Winston-Salem Chronicle
"The Twin City's Award-Winning Weekly''
Established in 1974
Ernest H. Pitt ? Ndubisi Eg#monye
Editor/Publisher Co-Founder
Member in good standing with:
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Support Eastway Plaza
The Winston-Salem Board of Alderman should
approve William Brandon's Eastway Plaza Project without
hesitation or reservation.
Brandon has spent the last four years trying to pull this
project off. Additionally, he has spent his life's savings
doing it.
If Brandon is successful, and he should be now that he
has some firm commitments from solid tenants, he will
become one of only a few minority developers in East
Winston. The significance and importance of having
minority developers is obvious when you look at where all
of the economic development is taking place. It ain't in
East Winston.
Some will argue, particularly the East Winston Com
munity Development Corporation, that Brandon s project is
not needed because of the project the CDC is involved in
down the road. Bull! The CDC has had ample opportunity,
time and assistance to develop its center. Additionally, the
black community has few choices when it comes to retail
shopping. Right now there is only one major food store in
East Winston. Go west, south or north and you are likely to
find competing shopping centers with full-service grocery
stores and retail outlets directly across from each other.
The lack of commercial development in East Winston is
directly related to the lack of African-American develop
ers. No white developers are interested in East Winston.
Most still labor with fears of the '60s, where the threat of
rioting virtually eliminated new development.
No matter what the argument, the aldermen should
support Brandon's project as a stimulus to other develop
ment and as encouragement to other African Americans
who may fear entering this risky business.
Police Review Board
* i * V
When the Board of Aldermen voted this week not to
act on the nominees for the Citizen Review Board, it did a
good thing. The list of nominees is not a solid selection.
Mayor Martha Wood could have done much better in bal
ancing the "life-experience quotient." Although the .racial
and gender equation is appropriate, it is the make-up of the
individuals in the two groups that require a closer look.
Is it coincidence that of the five white males, there is a
bank vice president; a lawyer/ former FBI agent; a retired
union president and seemingly skilled labor negotiator, a
retired department plant engineer who oversaw 200 work
ers; and a company manager?
Of the white females, there is a college assistant pro
cessor; and a co-owner of a family business. All are entre
prenuers or have high-profile positions in their companies.
Comprising the African-American nominees, however,
is a 24-year-old Department of Corrections employee; a
summer school coordinator at Winston-Salem State; a dock
supervisor; and a former police officer who now works for
the county, who replaces a counselor at the Samaritan Inn.
The African American candidates are clearly less indepen
dent, financially speaking, than their would-be white coun
terparts. And they would probably less likely to effectively
argue their points against lawyers and company vice presi
- dents. ? ? ? t ?
Whether by coincidence or intent, there clearly is an
imbalance among the 1 1 nominees for the Citizens Review
Board. Martha Wood should return to the drawing board
before the board considers her list of nominees.
Credo
About letters . . .
The Chronicle welcomes letters as well as guest columns
from its readers. Letters should be as concise as possible
and should be typed or legibly printed. The letter must
also include the name, address and telephone number of
the writer to ensure the authenticity of the letter. Columns
must follow the same guidelines and will be published if
they are of interest to our general readership. The Chroni
cle will not publish any letters or columns that arrive with
out this information. We reserve the right to edit letters
and columns for brevity and clarity. Submit letters and
columns to
Chronicle Mailbag
P.O. Box 1636
Winston-Salem , N.C. 27102.
Opinion
Our Youth Are Crying Out For Help
To the editor:
I'm concerned about our youth.
Last week's newspaper was filled
with stories of stabbings, shootings,
and all sorts of violence. "Man
stabs woman", man found lying in
pool of blood," "youth killed in
drive-by shooting, ""shoot-out at
night club," etc. Our youth are
angry! Their actions usually result
in tragic violence. Why are our
youth so angry? What can we do to
help them? We need to find what's
going on inside these kids heads.
