European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - November 20, 1994, Darmstadt, Hesse Millions for Pope s words but who will read them Andy Rooney it May not seem fair for a columnist who is not Catholic to write about the Pope s new Book but being fair has never had anything to do with being a coh Mnist. I like this Pope. He s a Man who says what he thinks. He does t travel All Over the world saving things he thinks will make him popular. The fact that think he s wrong a lot of the time has nothing to do with my admiration for him As a Man. There Are billion catholics in the world and a lot of them think he s wrong too and practice birth control whether he likes it or not. Pope John Paul ii s Book is called crossing the threshold of Hope it s my guess that not one in 10of the people who buy this Book will read it. Not one in 10 of the people who read it will understand it it s Tough sledding. I got interested in the Book when i read a printed Rumor that the publisher Alfred a. Knopf inc., a subsidiary of random House which is going to pub Lish my Book this Spring had paid the Pope $9 Mil lion As an Advance. Naturally i wondered if there was going to be any Money left Over at random House for me. The preface was written by Vittorio Messori and i titled How this Book came to Messori says variety Pope s16nsmovie peal for his Book that the Pope had accepted an invitation from ital Ian television to record an interview with him be broadcast after it was edited. Because of his heavy schedule arid health prob lems Pope John Paul was not Able to do the Broad cast which was to have been in italian. Messori had already submitted the questions and in april this year he says he was surprised to receive an Enve Lope from the Pope with the answers to his original 20 questions the Pope answered the 20 questions which were posed in italian in his native polish. In the text Messori added 15 More questions. From what he says i think he asked questions that the Pope had already answered. It s not Clear. There Are parts of the Book that sound very suchlike Pope John Paul ii and other parts that Don t sound much like him. That could come from my hot knowing him very Well and any time a Book is trans lated from one language into a second and then from that into a third it inevitably loses some of the character and flavor of the original author. Random House does t admit it paid $9 million for the Book but whatever it was you can bet it was plenty. I asked How much Vittorio Messori got for what he did and they said basically that 1 it was none of my business and 2 they did t know. The Book would make a Nice Christmas gift for Catholic Friend unless he wants to wait and see the movie. /. a. Tribune Media services Andy Rooney is former 81am and striped reporter Union s.g., ease racism by Gregory Kane Baltimore evening Sun he minute i saw the police composite drawing of the Black Man who supposedly kidnapped Susan Smith s two boys Flash across the to screen i knew she was that was several Days after the Union s.c., woman first reported that her car had been stolen with her kids strapped into their car seats still inside. When i saw the sketch of the alleged carjacked i said to myself sarcastically yeah right. A Black Man driving around in a stolen car with two Little White boys in it would have been caught within 15 minutes. It has been almost a week and nobody s seen the Man the car or the boys. That woman killed those of course now the Mother has confessed to the murder of the boys. Thinking americans of All races probably doubted her Story just As i did. I tip my hat to them. For those who believed her tale up until the time she con fessed i can Only feel pity and ask a simple question my god How Gullible Are you anyway allow me to briefly explain How racial dynamics continue to work in the United states. Over the pro tests of conservatives who insist that institutionalized White racism has been replaced by a More pernicious Black racism i must Point out that Black male Drivers by themselves Are routinely stopped by police. It s tradition. It s policy. It s practically Down right american. For Young Black men getting stopped by the police is part of a rite of passage. I remember my first time. I was about 16 and enrolled in an upward bound program at Johns Hopkins University which was designed to help prepare youngsters for College. The faculty of the program had Given me a Hopkins athletic bag for a dubious academic award staying awake in the music class and i was walking up a Street carrying it when two cops stopped me. They wanted to know where i was going and where i had gotten the bag. After a Brief explanation they let me go. Both they and i knew they would never have bothered to Stop me if i had been White. The second incident happened when i was in col lege in Lancaster a. I lived off Campus and decided to jog through downtown Lancaster to school. Just where did i think i was anyway Canada i had t gone far when a cop stopped me. He let me go after he realized police were looking for a suspect about five years younger than me not to men Tion i was running in the direction of the crime. I Haven t jogged since. About two years ago i was talking with a group of Black men about the subject of getting stopped by police. As we discussed our experiences i said let s narrow this Down. Has anybody Here not been stopped by the police everyone had. Lest some of you think that getting roasted by the cops is reserved Only for working class or underclass types i will cite the experience of the late Reginald Lewis the Baltimore native who be came one of the richest Black men in America in 1989 when he purchased Beatrice International in a leveraged buyout while changing a tire on his Mer cedes in front of his Brownstone apartment two new York City officers walked up and had him assume the position ordering him to put his hands on the Hood of his car and spread his legs. Lewis resisted the urge to Tell the officers that he paid More in taxes than they made in salary. A Wise Choice or else he May have become the richest Black Man to have had a Rodney King done on him. Official police jargon for a Black Man suspected of a crime is number one i Don t think we re called that because we re number one in the affections of police. I think we can also Rule out that police subscribe to the nation of islam belief that the Lack Man is the original Man. Number one male probably stems from the idea that a Black male is considered by police the most Likely description of a suspect in any crime. Or in the Case of those of Susan Smith s ilk we re the first ones they think of blaming whenever they commit a crime. Smith s Story is similar to that of Boston s Charles Stuart who murdered his pregnant wife in 1989, shot himself in the stomach and blamed a fictional Black suspect. The irony is that in both cases even the police eventually saw through both stories. There is a lesson to be Learned Here. The next time a Susan Smith or a Charles Stuart wants to commit a crime and invent an imaginary suspect make him a White Guy. As quiet As it s kept some White men do commit crimes. Los Angeles times Washington Post new service Clarence Page is on sabbatical. November 20,1994 sunday Page 9
