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4-TME CAROLINA TIEMS SAT., APRIL 14, 1979 Tfreo for Act Jon . . . Mr. President AWA'AWAVJVVAVAWWA'WiV v,v.-.v.v.v.: IT. m&PL. t- i W HSR w P & 14- NO HELP I VENTED " - r- a kA1 WANTED LJ i a hurricane sweeps ACROSS THELUSHLANO OF THEGULP COAST ANOIT BECOME A MASTER AREA. A DROUGHT Off A OS ON IN THB hIM&ZANDA OSASTERISpECLAR- BP. AHp BLACK UNEM PLOYMENT FLIES UP TOW?lHSOftECMSt ANPITSPESCRIBEP ASA RESULT OFA TUMOOmUlHE ECONOMY ANP COV ERNMENT DOES NOTHING! SIMS TO DC Mill Foreign Policy Tests Leadership By Vernon Jordan EXECUTIVE DIIECTOt, NATIONAL URIAH LEAGUE A SERIOUS DECISION The Durham City Schools Board of Education voted this week not to renew the contract of Superinten dent Ben Brooks. Speculation as to the selection of a successor to Brooks has been vigorous, to put it mildly. Some elements in our community seem to be on a collision course to create undue concern over the possible board choice of a black superintendent. These elements should be reminded that the school board has four black members and one white member, representing a school population that reflects about the same ratio, and that the probability of the board hiring a black superintendent is far greater than that of a white. 'fitetifiefttrih1 the community that agitate racial animosity and use appointment of a school superin tendent as fuel, could serve the city and its children much better if they focus on qualifications of the office rather than on race. We expect that the board will very carefully and deliberately weigh the academic preparation and ex perience of all potential candidates, as it should. As important as these criteria are, we hope, in the final analysis, they will choose someone who can bring distinction to the job rather than one on whom the job bestows distinction. This is no time for petty politics. This is no time to pick some power hungry puppet who will jumpt this way and that trying to satisfy the strongest string pullers. Our children are the harvest of the future and they need strong, well prepared, compassionate leadership with common sense - at the helm if they ape to be provided the oppor-4? '"Wnffieif'fijr the kind of educatigtri necessary to survive in the world which awaits them. V.wXw.V.V.V.V.V.W.W.V,V.V I had the honor Ql being present at the cere monies surrounding the signing of the peace treaty between Egypt and Isreael, and it would be hard to describe the extraordinary mood of accomplishment and pride that permeated . those events. The treaty provided the President with a badly-needed boost, espeically in the area of foreign policy. Before his flying peace mission to Cairo and Jerusalem, the Administration liad been hammered by criti cisms of its policies. .. . ..... ;: It was accused of projecting an image of weakness. It was charged that we "lost" Iran, sold out Taiwan, and were buckling under to the Russians. The leadership role America played in bringing babout the Mideast peace treaty has stilled those criticisms, but not for long. ft . . ' ,: Other challenges toWoreign policy leader ship are in the offing the Panama Canal Treaty has to be implemented with enabling legislation, a new trade . agreement will go to the Senate for approval, and the SALT agreement limiting strategic weapons will soon bring another controversial treaty to the Senate floor. And that's just in addition to the on going foreign policy decisions that have to be made - on China, on Southern Africa, on relations with the rest of the world. Lurking behind all of these decisions is the continuing cool war with Russia, a conflict that influences all of our relationships abroad. All of this boils down to the fact that foreign policy, once a matter of national con sensus and bipartisanship, is quickly becoming a partisan affair. That could be both healthy and dangerous. Healthy, because policies al ways ought to be faced with challenges and alternatives. Dangerous, because protracted dis agreements could lead to an inability to act in our own best interests. Given the complexities of foreign policy development, I'd suggest -some guideiiens for the coming debate. The first of these is the need to avoid aggressive military behavior. The projection of a great power's in fluence depends on more than just mili tary strength, although that is a good part of it. Those who charge America "lost" Iran are wrong because Iran never was ours to win or lose. No nation can impose an unwanted government on another country that's far away and determined to overthrow a corrupt and brutal dictatorship. American policy had few ' realistic alternatives. Ask anyone who grumbles about the Shah's loss of power what America should have done, and you don't get a