Winner Legacies and Loser Legacies

NTIC Co-founder Shel Trapp looked at the vaulted ceiling and the Tiffany designed stained glass window and said to me:

øIt�s hard to believe that 30 years ago, it was Gale, Anne-Marie and I in a store front office on Division Street with two phones and a big map of the US.Ó

We were standing in the center of the splendor of the Chicago Cultural Center Ë the site of the 30 th Anniversary Celebration of NTIC. With us were several hundred people who included grassroots leaders, public officials and corporate executives. Overhead was a huge banner with the NTIC name surrounded by the logos of who�s who in corporate America . There were fancy hors d�ouvres and a jazz band. NTIC had come a long way indeed!

There were words spoken about the legacy of Gale Cincotta . . . øthat she was a leader both in tune with her times and ahead of her time. . . as a genuine leader Ë her work never ends and her legacy grows stronger as that work continues . . . ø

The fact is that over the past 30 years, people who neither knew about Cincotta nor NTIC were able to buy a home in their neighborhood because of our work. It was the result of many meetings in church basements, hours of research and traveling to hits on yellow school busses. It was also the result of many of our targets, who as a result of our negotiations and direct actions became willing to sit down and negotiate a partnership with us.

NTIC has always been a winner and this was a reminder that we have a winning legacy.

In NTIC�s 30 years, there were other targets that refused to meet with us and I was recently reminded of that when I read a newspaper article about our national coalition and network Ë National People�s Action being on the øblacklistÓ of the National Rifle Association.

Many years ago, NPA had a workshop on neighborhood violence and NRA executives were invited to the session. They refused to give answers to our demand to expand safe school zones by supporting a ban on illegal handguns in those areas.

They were invited to leave and later that day, Cincotta led a hit on the NRA headquarters in Washington , D.C. We asked for a meeting with NRA Director Wayne La Pierre. When we arrived we found that the NRA building was shut down due to an øemergencyÓ and the employees were given the day off.

NPA left 50 tombstones outside their building, one for each state, with the number people who died of gun violence that year.