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Show The Sail Lake Tribune, Sundav , January I'M 11, A3 t " King Holiday: A Chance to Unite America in Spirit of His Dreams Ily Curctta Scott King No writer ever said more - and in lower words -about the black experience in America than Langston Hughes, who concluded his poem Let America He America Again." with these lines mcncij Ami li't ii ei it n o I s iceo r I me i n a to uie Anu-rm- i this o nth - mil Inr" When Hughes wrote them in 1936. millions of black Americans were prevented from exercising their citizenship rights throughout the South, and millions more were denied simple human dignity across the nation I recently met a young black his-- , turian who told me that, t or her, the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday represented a kind of fulfillment of Hughes' prophesy. "Not that the' holiday means we have achieved equal opportunity," she explained. But it does provide a Jfl A recognition of our contributions ioCf L. American history." She said that her Coret'a father was so excited about the holi- Scott King day that he had already purchased an American flag and was looking forward to raising it over their home when the holiday is celebrated this January. Martin Luther King Jr. always marched under the flag, so it would be appropriate for Americans of all races to fly their flags when the nation observes the holiday for the first time on Jan. 20, 1986. His timeless dream of a nation unified in equality and brotherhood is really the American dream, and the movement he led embodied the highest patriotism and the very spirit of democracy. ,N e Like every American leader of consequence, his was a legacy forged in the crucible of controversy. Like Thomas Jefferson, he was called a "dangerous radical." Like Abraham Lincoln, he was falsely accused of being an enemy of white people. Like Franklin Roosevelt. he was slandered as a communist. Yet. his example will inspire future generations of freedom-lovin- g Americans long after the words and deeds of his adver- saries are forgotten. The Martin Luther King Jr. holiday can help unite America in the spirit of his dream. It's important, however. that it have substantive as well as symbolic value. This holiday should mean more than just another day of rest and a time to be with friends and family. It t should be a day of education and action in behalf of the humanitarian goals he dedicated his life to achieving Young people, in particular, need to be educated in More than his philosophy and strategy of a quarter of those arrested for violent crimes in America today are under the age of 18. a figure that has been steadily increasing in recent years. There is a desperate need for role models who demonstrate that there is and the holiday courage and dignity in provides a unique opportunity in this regard s Martin Luther King Jr.'s career as a leader was relatively short: from December 1955. when he was elected president of the Montgomery Improvement Association, to April 1968, when he was assassinated. In those 12 years and four months black Americans achieved more genuine freedom than the previous four centuries had produced. In 1955 there were less than 50 black elected officials in the entire nation. Today there are more than 6.000. according to the Joint Center for Political Studies. Racial segregation of public accommodations has been clearly outlawed by the U.S. Congress and the courts of America. We still have a long way to go. however, before we can say we have eliminated segregation. The 6,000 black officeholders represent less than 2 percent of all elected officials in the nation. Affirmative action is under an unprecedented assault which threatens to undo many of the gains of the last two decades. In terms of economics, the unemployment rate for black workers in 1968 was 6.7 percent. The most recent available figure is 15.9 percent. Despite these problems, there is no denying the hiss toric achievements of the movement. But the most important accomplishment of the movement was that it provided hope and expertise in to a people who had been denied their human rights in America for centuries. The common wisdom is that the power of Martin Luther Ku.g Jr.'s leadership derived from his remarkable oratorical skills and courage, and certainly these two factors were significant. However, he would have been the first to point out that the key to the movement's success was the commitment to disciplined civil-right- civil-right- movement By almost any measure, the made America more just and democratic and, therefore, a stronger and better nation. On the morning of Jan. 20th, when the Stars and Stripes go up above the rooftops of the homes of millions of Americans of all races, we will have a more unified nation as well. civil-righ- ts Assoc 'oted Press LoseroKo Family portrait taken in 1963 shows rights activist Martin Luther King Jr. civil- - Copyright 1986 Coretto Scott King ad- - justing tie of his son Martin, Coretta King with son Dexter, and daughter Yolanda. Company Jealously Guards Priceless Canary Yellow Stone Tight Security