coherent answer. The reason is that the only available alternative -' mili tary invasion - is unthinkable and unworkable. Or don't we remember Vietnam? A second guideline ought to be the pursuit of detente. That has been the mark of both Republican and Democratic administrations for the past decade or more. And there's no reason not to hew firmly to it. That doesn't mean we've got to let the Russians do whatever they want in areas of major concern to us. But it does mean we should avoid link ing issues that shouldn't be linked, and avoid locking ourselves into a situation in which we're always reacting to the Russians. A reactive policy is self-defeating. J don't give the Russians the , credit so many people give them. I don't think we should trem ble in fear over the pretensions of a country that can't produce wheat from the richest grainlands in the world or make a pair of shoes that don't fall apart. Realistic assessment of a potential enemy makes sense. But let's not become afraid of that potential enemy, or we'll risk defeating ourselves. That means we should have the strength to negotiate and confirma new SALT agreement, since slowing down the arms race is in our own best interests. . Finally, a sound foreign policy has to be based solidly on a nation's moral and econ omic strength. America is a world leader not because there's a CIA man under every dictators bed, or because our Marines are poised to invade anyone who disagrees with us, but because we've got the most produc tive economy in the world, along with the most skilled people. Continued racial friction, high unemploy ment, and urban deterioration are what will hurt us most in foreign policy. The stronger, more equal our society becomes at home, the stronger and more influential it will be abroad. That's a truism that should be the corn erstone of American policy. ( 7F Q (11 ifot Congressman Hawkins' Column "Gasoline Prices Too High" Are Fleetfs Aod Ann n One of my constituents called my Washing ton office the other day from Los Angeles. She was intelligent, articulate, politically aware, and plenty mad.; ' It seems that her needo drive to work and gasoline price inflation, vjs pytting an increas ingly large dent in her living costs. No amount of budgeting, she claimed, was effectively able to Steffi Jtd4of the price in- inflation eats up what ever good the raise should accomplish. Cutting down on other living costs were counter-productive, because these savings were being used to augment increases in gasoline and other energy-related products. There did not seem to be an answer any where for her. therefore the irate call to my of fice in hopes that we could assist her in resolv ing her dilemma. I would like to have waved a magic get-rid-of-the-problem wand, thereby ending her frus tration, but no such wand exists. What does exist is a reality that double-digit inflation is once more, almost upon us, with no releif in sight. That OPEC has seen a necessity to raise pric es and hold down production-just like we do to grain and other products to keep their prices up. That domestic consumption of energy will face some sort of decontral this year, which also means that prfci Wtitttse appreciably in'-'"" flationary as that may bf By the time yotf read this article, the President may have already an nounced a decontrol policy). None of these things are going to ease my constituents problem; in fact those who are go ing to be hurt the most by all of these facts are people just like her who live in my district. I will of course vote for those things that will most benefit my constituents; but we must remember that we live in a world where the be nifits are being repeatedly comprimised by all kinds of things. For example, I have been opposed to decon- By Augustus F. Hawkins trolling oil. And I beleive, along with 68 per cent of those recently polled by Associated Press-NBC that the oil shortage is a manufac ' tured shortage, not a natural one. Yet the President is going to move to some kind of decontrol resonably soon; especially be cause of the pressure of his secretaries of state, , treasury and energy and his top economic advis- ' er, Charles Shultze. , .... Those of wai CqrigresfvwfcoiaiefPBPfMestjto I ,4jontiol, wiUMhaviLt(ixe;rjeai,p?erop him to keep him firmly reminded that decon-; trol means extreme inflation. In addition to the fact that rapid decontrol ; will be hurt the most by it: poor people and minorities. What I want my constituent to realize, how ever, is that I will fight this one to the end; but if we lose, it will not be because we didn't do battle head-on. I know this argument won't help. But if your options are limited, as they are in this sit- i uation, you can only do the absolute best you can under