Newspapers / Winston-Salem Chronicle (Winston-Salem, N.C.) / March 8, 1980, edition 1 / Page 4
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Plttf 4 Thf C'hfOin^f. \Ui h h. IMKlJ view in | Ernest H. Pitt Member North Carolina ' Black Publisher' Association | Article a, section L ol the By-Law* of the 1 Winston-Salem Chronicle Publishing Company, Inf. The Winston-Salem Chronicle shall strive, as far I as possible, t6 be a fair, objective and independent newspaper. It shall stand for the oppressed, to bring Passing Ji it is never a delightful moment when a person who has been held in high regard by an entire community falls upon hard times. That fact is all the more apparent in the case of Carl Russell, possibly the one person who has stood out head and shoulders as a black political leader in WinstonSalem. He served for 16 years, longer than any other black, as alderman from the Northeast Ward. Russell dared to think that his experiences qualified him to be mayor. In 1977, he came ever so close to'fulfilling that wish. He won the first primary, but lost a runoff to Maydr Wayne A. Corpening. Russell was then the rallying force behind a dramatic campaign during which more than 10,000 voters were instructed to go through the laborious ^procedure required to cast a write-in ballot. Kusseii s appeal was still apparent when he was nominated by the Black Political Awareness League as a ' candidate for the vacant State House seat left open last year. However, that record of leadership has been interrupted by the indictment, eonvi^tyn and sentencing of Russell on the charge of income tax evasion. Court testimony has indicated that the accused had not paid the taxes for 17 years. The way in which the case was handled has ruled out a full explanation for the many questions raised by this inc i de nL ; -? There are a number of ethical questions presented by Time For One of the most important steps toward increasing citizen input in local government is about to be taken by the Porsyth County Board of County Commissioners. The commissioners are being open-minded enough to consider a change in their meeting time from the first and third Mondays of each month to the second and fourth Mondays. This would change a situation in which the commissioners, the city Board of Aldermen and the city/county Board of Education all meet on the same day and at the same time - first and third Mondays at 7:30 p.m. All three bodies have been aware of the situtation for a long time, but have passed the buck among themselves when approached about the idea of staggering their meeting times. The commissioners have decided to act, finally, thanks to the tireless efforts of persons such as Mrs. Velma Hopkins, -Mrs. Hopkins, president of the Citizens Neighborhood Council Inc., is generally at some meeting, somewhere each Monday night. She has seen first hand the problems that occur when Feelir _ Russell's H j BUI tpntpnrpH tn inil on in. vJVII vv I IVV\? V V/ Ull VII tive they are and that they'll get you sooner or later if you go against the system. Time? No more than Smith Bagley. His s f ? r ^ >ints? ptoa$4faQinc?qjek Founded lv/4 ?^b4T/ ?V L ** Ndublsl Egemonye President John W. Temple ton Executive Editor Robert Eller Elaine L. Pitt Sports Editor Office Manager hope to the forsaken and be an advocate for good and noble causes. It shall use its might to bring hope to the hopeless and light where there is darkness. And in doing this, hope to contribute to the general I well-being of humanity . j dg merit the spectre of Russell being imprisohed. Should elected officials be held to a higher standard of morality? Do health and other personal factors have a vahd role to play in the determination of sentences for violations of the law? Are blacks unfairly singled out for prosecutions of crimes winked at among other segments of the community? Does any circumstance warrant breaking laws which so many people painstakingly adhere to? Can a,prominent figure be punished enough by simply the public knowledge that he or she has been found guilty of a crime?. The answers to the questions must be found in the hearts and minds of those who assess the meaning of the Russell case. Few can fail to adknowledge that situations present many difficult dilemmas. It is not a question which can produce a quick jingoistic answer. r Some forum needs to address the ambiguities left by the current court case. Is there more distinct pattern of abuse for which one person is being singled out? Or was there a winking at certain acts and by whom? Answers to those questions will enable interested persons to help resolve some of the ethical dilemmas presented by this case. ?""Whatever ttnroutcu me, no orfe>houIdb(TalIbwed tcvig nore or obscure the accomplishments of Carl Russell. A Change one is interested in something being done at both the city and county board, or even the school board. Changing the meeting times will