Surrounds Cutting , Polishing of Diamond 890-Car- at By Penny Pagano Los Angeles Times Writer In a small, windowless room with a WASHINGTON rubber mat for a rug, several flat steel wheels that resemble record turntables spin silently on a workbench. Metal clamps shaped like narrow arms gently but firmly press rough gemstones against the wheels for days, weeks, sometimes months, polishing nondescript crystals into brilliant diamonds worth thousands, even millions, of dollars. ' One wheel stands out from the others because its tools are unusually large. That is because they were made for a task. When the job is done, the tools will be obsolete. ' For here, in a secret location behind bulletproof metal doors that open electronically under the roving eyes of security cameras, a man known only as the master cutter 'is creating what the stones owners hope will be the world's largest polished diamond. It is a fabulous but tedious process, full of risks. The slightest mistake can shatter the crystal and reduce it to a mound of dust. "You have one chance at a diamond like this, says one person intimately involved with the process. Its not like a painter who paints over a canvas and tries again. If you screw up with a diamond, theres just no going back." Like others around the diamond, he agreed to be intert viewed only on the condition that his name and the diamond's location remain secrets. Zale Corp., the large, Dallas-based retail jewelry firm that bought the diamond last year from a European diamond dealer, refuses to identify even the city where the diamond is being polished. No wonder Zale is skittish. This stone, which weighs about 6 ounces, is the fourth largest rough diamond ever found. It is a full 24 inches high and measures 2 inches in its other two dimensions. To the layman's eye, the stone resembles an undistinguished chunk of yellow glass. But to experts, it is an . unprecedented for such a apparently flawless stone color, caused by the large diamond. And its canary-yello. presence of nitrogen in the carbon crystal only makes . it rarer than a white stone. Just how much is it worth? Whatever anyone will pay for it. For now, Zale refuses to disclose the price it paid one-tim- e 890-car- . Los Angeles Times Pholo At 890 carats, this stone is the fourth-largerough diamond ever found. The diamond is being guarded so closely its owners st i wont even reveal where it is being cut and polished. Its canary yellow color makes the huge gem even more valuable and rare. last year when it bought the diamond from a European Usually, it is the cutter alone who determines a stone's dealer, and it has no immediate plan to sell the stone. shape. With this diamond, however, other cutters at the It's an incredible stone," says Zale Chairman Donald firm are being consulted. "Everyone is being very cautious," says one of the firm's top executives. He even Zale. It's one of a kind." called Amsterdam to talk to the grandson of the renowned stone may be, practically nothValuable as the master cutter Joseph Ascher, who cut the Cullinan Diais known about its Zale discoverer. or its ing specuorigin in 1908. lates that it came from West Africa. We have no idea mond, currently the world's largest, about its background other than it was purchased on the Ultimately, the diamond that emerges will depend on the cutter's skill in pinpointing the stone's natural woodopen market, says Zale spokesman Gary Kastel. "There are no papers with it." like grain, determining its proportions and symmetry and Zale is happy not to know any more. Somewhere, there polishing each of the 58 facets required for maximum might be an early owner claiming that someone bought brilliance. the stone from him cheap, under false pretenses. He uses a steel wedge and mallet to cut along the grain But for now. the diamond is all Zale's. Zale allowed the of the crystal and a small, circular saw to cut against the gem to be displayed briefly last year at the Smithsonian grain. The steel wheel he uses to polish the stones facets Institution in Washington before sending it to its present, He already has is impregnated with tiny diamonds. secret location early this year. There, the master cutter carved 22 satellite diamonds, a few of them as large as 15 already has been at work on the rough stone for nine or 20 carats, from the large stone. Before he is done, more months. The complete process will take more than a year. than 100 carats of the stone will become sawdust diamond or I "I have to treat it just like a two-carZale hopes the finished stone will weigh 500 to 600 carwon't sleep, says the master cutter, a quiet man in a dark record-holdinCulats, surpassing in size the blue work suit who is nervous about his own security. His linan I diamond in the British Crown Jewels. The Cullinan interview with a Los Angeles Times reporter was one of I was t stone cut from a by far the world's the first since he was introduced to reporters last year as discovered in South Africa in 1905 and presentlargest a silhouette behind a screen. ed to Kind Edward VII of England on his 66th birthday. A skilled artisan trained