the circumstances. BY LAURA PARKS Proposals to contruct multi-billibn, U.S. Indian Ocean fleet, to compensate for strategic losses suffered in Iran, gaining ground in Washington with solid approval from the British. Japanese government re main non-commital about ILS. plans at the official spokesman level. . Japanese sources told me that Japan's primary concern is for guranteed supplies of oil from Persians Gulf nations. Yet they expressed anxiety that proposed U.S. fleet may at some future time be used to halt flow of oil to Japan. Privately, Ja panese fear that U.S. may. use fleet as weapon against Japan's gigantic export trade, by threatening that nations primary source of energy. , In discussing impli cations of proposed fleet many non-Japanese were also- of the opinion that there was a strong anti Japanese element involved in the plans for an addition al U.S. naval presence in Asia. Diplomats who were at one time stationed in Brazil reported to me that the Japanese are making extraordinary head way in that country, the largest in Latin America. ' Morover Japanese pro ducts were of universally high quality and more often than not were beating most of the international con tenders for the Brazilian mar ket. These observers, many who served as their nation's .commercial attaches to JBraziL said that a Japanese economic victory in Brazil would virtually eliminate ILS. influence in Latin America. . ; Consequences flowing from this possibility would give rise to increasing antl- Americanism and the quick development of Castro-like political movements coming to power. These . new Latin American forces would then rely on Japanese money and tech nology to advance their, own internal economic development. In this they would be taking advantage of Japans great distance from the South American shores to take all that Japan had to offer without fearing their possible mili tary' intervention. Hard-nosed look at the much applauded Egyptian Israeli peace agreements have left observers at the United Nations saddened. Primary cause for this is the recognition that the Pales tinian issue has for all . practicial purposes been calculatedly ignored in all of its essential aspects. The pact virtually denies the Palestinians the right to an independent homeland. Further the dynamics of the proposed pact are design ed to destroy the effective power of the Palestinians over a period of time, during which Egypt and Israel will engage in an assorted array of confer ence alledgedly called to consider the fate of the Palestinian Arabs. These diplomatic staling statics, built into the fine print of the pact, will undoubt edly anger the Arab world, eventually including the Saudi Arabians. But the game plan en visioned in the pact hopes to neutralize the antici pated long term fury of the Arab world thru intimi dation. The pacts built-in intimidation measures are chiefly built around plans for a massive military build up of Israel and to a lesser degree of Egypt. Cost of this plan to the U.S. taxpayer, for starters, will reach $15 billion and may in fact triple to $45 billion during the next three to se ven years. Chief beneficiaries of proposed pact are Israel and the United States, Israel, with its developed industrial base and educated work ing population will be entrusted with the least and the best in U.S. military hardware. The Egyptians will always be second best be cauuse of this and will be forced to acknowledge the economic and military superiority of the Israelis this time with the active blessing of the United States. In effect the U.S. will have established herself as a major force in the Middle East on land using Israel as her major base and Egypt as her strategic land reserve, with addition al reserves of population, soldiers and various intangi bles such as political in fluence and international connections. It is enough to report here that the Arab leaders have anticipated recent developments. They expect that the provisions of the pact will include the true costs of the U.S. aid package. It will probably in clude agreements on the de livery of the latest mili tary technology to Israel and Egypt. It will certain ly include measures to establish various military, political and intelligence in stallations, especially in Egypt. One thing is certainly no secret. The Palestinians will not agree to become the play things of political nomads doing the bidding of Trans-Atlantic Sheiks. THE SEARS SUIT By Benjamist L. Hooks EXECUTIVE DIRECT 01, NAACP Coming in the wake of the Bakke and Weber court Challenges against affirmative action pro grams to help minorities overcome historical patterns of discrimination in education and em ployment, the suit filed by Sears, Roebuck aga- inst 10 goverment