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jll-TKE CJUSSLM Ti"ES SATURDAY, JULY 3, 1832
Be Wary of Certain "Brothers"
And Their Deadly Friendships
... -mm
To Be Equal
Editorials
We Must Fight For Our Youth
Almost everyone wants to know what ys happening to black
youth? Why are they chronically unemployed, bombed on dope,
violent and promiscuous?
The answer is really simple.
Many of us asking the questions have not worked very hard to
change the situation. It is hot enough to want young people to be
better. It is not enough to get the "guv'ment" to pass a program,
for black youth. . .
No. We all of us who know that the way they are now
headed leads to misery and self-destruction, must get out here
and fight for our youth.
Fighting for our youth means more than just hoping things will
get better. We have to spend time with them. That's what the peo
ple who corrupt them do. They spend time with pur young peo
ple. They all work at it the pimps, the pushers, the partyers, ,
the prostitutes' the entire collection of vultures that are filling
young people's heads with a collection of smooth sounding gar
bage. . : . .. , .
When we send our young people to school, or wherever, these
vultures are perched on the corner, "looking good, talking bad
and selling the excitement of their lifestyles".
Those of us who want things to be different for our young peo
ple must do the same thing. We must spend some time with them,
not preaching, but teaching; bfteq not icQldingbut . holding Jtheir. 2
hands to guide them through the many traps and pitfalls that mar
the road to success.
Even that is not enough. The fight for our youth includes an
all-out assault against the vultures. We can't make jokes about
the "pimp-mo-bile" or the 1'dope wagon" as it cruises through
our neighborhoods. We can't wink slyly at the prostitutes. We
can't make excuses for the thieves, or blame the violence on hard
times. ,
There are but two positions one can take in this fight for our
youth. One is either a part of the problem, or a part of the solu
tion. There is ho middle ground. So, if we choose to ignore the
fight we must be engaged in, then we shouldn't complain when
the drugs or worse captures our young person in its clutches and
proceeds to destroy them .
It Does Make One Wonder
While the recent eleventh hour contract between the city -and
the:Hayti Development Corporation appears at first glance to be
the hard won result of more than six months of tough negotia
tion, there, are a number of serious questions that must be
answered. '
' For example, what is the difference between the city's $40,000,
six-month contract with the Durham Business and Professional
Chain and the cityV twelve-month contract with the Hay ti
Development Corporation? , ' "
We said editorially several weeks ago that the Business Chain
contract appeared to be the city asking the Chain to solve a ten or
twelve year old urban renewal problem to the detriment of the
eight black firrns that remain to be relocated in Haytb We asked
how the Chain could do in six months what the city has failed to
do in more than ten years? .
The same question is appropriate to the most recent contract.
How can H DC accomplish in twelve months what the city has not
done in more than ten years?
Politically, it appears that at the last minute, with the city over
a barrel on the proposed civic center bond referendum, H DC
managed to wrangle $65,000 out of the city in exchange for the
Durham Committee's endorsement of the civic center. Is this
situation what it appears? , .
This seems to be very similar to the deal the Chain cut. This
longtime black organization was resurrected from the ashes of
federal defunding by the city's contract. .
In both instances, it is not clear exactly what these two
organizations, supposedly in business to serve the black com
munity, are to do for this money.
But there is one truism vocalized by James Brown some years
ago that we need to keep in mind: "You gotta pay the cost to be
the boss". ' '
Now in two instances, less than a year apart, the city has paid z
total of $105,000 for two black organizations to do 4 'something"
in Hayti. Well, it's obvious that since the city paid, the city is the
boss.
It might be just as obvious that since the city is the boss, the
black community will probably come out on the short end of the
stick as it has for the past twenty years in Hayti.
The bottom line is very simple: If Durham's black community
ever expects to be the boss, then black folks have got to pay the
cost. Running across the tracks our hands out is still begging,
'even though our cause might be honorable.
Depression Hits Blacks Hard
By John E. Jacob
Executive Director, National Urban League
By now it should be obvious that'
; Reaganomics has failed. , '
For a year and a half we've conducted
an experiment in wishful thinking and all
we have to show for it is a deficit pro- V
f jected at half a trillion dollars over the v;
next five years and a raging Depression.
We've got a cascade of bankruptcies'
ranging from the corner, grocer to giant
companies employing thousands. We've r
got a manufacturing sector operating at
only seventy per cent of capacity, double
digit interest rates that paralyze business
activity and over ten million people out of
work. ; 3 .