in New York, during his Because of the Cullinan diamond's flaws, it was cut career the cutter has fashioned many large dia- down into 105 polished jewels The two largest are in the monds, a number of them larger than 100 carats. But in British Crown Jewels Cullinan is in the royal scepter the small world of diamond cutters, who compete to cut and the Cullinan II is part of the imperial state the big stones, this diamond is considered the ultimate crown. challenge. South Africa also claims the world s second-larges- t Before making a single cut, the craftsman lived with Excelsior. But the largest diamond, the rough the rough stone for about six months, studying the most Excelsior weighs only 70 carats, the stone from minute details, contemplating what lies beneath the polished was reduced to dust diamond and of the rough rough surface, marking tentative designs with India ink the cutting process and polishing small facets, or windows, for a glimpse into during The only other rough diamond larger than Zale s was the stone's interior. He even practiced cutting on about a the Star of Sierra Leone, at 969 carats. It was cut into 17 dozen acrylic models of the real stone. the largest of which is 54 carats, stones, At night, he says, he dreams about the diamond. 'He's The to do one what always thinking rough Zale diamond has a crystalline structure step ahead, wondering that is practically without flaw. It is classified "D flawnext," says a colleague. less," the highest grade of diamond, and Zale is banking on One thing that has not yet been determined is how much extra he will be paid for this job. You can't put a price on that quality to convert the rough stone into the world's largest cut stone. something that a mans going to do once in a lifetime," "Those diamonds of the finer quality are the most rare says his boss. He is happy to do It because it is a feather of all," says Liz Dolan, manager of the Diamond Informain his cap, but he does want to get paid for the job as well. I have never yet discussed with the cutter how much he tion Center in New York In 1981. for example fewer than 50 stones of one carat or more sold in the United States will get. It depends on how long it takes and the pressures on him. It s not the kind of were D flawless." When diamonds were popular as a in to discuss want thing you advance." hedge against inflation in 1980, the price of even small 530-car- g - 3,106-cara- 1 317-car- 996-car- five-eight- Lo AngeiM Time Photogroph custom holder presses huge diamond to wheel to bring out the gems brilliance. A stones of this caliber soared to more than $65,000 a carat Today, they are still valued at nearly $14,000 a carat. Diamonds, which were probably discovered in India, were mentioned in writing as long ago as the biblical book of Exodus and have been treasured ever since. Over the centuries, wars have been fought and empires toppled over diamonds of lesser size and quality than the Zale diamond. The Kohinoor ("Mountain of Light" in Persian) was "the cause of more intrigue and bloodshed than any other gem." according to Victor Argenzio, author of "Diamonds Eternal." Indian rajahs and later Mogul emperors owned the diamond for centuries until 1739, when a conquering Persian shah followed his country's custom of exchanging his turban for that of the defeated ruler, who had hidden the stone in his turban. Subsequent Asian rulers were tortured for the diamond which eventually was presented to Queen Victoria when the British annexed the Punjab. The queen, in an ultimately unsuccessful effort to improve the gem's brilliance, had it cut down lrom 186 to 109 carats. The stone is part of the Crown Jewels. Perhaps the most storied diamond in the United States is the Hope Diamond, an extraordinary, deep-blugem of 44.5 carats that is linked by legend to a blue diamond stolen three centuries ago from the statue of an Indian god by a man who was later devoured by dogs or tigers. A blue diamond of similar description was purchased in 1830 by British banker Henry Philip Hope. After several subsequent sales, the American diamond1 dealer Harry Winston gave the gem to the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, by mailing it par el post and insuring it for $151. John White, the Smithsonian's curator of gems, says the Hope Diamond is the most popular exhibit in the museum complex. Whether Richard Burton purchased a flawless, 69 diamond for Elizabeth Taylor in ! m'9. thousands of people queued up for blocks on a cold day in New York to glimpse the gem in Carter's-windowe pear-shape- d $1.05-millio- n . The Zale diamond, when cut and polished into a finished gem, seems destined for greater glory than an engagement ring. For now, even its final color canary yellow or a paler, champagne shade is uncertain. So is its shape, which could be pear, marquise or oval. Nor will Zale say whether it will place the diamond in a museum or toll it, although the man in charge of the diamond has no doubt Zale could realize a tidy profit on a sale. He says with a smile' "There is always somebody out there who will want to acquire a priceless item " 1 |