agencies has the effect of once again retarding our civil rights program. The suit alleges that federal laws, regulations policies and directives that give these agencies power to seek an end to end to racial and sex discrimination have created such confusion and conflicts that it is impossible for the giant mer chandising concern to comply with their orders. The NAACP regards the suit as highly unusu- al. but we feel it is a skillful public relations maneuver aimed at preempting impending ac tion that the Equal Employment Opportunity Commision EEOC) was about to take against Sears. One pertinent fact Is that Sears filed the suit the day that EEOC notified the company of its "failure to conciliate" on employees' grievances of discrimination. No doubt, there is some merit to a number of Sears' complaints. Like Sears, minorities have expressed concern over moves to play off women, who have their 'own proper lists of grievances, against them in comploying with affirmative action mandates. Minorities are also concerned about the Impact of the manda tory age retirement law. : By extending the retirement law from '65 to 70, Congress has cleared the number of oppor tunities that' would have been opened up to more recently hired minorities and women by departing older, white male workers. The veterans preference system very often also works to the detriment of effective affir mative action programs. But these problems, however, certainly should not hamper Sears' responsibility for placing its house in order. Many of the rules and regula tions about which Sears complaints were cre ated after enactment of the 1964 Civil Rights Act. Prior to that, thereis no question that Sears, like other private and government employers, were discriminating against blacks. But largely through the efforts of its late Chairman Julius Rosenwald, Sears has in recent years has been regarded as a friend of minorities. The fact, therefore, that progress was made in opening up opportunities to minorities in the last twelve years should be regarded as evi dence that, where there are laws, rules, regula tions and correct government policy, employers will take steps to end discrimination. If this is not doneTthe Association is prepar ed to challenge the suit either through a direct counter challenge or as a friend of the court. Clearly the Sears suit is the wrong case be cause the suit, whatever else may be said about it, is an unwarranted, frontal attack upon the . entire apparatus designed to assure equality of opportunity in this land of liberty. . : ' VV.VAV.V.W.VAW.V.V.V.V.W.VJWX ''.WAV.W.W.W.-AWSM It is the wrong time for a leading and respon sible corporate entity in America to be initiat ing litigation that can only undermine the climate of affirmative action which is still in disarray because of the Bakke and Weber cases. It is a lawsuit brought for the wrong reason because it seeks to blame the Federal govern ment for the ills in our society when the blame for discrimination based on race, sex, age, . creed, color or other distinctions rests, in great part, on U.S. society as a whole, including Sears and other in the private sector. 2k Carolina (font PflaajHiWIBI (USPS 091-380) "If then it no, struggle thrt iifio progms. thou who propose to favoufredom and yet depndepe agitation, an man who want crops without plowing up tha ground Th$y want rain without thunder and lightning. They want the octant majestic warn without the awful roar of fttwateri" Frederick Douglass Published every Thursday (dated Saturday) at Durham, N.C. by United Publishers, Incorporated. Mailing Address: P.O. Box '3825, Durham, N.C, 27702. Office located at 923 Fayette villa Street, Durham, N. C. 27701. Second Class Postage paid at Durham, North Carolina 27702. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to THE CAROLINA TIMES, P.O. Box 3825, Durham, N.C. 27702. SUBSCRIPTION RATES: One year, $8.50 (plus $0.34 sales tax for North Carolina residents). Single copy $0.20. Postal regulations REQUIRE advanced payment on subscriptions. Address all communica tions and make alt checks and money orders payable to: THE CAROLINA TIMES. , NATIONAL ADVERTISING REPRESENTATIVE Amalgamated Publishers, Inc., 45 West 45th Street,. New York, New York I0036. Member: United Press International Photo Service, National Newspaper Publishers Association, North Carolina Black Publishers Association, Opinions expressed by columnftts in this news paper do not necessarily represent the policy of this newspaper. This newspaper WILL NOT be responsible for the return of unsolicited pictures.
The Carolina Times (Durham, N.C.)
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April 14, 1979, edition 1
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