Much of the devastation is temporary;
but the damage done to black and minori
ty Americans will be felt for another
generation. ;
.First, the small,' struggling black middle '
class is being decimated.. - .
Blacks are disproportionately employed .
by government, and federal personnel
layoffs have- hit black government
workers especially hard.: Minority ad
ministrators have been laid off at over
double the rate for whites.
' The last hired, first fired principle is
.working with a vengeance too as black
workers are laid off by corporations and .
state and local ' governments. The net
result is a sharp blow to the middle class
backbone of the black economy.
Second, the astronomical unemploy
ment rate among young blacks means that
millions will be deprived of the work ex
perience, discipline and skills needed to
enter the economic mainstream.
'Their generation should have been the
one that made the breakthrough to parity
with the white majority. Instead, it looks
like it will become a Depression genera--lion
doomed to marginal activity.
Third, the impact on the working poor .
through layoffs and federal program cuts
forces many into total dependency. We
have no body count on the number of
people forced to drop out of college and .
technical schools, forced onto welfare ;
rolls, or drafted into the rapidly expan
ding army of the permanently poor. ; v
But we do know that black poverty '
figures are rising, that blacks dropped
from CETA jobs are still unemployed, "
and that black enrollments at colleges are
down. Many of those victims of the
Depression of '82 will never recover. ,
All of this takes place in a setting that
, finds the typical black family earning just
a little over half of what the typical white
family earns and less than the government
ietself says is needed for a decent standard
of living.. V, ',!"
It takes place in a setting in which black
unemployment is officially near the twen
ty per cent level, and almost a third of
An Independent View From Capitol Hill
Unemployment Rate Also
Hurts Those With Jobs
: blacks are out ot work if you include
discouraged workers and parttimers who
want to work full-time.
So what has happened is that a black
community that historically ! has been
disadvantaged and disproportionately
poor has been hit, andd hit hard, by the
Depression and by deep cuts in programs
that help provide education, training,
housing, and health care.
This is something I cannot accept as
solely a political issue or as an economic
issue. It is also a moral issue.
'I believe all Americans and their leaders
have to face up to the moral .dimensions:
of this problem. For policies that make
:' the poor poorer, while making the rich
; richer raise . inescapable ' questions of ;
fairness and justice. "V-.; ; - : ,;
v Black- people and poor people are no '
. strangers to the duty of making sacrifices
for our country.-But it's a very different
thing to be singled out to make sacrifices
for the sake of theories of limited govern
ment 'and radical experiments in
economics.
We are under no illusions about the
. sacrifices this nation must make to restore
r its economy and to compete in vastly
changed world markets. But we are also
under no illusions about the need for
those sacrifices to be spread evenly and
for the poorest among us to be cushioned
from their effects.
By Gus Savage
Member of Congress
We cannot afford to continue to follow
the line' that says: "A recession is when
the other guy is out of work, and a depres
sion is when unemployment reaches me. .
Clearly, the soaring unemployment rate
hurts those without jobs. It also under
mines the entire community.
Whenever unemployment climbs
another percentage point, the federal
government loses about $25 billion tax
receipts. Yet, when this happens, more
revenues must be spent for unemployment
payments and for other so-called "safety
net" programs, greatly aggravating the
fiscal problem caused by the loss of
revenue.
' The resulting increased government
deficit forces interest rates higher. This in
turn, keeps the overall economy sluggish.
Under such conditions, businesses are less
willing to invest or hire more. In fact, they
mmmmmmmmmm
look for ways to trim costs, which in most
instances means a further reduction in
work force.
In past years, when such a negative
economic ' cycle developed, Congress
authorized more revenues for public
employment, job training and unemploy
ment ? assistance. 4 However, under
Reagan's reign. Congress voted the op
posite in the current federal budget as well
as in the ones voted this month by the
House and the Senate to begin October I -;
(fiscal year 1983). The latter are presently
being reconciled by House-Senate con
ferees. '''-';".'
That is why clergy from the district of I
Chicago and its suburbs that I represent
recently lobbied leaders of Congress for
some relief. If we are to rebound from the
slump of unemployment, we must raise a
mass, national lobby for meaningful job
related legislation.' S'
ir
The black church well could take its
lead from Chicago's Clergy Crusade,
under the leadership of Revs. Claude
Wyatt, N.A. Allen, H. Brady, James
Tillman and Jesse Cotton.
Also in Chicago recently, an organiza
tion of the unemployed held a conference,
out of which came an ad hoc committee
called "Jobs or Income Now" (JOIN).