enable more people to join Mrs. Hopkins and others such as Mrs. Mary Sloan Jones, Walter Marshall and H.B. Goodson in attending those meetings. There is the mistaken impression that what county government does is not as important as the functions of city government. Nothing could be further from the truth. County government includes animal control, environmental protection, health services, Reynolds Health Center, libraries, home economics and agricultural extension, social services and detentions for both adults and juveniles. The county commissioners also have to approve the budget request of the school board. In short, most of the cprvirpc u/Kiir>K? rliropHu r\ar%\ mi?U ?U_. L ..vvc tth.vii Uiivv.li; uvai ttiiii ItailUICU UllUUgll county government. You will find it in your best interest to, first, make the commissioners aware of the need for a change in the meeting dates; and second show up regularly at the meetings. You do have a say. > Sentence sentence is not because he's guilty but it was given to punish him and to break his credibility in Carlton the community. Look who sentenced him. He was nor judged by his peers andlhat is what is wrong ^ . with the whole criminal justice system in N.C." Kathleen Foster--" 1 do think it wasn't fair. They did it to him may or... Somebody had probably told him years Johnson ago, that-it was alright. Then, they went back and looked it up. But they go iook up an ine gooa things Carl Russell did.*f 3 A n g e I o l|^ Johnson--" Everybody else pays taxes and with J the position he held, he jk ? ZSf should have known bet- ^ ter in the first place." ? ft * ) ^. o v ^I The National Urban League recently released its annual report, The State of Black America. As in past i years, it presented a grim picture of black disadvantage. The past decade saw a widening of the yawing gap Bet7 ween blacks and whites. Black family income fell from over 60 percent of white family income at the beginning of the decade to barely 57 percent at the end of the seventies, Over a half million more black people were poor in 1979 than in 1970. Many apparent black gains in the seventies fail to withstand close scrutiny. The increased numbers of blacks attending college in the ten years since 1970 for example, masks the fact that disproportionate numbers are in community colleges or other institutions that do not grant BA or BS degrees. The growth of the numbers of blacks in professional and managerial jobs leads some to assume that these higher status positions mean middle class incomes. But the report finds that three-fourths of black professionals and managers earn less than the national median family income. * v T-l I ? f - --- i ne same noias tor me much-vaunted shift to white collar jobs. The bulk of the increase took place in lowerrung clerical jobs, and half of black sales and clerical workers earn poverty-level incomes or less. The report finds the outlook for the eighties bleak. Blacks never recovered from the recessions of the seventies, and another recession this year will further widen the black-white gap. Growing competition for jobs is another threat. Between 1974 and 1977 blacks obtained only five percent of the new jobs in private industry. Black men suffered a net loss of jobs. Other emerging groups, especially white women, made gains while black workers lost out. Black gains in the eighties will be largely dependent on new job opportunities for female heads-Of families Over a third of black families are headed by women and most are poor -because of the failure to provide full-time employment, a situation likely to continue and even Inmates Expre Found A Mission Dear Editor: life. I look forward to the day when I'll be able to I have been in the walk until my legs get tired Virginia prison system for and not until the space runs siome time. I was paroled in out. October 1967, but while out, I was convicted of arm- When I came to Baskered robbery in Salisbury and ^a- Correctional received a sentence of 10 to Center, I met some rjic^ 15 years. people. I'd like to r do . something for them, I 6aid. I ve watched guys come when , approached them in and out of prison. I wjtj, my jdea> ^ attitud would ask them what hap- was ..Hey are you kjd. pened? They would say ding?" But, 1 knew where 1 'Can't make it work.' was At times you try to catch . , , , up with the world outside 1 ?nce heard' lt s a mat: but there's nothing out ter of caring for people and there that can help you want'n? ,0 help someone catch up. You have to do who ,hurt,s, a"d "i"5 ou'for what you can in here to stay 1 ve been there human so * know "ovv 11 ^ee's t0 cr*y r\l 1 f t A rolfV1 Ant nr?