THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, January 8, 1995 TAG: 9501080105
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B3 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: PAUL SOUTH
DATELINE: WASHINGTON, D.C. LENGTH: Medium: 75 lines
The bus from Camden County moved slowly in the morning traffic at Capitol Hill, and a bearded man in a black stocking cap and ragged, dirty clothes walked alongside, clutching in cold, bare hands a one-word sign.
``Homeless.''
Some of the North Carolinians on the bus watched the man. Others looked away.
Farther up the street, a person of undetermined gender and color slept on a grate as people in dresses, suits and ties passed without giving a glance to the prostrate body.
The sun shone brightly. The winds blew cold.
And so it was on Wednesday when the Republican Party took control of Congress for the first time in four decades. The sunshine of promise glowing, but the winds of poverty, crime, and division chilling the nation's heart.
As we approached the Capitol, television crews were setting up for a noon newscast.
More suits and ties, dresses and cashmere coats went in and out of the Capitol.
Away from the hubbub, a group of about 200 people was protesting some cause or another, largely ignored by the eye of television. And on the Capitol steps, another ragged man sat holding an illegible sign.
Inside, as new House Speaker Newt Gingrich of Georgia took the gavel of power, the corridors of the Capitol were crowded with supporters of the new majority. The group from Camden crowded into new 3rd District Rep. Walter Jones Jr.'s office, and munched on cheese and crackers.
They are working folks who listen to Rush Limbaugh, join the Christian Coalition, and were the foot soldiers who helped bring the so-called ``Republican Revolution'' to pass.
As the 104th Congress was sworn in, some in the office clapped. Some beamed.
Washington, for the next two years, was theirs.
And in the glare of the media, the new power brokers in town talked about the revolution. They talked about how people are tired of big taxes and big government. How this was a fundamental change in American government. How the Contract With America will make everything right.
And there is not a person in America - black or white, rich or poor, liberal or conservative - who doesn't pray that Newt Gingrich and the new majority will be right.
But in the spirit of bipartisanship, it's important to remember the words of a politician who, like Gingrich, led a significant political shift in this country.
In 1941, Franklin Delano Roosevelt spoke of the Four Freedoms - freedom of speech and expression, the freedom to worship God in his or her own way, freedom from want, and freedom from fear.
Fifty-four years later, as the sun set on Day One of the new majority and the folks from Camden boarded their bus, I thought about those four freedoms.
I thought of the person on the grate, of the man with the ``Homeless'' sign, and of the man on the Capitol steps.
For them, freedom from want is nowhere to be found.
I thought of the protesters, and the television crews, and the foot soldiers from Camden, and how important freedom of expression is to them.
I thought of people who are often criticized because they choose to worship God in ways or in places a government or their neighbors deem unacceptable.
And as night fell on Washington, I thought of a city that is gripped in fear every night, and shudders every time a gunshot or siren is heard.
Those four freedoms represent the true contract with America, written before there were Republicans or Democrats, or Rush Limbaugh or Connie Chung, or Newt Gingrich or Ted Kennedy.
Those words tell us simply that Government does not belong to Republicans today, or the Democrats yesterday, or another political party tomorrow.
It belongs to the people.
Even those who are forced to sleep on grates. by CNB