Further dark clouds loom on the
horizon. In the fall, the Comprehensive
Employment and Training Act (CETA) is
scheduled to expire. By next winter or spr
ing, many of those recently unemployed'
will have run out of unemployment com-
pensation payments.
The jobless and those with jobs need to :
unite in massing pressure on Congress to !
change the final version of the federal-',
budget for fiscal year 1983. We still have
time to force Congress to respond to the
need for jobs, justice and peace. V
Remembering When
At a time when economic troubled
times are with us and reactionary winds
blow across (he land, it is sometimes
helpful to take a trip back in time and
remember when America-was. taking bold
steps toward resisting racial and economic
injustices.
And, although different circumstances
and realities exist now than in the past,
there are certain timeless ideals and sound
public policy positions which will never
lose their intrinsic value to our society. -
The early and mid 1960's, although tur
bulent, produced sweeping changes in
how Americans and the world would view
itself. It was a decade of positive change .
for minorities in the area of civil rights
and economic opportunity. The ( 1 960's
produced a national outcry for the rights
of man and delivered a ringing message
throughout the country that the abridge
ment of basic. human1 rights would no
longer be tolerated. It was the age of
Camelot, the New Frontier and the Great
Society. A pop group pleaded for a
"hammer of justice, a bell of freedom".
Another musical artist wrote about a
"place in the sun, where there's hope for
everyone". Dr. Martin. Luther King, Jr.
awakened the nation's consciousness with
his passionate call for peace,, justice, civil
rights and urban policies. V,
It is necessary perhaps to take a sen
timental journey back into time to try to
make some sense to the Administration's
callous indifference with respect to pover
ty programs and civil rights policies and
mechanisms. While the songs and the
emotional electricity that sprung from the
1960s may be somewhat out of political
fashion people's human needs are not.
The backlash of reaction we are
witnessing today is the result of an in
sidious attempt by this Administration to
use the current economic crisis as means
of pitting one group against another. One
local community in contest with another
over federal funds. One program in com
petition with another. .
The President, by referring to mean
ingless anecdotes, unknowingly perhaps,
resurrects damaging stereotypes, arousing
national emotion in support of his
misguided policies.
With the first significant effects of past
social policy now being felt, it would be a
national tragedy to leave this task so
largely uncompleted. A strong public
resolve is needed to counter ' the Ad
ministration's primitive understanding of
human conditions in America. By
remembering when, perhaps . we can
remember again what now must be done.
Blacks must assume a more aggressive
role at the ballot box. Public officials
must not abandon the needs of the poor.
By Congressman Augustus F. Hawkins .
; . , ' ... , ,. . ..." I
the elderly, war veterans and young peo
ple for politically expedient reasons. We
must stand publicly for an economic
policy which truly provides opportunity
for all, and not for a select few.
While it is impractical to live in the
past, the message here is to understand
the forces which in the past helped forge
significant human gains for men and
women, and why. The decade of the six
ties is of course history, but the spirit of
its bold initiatives and its human agenda:
continually refresh our memories to re
mind us why its purposeful mission was
needed them, and why it is still needed to
day. . .
L.E.AUSTIN
Editor-Publisher 1927-1971
Congratulations. . .But. . .
We congratulate all of the people who won either a first chance
or another opportunity to represent Durham citizens following
Tuesday's primary election. 1
On your part, winning is obviously the result of hard work and
commitment. Voters have placed their faith in you.
Now that you've won, the question is will Durham's citizens
win, those who voted for you, and others as well?
That is the most important question.
Thus for the next two or four years,, we will be looking over
your shoulder;" asking questions, probing, examining and remin
ding you constantly of all those wonderful things you said during
the past several weeks as you sought to win.
Our goal will be to hold you accountable to the expectations
that citizens have for the particular office you hold, v
Our method obviously will be to generate public discussions on
various issues over which you have control and by which citizens
are affected.
, So, now that the heated campaigns are over and your attention
turns to the hard work of public service, our's turns to the cons
tant vigil of public accountability. -
Again, congratulations. . .but.' , .accountability must follow as
surely as day follows night. v .
USPS 091-380)
(Mrs.) Vivian Austin Edmonds
Editor-Publisher
Kenneth W. Edmonds
Gonerat Manager
I.M.Austin
Production Supervisor .
, Milton Jordan ;
Executive Editor
Curtis T. Perkins
Contributing Editor-Foreign Affairs '
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