feel
their individual prospects are bound up in the status of the group as
a whole.
Scholars have noted that the most recent immigrants to the United
States from Latin America and Asia may face more formidable barriers
to social acceptance than did previous generations of European
immigrants. The question is: Will racial identities among Latinos and
Asian Americans become less important as their economic status
improves or will they develop a stronger racial consciousness --
similar to African Americans -- in response to discrimination and
restrictions on their social mobility?
“The incorporation of immigrant groups in American society depends
greatly on the behavior of other people toward them,� Chong said. “It
is the barriers to economic advancement that play a major role in
sustaining racial and ethnic group consciousness.�
Illinois forms Transatlantic Slave Trade Commission
On October 10th, Illinois State Senate President Emil Jones Jr. (D-14th), along with Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan (D-22nd), and State Senator Mattie Hunter (D-3rd), State Rep. Eddie Washington (D-14th) announced the formation of the Illinois Transatlantic Slave Trade Commission.
Under the direction of Dr. Anderson Thompson, senior research coordinator and director of research and evaluation, the Illinois Transatlantic Slave Trade Commission ("ITSTC") brings together nationally known historians and researchers, including: Dr. Carl Bell, Dr. Samella Abdullah, Dr. Asa G Hillard, III, Dr. Harvette Gray, Dr. Wade Nobles and Standish Willis, a prominent civil rights attorney.
The ITSTC will prepare a study addressing the impact of politics, economics, education and societal issues on the Transatlantic Slave Trade and slavery.
The study will focus on the institution of slavery from 1619-1865; governmental support for the institution of slavery; discrimination by law in public/private sectors against freed Africans; and the negative effects of slavery. The ITSTC will submit recommendations for educating the general public on their findings, i.e., inclusion on the K-12 curriculum, post-secondary curriculum, teacher training programs, etc.
The Illinois Transatlantic Slave Trade Commission will be administered and housed at the Jacob H. Carruthers Center for Inner City Studies of Northeastern Illinois University.
SJ0031 LRB094 11683 HSS 43377 r
1
SENATE JOINT RESOLUTION
2 WHEREAS, Approximately 4,000,000 Africans and their
3 descendants were enslaved in the United States and colonies
4 that became the United States from 1619 to 1865; and
5 WHEREAS, The institution of slavery was constitutionally
6 and statutorily sanctioned by the Government of the United
7 States from 1789 through 1865; and
8 WHEREAS, The slavery that flourished in the United States
9 constituted an immoral and inhumane deprivation of Africans'
10 life, liberty, African citizenship rights, and cultural
11 heritage, and denied them the fruits of their own labor; and
12 WHEREAS, Sufficient inquiry has not been made into the
13 effects of the institution of slavery on living
14 African-Americans and society in the United States; therefore,
15 be it
16 RESOLVED, BY THE SENATE OF THE NINETY-FOURTH GENERAL
17 ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS, THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
18 CONCURRING HEREIN, that there is established the Commission to
19 Study the Transatlantic Slave Trade and its Past and Present
20 Effects on African-Americans (hereinafter referred to as the
21 Commission); and be it further
22 RESOLVED, That the Commission shall perform the following
23 duties:
24 (1) Examine the institution of slavery which existed
25 within the United States and the colonies that became the
26 United States from 1619 through 1865; the Commission's
27 examination shall include an examination of:
28 (A) the capture and procurement of Africans;
29 (B) the transport of Africans to the United States
30 and the colonies that became the United States for the
SJ0031 - 2 - LRB094 11683 HSS 43377 r
1 purpose of enslavement, including their treatment
2 during transport;
3 (C) the sale and acquisition of Africans as chattel
4 property in interstate and intrastate commerce; and
5 (D) the treatment of African slaves in the colonies
6 and the United States, including the deprivation of
7 their freedom, exploitation of their labor, and
8 destruction of their culture, language, religion, and
9 families;
10 (2) Examine the extent to which the Federal and State
11 governments of the United States supported the institution
12 of slavery in constitutional and statutory provisions,
13 including the extent to which such governments prevented,
14 opposed, or restricted efforts of freed African slaves to
15 repatriate to their homeland;
16 (3) Examine Federal and State laws that discriminated
17 against freed African slaves and their descendants during
18 the period between the end of the Civil War and the
19 present;
20 (4) Examine other forms of discrimination in the public
21 and private sectors against freed African slaves and their
22 descendants during the period between the end of the Civil
23 War and the present;
24 (5) Examine the lingering negative effects of the
25 institution of slavery and the matters described in
26 paragraphs (1), (2), (3), and (4) on living
27 African-Americans and on society in the United States;
28 (6) Recommend appropriate ways to educate the general
29 public of the Commission's findings;
30 (7) Examine whether African-Americans still suffer
31 from the lingering effects of the matters described in
32 paragraphs (1), (2), (3), and (4); and be it further
33 RESOLVED, That the members of the Commission shall include
34 the President of the Senate or his or her designee and the
35 Speaker of the House of Representatives or his or her designee,
SJ0031 - 3 - LRB094 11683 HSS 43377 r
1 each serving as co-chairpersons, the Governor or his or her
2 designee, one vice-chairperson appointed by each of the
3 co-chairpersons, and 25 appointed members, with the Governor,
4 the President of the Senate, the Speaker of the House of
5 Representatives, the Minority Leader of the Senate, and the
6 Minority Leader of the House of Representatives appointing 5
7 members each; and be it further
8 RESOLVED, That the appointed members shall be from diverse
9 backgrounds so as to reflect the diverse citizenry of Illinois
10 working together, and that their individual qualifications
11 shall include varying educational, professional, and civic
12 experiences that bring different perspectives and cooperative
13 outlooks to the Commission; and be it further
14 RESOLVED, That the Commission shall broaden outreach by
15 using established channels, including publicly-supported media
16 and electronic, computer-assisted communication systems, and
17 elicit voluntary assistance from educational, legal, civic,
18 and professional organizations and institutions as well as
19 notable individuals; and be it further
20 RESOLVED, That no later than December 1, 2006, the
21 Commission shall report to the General Assembly, the Governor,
22 and the general public on its activities, accomplishments, and
23 recommendations; and that the Commission shall be dissolved
24 after the filing of this report; and be it further
25 RESOLVED, That a suitable copy of this resolution be
26 delivered to the Governor o