Charity begins at home. Par
enting is not what it used to be. The
number of single-parent families has
increased to an astonishingly high
rate. Many of our single parents are
women who must either work two
jobs to make ends meet, which cre
ates an extensive absence of author
ity in the home, Many are forced to ?
seek public assistance.- Our children
need to know they are cared about
and loved. They lack discipline and
control. They are often left at
"home alone" to be influenced by
rap-music videos, which sometimes
promote aggressiveness or violence.
Drug dealers appeal to our children
as a means to escape poverty. They
glamorize the "benefits," yet they
do not tell the kids their future can
be messed up, nor are they made ~~
aware of the many lives of innocent
children, who will suffer in poverty
because- of a drug-addicted parent.
Drug dealers need to enlightened to
the fact that they, too, are responsi
ble to society, for the part they take
in all of this.
What are our local school sys
tems doing? They handle our chil
dren for approximately eight hours
per day. Do the teachers genuinely
care, or are they just there to process
? papers ?__Dojhey not share some of
the responsibility to help us produce
educated, productive members of
society? Unruly and disruptive
behavior needs to be reported and
psycho-analyzed, in a manner dif
ferent from reporting low learning
skills. Our youth are in pain and
they are crying out for help.
What are the local churches
doing? Are our children being
taught about God. Do we offer up
thanks to the Lord for bountiful
blessings, or are the kids left to
believe they were blessed by their
social worker who approved their
food stamps? Do we pray for God's
will and ask for deliverance in
Jesus' name? Do we pray for guid
ance? Are our church activities still
related to God? Is God the center of
our being? Is the church reaching
out to the lost, after the Sunday
message is brought forth? What
about the other six days of the
week? Are we blind to the famine -
of the people right here in our com
munity?
Who. is going to take a step
toward helping our youth? They are
OUT- future and they need us. Will
we react as the poet has described
and allow everybody to think that
somebody wilJ do something, and
when nobody does anything then
nothing will ever get done. If that
be the case, this story will not have
a happy ending. It will be sad. Our
youth will not live happily ever
after If we (me & you), don't take
the time to find out why our youth
are filled with and what we can do
to help them, they will continue in
violence, until they die, and when
HICH AREA HAS
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CHRONICLE MAILBAG
Our
Speak Out
they die, so does our future.
Because they are our future.
I Janet E. Taylor
Winston-Salem
The Voting Process
To the editor:
A recent newspaper article dis
cussed the voting process and citi
zen's concerns about the long wait
ing lines at the voting polls.
The system that we use now -
the registration voter officials write
down the names of voters which
causes mispelling of names and is
time consuming. It is my under
standing that other counties such as
-Waker Durham -and-Mecklenburg -
use a different system which is more
efficient than ours. I would like to ?
suggest as a private citizen and as
an elected official and agTee that we
should go to a more efficient system
that would save time, and get the
people in and out of the voting polls
at a faster pace. During popular
elections, I have experienced the
same problems with long waiting
lines. Also people hurry to the polls
on their way to work, during their
break and lunch hours, may some
time get frustrated and leave with
out casting their votes due to long
? waiting lines. It is my hope that an
up-to-date system will be consid
ered in the very near future.
Thank you for your considera
tion on behalf of those persons hav
ing to wait in long lines at the polls.
Alderman , Larry W. Womble
Southeast Ward
Winston-Salem
D.A. Tom Keith
To the editor:
? Sometimes solutions to prob
lems come from likely as well as
unknown people. All I want to do is
to write about a realistic situation in
a real city. My hometown. A citi
zen is dead and the city will be
divided. We will be divided
because of simple attitudes. As I've
listened in the wake of Sheila
McKella episode, certain simple
attitudes will be reaped again this
year. On a news telecast in August
1992, I heard the current District
Attorney Tom Keith say that if^
Sheila wasn't on cocaine then
maybe she would still be alive.
