DATE: Tuesday, August 5, 1997               TAG: 9708040277

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B8   EDITION: FINAL 

TYPE: Opinion 

SOURCE: BY JOHN L. HORTON 

                                            LENGTH:   67 lines

ANOTHER VIEW: WHAT THE NAACP NEEDS TO DO TO REMAIN VIABLE

On July 17, President Clinton addressed members of the NAACP in Pittsburgh, Penn. Among many things, President Clinton said, ``A bold and a national effort to improve schools that serve predominantly minority, inner-city and rural areas is needed.''

I am sorry to say that this is ``old news.'' The NAACP needs a major new focus on attainable and realistic objectives. If I were advising NAACP President Kweisi Mfume and/or NAACP Chairwoman Myrlie Evers-Williams, I would offer them the following grass-roots solutions:

The NAACP must be(come) substantially supported, financially and otherwise, by its core constituency, African Americans. In short, it must have far more financial and volunteer support from the overall African-American community, especially from those individuals and groups that want to have a say in its (new) direction and purpose.

The NAACP must devise ways and means to adequately address the needs and ambitions of the alienated, impoverished and disillusioned with our youths, families and communities. In order to accomplish these arduous tasks, membership fees and organizational dues need to be increased and actively solicited. It should be understood ``that to be the boss, we have to pay the cost'' in terms of active participation and meaningful financial support. To fulfill its leadership roles and organizational objectives for the 21st century, the NAACP will need to have several million dues-paying members on its active rolls.

The NAACP needs to develop and implement an effective ``economic plan.'' We must learn to work together for the common good and overall improvement of our people. We must further develop and improve our work and entrepreneurial skills. We must emphatically stress the benefits of a good education and meaningful job training. As a people, we must be(come) savers, investors and producers - not just spenders, debtors and consumers. Work and ownership give you a stake in life and an investment in the future. Possession of jobs (work skills) and capital (monies and means) almost always ensure the collateral social and political mights. Knowing this, we must become an enterprising and cohesive people. And it is of paramount importance that the followers and the lesser of us (educationally and economically) become proportionately empowered along with the ``leaders'' and ``gatekeepers.''

The NAACP needs to develop and implement an effective ``political plan.'' We can demand respect all day long; we can beg for our fair share; we can also talk about what's owed us. None of that will get us anywhere in today's real world of economics and politics. As a people, we must practice the political arts of cohesiveness and reciprocity. By utilizing voter education and registration, we can support and elect ``leaders'' who have the courage and competence to ``do the right things'' for all of us. We need leaders who will tell us the real deal.'' We need leadership that will encourage us ``to work harder and to work smarter.'' And most important, we need leadership that will bring us together - the educated and the uneducated, the employed and the unemployed, the middle class and the underclass, the franchised and the disenfranchised, the hopeful and the hopeless - into a united and powerful force.

Simply put, the NAACP must be(come) a movement of the people, for the people and by the people. It is time for us to learn from our past and our present so that our future will be better for all our people. Let us remember that our task can be accomplished, and there is something in it for all of us. I find it fitting to conclude with the eloquent and wise words of Frederick Douglass, ``A man may not get all that he pays for, but he must certainly pay for all that he gets. . . .'' This, too, is the way now for African Americans and the venerable NAACP. MEMO: John L. Horton is a Norfolk resident.

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