/-l uui i iv ivavu vvui auu null With a little motivationfor help. ; I'm able to combat the anxiety of being caged like an So here at the Backerville animal; not in a physical Correctional Center, I assist sense but in my head I jn Adu? Basic Educatj , know 1 can only go so far, then 1 have to stop. In some ave a coo^ng and baking instances, the mental bar- class and do individual riers are far more effective counselirt>g with inmates than the physical. who have problems. I arr Before being paroled novv writing a manual or back to Virginia for parole . . . ? violation, I did attend SarT-~ su,c,de Prevent,on for thc dhills Community College Virginia Department of as a mental health associate Corrections which has high and did social work training ' c ... . . .. _ W ...... rate of suicide. with Moore County Middle District School while in Henceforth, I got to see training. I also counseled part Qf mySCif and parts of youth at the Samuel other people I never saw i~w<.?nu ^uuui ttl before. If I am lucky in year McCain. or two^ hopefully I'll be ?, paroled and I want to conThis, I believe, was the tinue to do counseling with turning point in my life young adults on drugs which gave me something to alcohol and crime, achieve out of life as ^ human. Prison is a place you go when you do wrong.? Hubert R. Brawley You have to pay your taxes, Baskerville Cor i ectional but instead of paying with Center money, you pay with your Baskerville, Va. i ^ . ' - N ' ? Ol Black America SSs^SBr worsen in the decade ahead. If the seventies were a decade of benign neglect, the eighties threaten to render black people, their needs and IheiMaspiratiohs, invisible. ^ Closing the black-white gap has been a matter of national indifference for over a decade, and current national obsessions indicate the issue may virtually disappear from national debate. N * The President's State of the Union address, in sharp contrast to the State of Black America report, ignored the continuing disadvantage of America's largest minority. Candidates in both parties refuse to address issues of black-white disparity, poverty, and a new deal for the na- * tion's disadvantaged. Instead, a deteriorating international situation has resulted .in calls for a renewed cold war and increased military spending. Despite the obvious need for a strong defense, substantive improvements in our military posture are not always identical with splashy new weapons systems and their inevitable cost overruns and malfunctionings. So we enter the eighties with the nation's attention focusecj on military weapons, energy and inflation to the neglect of racial equality, full employment, and urban revitalization. The inevitable result will be further deterioration of the living conditions of poor people and ^ black people. But the state of America is interwoven with the state of black America; a strong, economically healthy and just amuci ica is a esscnuai 10 nationat security as any missile arsenal -- even more so. It is vital to have a balanced national policy that includes important domestic initiatives such as full employment, welfare reform, and health, education and urban initiatives designed to secure parity between the races. Such?measures would- also benefit the nation as o whole, improve the lives of all its citizens, and heal the wounds that weaken our nation domestically and internationally. B * ss Their Views He's Lonely Dear Editor: istence. Is there anyone out 1 am a very niqe person, there who will hear my but I have no friends; plea? If so, will you offer to i nobody with whom to share help?_^ my feelings. I am writing this in hope a friend will Miserable, ' come forth; one with whom 1 1 can relate, and who will Leonard Leon Wilson Jr. ! ' holn fill ... I If- J ? > "? ' uvip mi cmpiy me, ana iyu, itj-zui Ibring a bit of joy 40 an Lucasville, Ohio 45699 otherwise unhappy ex- P.O.Box45699 1 _ i ' CAIPIITCIL illITITITtii CCMHCNTS jjjjj jj 11 111 From Allied Preaa International CONGRESSMEN STOP WAFFLING As the new session of Congress gets underway look for most of those^ members running "for re-election to take f more positive stances of issues that they have waffled on in the past few years the draft, national defense items, energy, transportation and the general economy. [ DEFICIT GREATER THAN EXPECTED I The deficit will be greater than projected in the President's ^budget message because of increased 1 defense spending and maintaining or expanding social , programs. Increased demands on the money market will result in higher interest or at best they will stay within the present range. , r 1 * 1 Your Voice The Chronicle welcomes expressions, comments, criticisms and letters to the editor. We encourage you to speak out on any issue raised on the editorial page or any issue that you feel is worthy of comment. The Chronicle is your newspaper...Use it. The Chronicle cannot return letters, manuscripts or the l&c. Address your comments to: The Editor Winston-Salem Chronicle P.O.Box 3154 . Winston-Salem, N.C. 27102 )
Winston-Salem Chronicle (Winston-Salem, N.C.)
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March 8, 1980, edition 1
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