And I say to Mr. Keith that if the
Officer Friendly hadn't put some
thing in Sheila's mouth and put her
in an uncompromising position that
she may pos&ihly still be alive. In a
very' simple way Mr. Keith revealed
his attitude about how he feels about
certain citizens and how he feels
about people in law enforcement.
Such a remark caused me to take a
more serious look into the man and
into his political background. I'm
very sure that Mr. Keith was sup
ported by law enforcement people
upon his bid to become district
attorney and ran on the Republican
ticket. Time has proven and shown
that they pay off political debt and
-then some; ? A fair solution to the"
above situation would have been for
the law enforcement officers to have
been charged with some type of
accidental manslaughter and offered
some type of plea bargain. What's
important is what incidents like this
do to the entire city. Since the
Richard Nixon years the Republi
cans in decision making positions
have continued to cover-up and try
to hide and deny when things on
their end don't come out right. The
old folks have always said that two
wrongs never make a right. I knew
in my heart that when the district
attorney stated that Sheila McKellan
shouldn't have been a cocaine
addict and this is what contributed
to her death that he would find some
medical expert somewhere to sup
port his personal belief. Bingo!
The chickens have come out to
roost. Mr. Keith found a former
state medical examiner from Far
mville, N.C. What's so ironic about
this is that this medical expert has
examined some evidence, not all of
the evidence before the current state
medical examiner has been given
the opportunity to make an assess
ment of the evidence. I wonder why
this was done in such a way? I've
always felt that the district attorney
officer is a representative of all the
people in the district and not one to
represent against people when law
enforcement is involved with a pos
sibility of breaking the law. I'm
quite sure Mr. Keith isn't man
enough to resign his position imme
diately so in the next local election
we need a fair minded official
elected to the office that will slow
down the process of Winston-Salem
becoming like Los Angeles. We
need to face the reality that there is a
younger generation that's younger
than you or I that would really get
some type of satisfaction^out of
burning the West and North sides of
Winston-Salem. They have cars
and plenty of guns. A lot of people
are sick and tired of being sick and
tired of just simple attitudes. Young
people are sincere when they say!
No Justice, No Peace.
Ricky A. James
Winston-Salem
YBA Coverage
To the editor:
Art Blevins and the staff .at
~~ Hanes Hosiery GyTfrRecreation
Center would like to commend ooe
of your employees, Deby Jo Fergu
son, on her outstanding coverage of
Youth Basketball Leagues. Her
efforts have greatly contributed to
our cause.
It means so much to us to have
Miss Ferguson take the time to help
our program. But her biggest con
tribution is to the children who play
in various leagues. It is a thrill for
them to be able to see their picture
and read their names in an actual
newspaper. Their self-jmfcge has
improved greatly;- ?
In addition, we would like to
thank you for giving us such a large
layout in your newspaper. The pub
licity helps our program grow ancf
make a name for itself. We truly
appreciate the job that you and
Deby Jo Ferguson do and wish you
added success.
Art Blevins
Winston-Salem
Tissue Awareness Week
"To the editor;
Our country, and particularly
the black community, faces a
tremendous shortage of donated
organs and tissues. For example, as
of 1/31/93 there were over 7,000
blacks on the waiting list for a kid
ney transplant. There are a number
of reasons why blacks are in greater
need of kidney transplants than
whites: blacks suffer from high
blood pressure and kidney failure
four times more often than whites
and blacks with the high blood pres
sure are 17 times more prone to kid
ney failure than whites.
National Organ and Tissue
Donation Awareness Week is April
18-24. As a member of the black
community, you have a unique
opportunity to help other blacks lead
healthier, more productive lives. By
learning the facts about organ dona
tion, discussing your wishes with
your family, and signing a donor
card, you can make a difference-a
difference that must be made.
If you would like further infor
mation please call Carolina Life
care, between of 9 am-5 pm at 777
3130.
r
Sharon L. Haney
Carolina LifeCare
Winston-Salem, NC