Columnist John Katsilometes: Encounter leads to Final Call

Monday, Jan. 22, 2001 | 8:48 a.m.

John Katsilometes is the Sun features editor. His column appears Mondays. Reach him at kats@lasvegassun.com or 259-2327.

The man's silhouette slowly made its way along a line of cars at a stoplight on the corner of Rancho Drive and West Charleston Boulevard.

He tapped the window of the first car in line and held up a small newspaper. No response. He approached the second. Nothing. Then the third. No dice.

I was fourth in line.

As the he strode between rows of idling cars, my headlights illuminated the figure just enough to show he was a young black man snappily attired in a trench coat and bow tie. The window came down and he pushed a copy of the Nation of Islam publication Final Call toward me.

"I'll read it," I told the anonymous distributor.

"Any donation will help," he started. I looked up at the stale red light, expecting it to turn green and end this somewhat uncomfortable episode.

"How much are you looking for?" I asked, still staring at the light and fumbling with my wallet.

"A dollar, 50 cents, anything will help," he said. Noticing my Barney Fife demeanor, he added, "There's nothing to be worried about, brother."

"I, um, can't find my wallet," I said as the light flicked green. "But I will read this. I promise."

"OK, good," he said, then vanished.

As everyone who has navigated the city's surface streets, I've taken notice of the young men carrying the Final Call before, wading through cars and approaching motorists halted in traffic. But this was the first time I'd been approached by any of them, and I have taken a look at the Jan. 16 issue of the Final Call, which includes an excerpt of a speech Louis Farrakhan gave to the National Conference of Black Lawyers in Chicago in 1978.

In the article Farrahkan stresses the importance of black unity and argues that riddling the body with impurities (such as cigarette smoke and unhealthful foods) only weakens the individual, and in the long term, the entire race.

Nearing his conclusion Farrakhan writes, "If you don't quickly recognize that you need your people as your people need you, then as the economy falls, and the white man's problems intensify, he is most assuredly going to increase his misuse of you and then throw you back in the laps of your people. You must come home to self!"

The current political climate is examined with a piece detailing the National Black Leadership Roundtable's Emergency Leadership Summit on Jan. 4. The summit addressed the Presidential election and what writer Eric Ture Muhammad called "the suppression of the Black vote, the denial of people's constitutional right to vote and have that vote count." A photo shows members of the Black Caucus walking out of the House of Representatives as the Electoral College votes were formally tallied by Al Gore.

One headline reads: "Busy month ahead for the Oklahoma death chamber," topping a story critical of that state's execution record and comments from the Rev. Jesse Jackson. Another beckons, "Conservatives ask: Who speaks for Black America?"

Much of the coverage is strongly opinionated and heavily biased. It can be jarring, too, depending on your social and political tilt. But to find out whether you agree with the Farrakhan-published Final Call, you first have to read it. And I strongly suggest that you do.