Forum Diversity a Mixed Bag of Differences We Must Address , All schools are not places of despair. How ever, there are some that heave earned that dis tinction. For them to reverse this label requires digging deeper within the community that is the school. The digging will require the school family to change attitudes and change atmos phere. Yes, we have far more inviting and edu cationally sound schools than those in despair in our community. However, for many minori ties and poor whites, their despair we can hear, loud and dear. Here are some thoughts which might gen ? erate ideas for working to make all schools bet ter for all children. Whib the staff of our sys tem is working on another redistricting plan, let us hope that they pay attention to critical and risk. The gaps demand that we do major over haul on attitudes, atmosphere and purposes in schools. Those students who are not achieving, because they are denied equity in instruction and equal respect, will not be the opes who will make our community stronger. They will prob ably be the ones who get into drugs and crime and be the very ones who will rob us. We owe them a better life than that The design of programs and the delivery of them in equal access to minorities and the poor will help us insure better educated students. All minority and poor children do not enter our schools disadvantaged Many of them become disadvantaged when they are faced with behav iors that exclude them and those that show they challenging issues"* facing us in educa- ] tion today. challenge is our unwillingness to accept divergent. J thinking within our I '? ?? GENEVA SAYS | ByGENEVA BROWN community. Too often the call for unity also demands lock-step thinking among our citizens. Strength of purpose results from using diverse ideas towards accomplishing common goals. We need a deeper commitment for finding true unity which is based on equal respect and meet ing the educational needs of all children. This unity depends on our having adminis trators, teachers, parents and other community leaders who will take courage to demand equal inclusion of all children. We need them to openly dispel and turn loose fears of diversity and create understanding of respect which can bind the community together. JTiUrbinding must be taken on by all in the ? community^Then-we may be able to make social and cultural diversity work for effective education of all children. Diversity must become a strength upon which our commu nity's future can depend, rather than a reason for stirring up old racial animosities or invent ing newer ones. The current gaps of achievement between minority and majority students places us all at are less accepted as the majority. Our community rejects many children because of who they are, the color of their skin, . where they live and how they look. We do not have set programs that teach tolerance and acceptance of diverse people. All school per sonnel must be trained and retrained concern ing differences among students. The backdrop that Americans have painted about black minority students is a most serious and difficult issue facing all schools. There are no easy answers to the growing racial, social and behavior issues. However, if we don't begin to put in consistent programs to deal with these tissues truthfully, the trains we are riding for better education may^jura^ the track and derail. The best place' parents could want for lheir children is, SCHOOL! It is up to us as adults to see that our schools are the best places the chil dren want! Making our schools better involves giving all in the school a sense of hope, and a faith that all those daily routines in classrooms will really amount to something important (The author is a member of the Winston - Salem/Forsyth County School Board.) New Black Drug Czar Plans to Cut TV Pictures of Blacks in Handcuffs Believe -it or not, the black man described by experts as probably the best-trained and most competent law enforcement executive in the nation will be the next drug czar and the fifth black person in Bill Clinton's 14-member cabinet His name is Lee Patrick Brown. He is a 55-year-old widower with four children. He has many years of experience to go with his four college degrees topped by the Ph. D. degree in criminology from the U. of Califor nia at Berkeley. He began as a patrolman and worked his way up to become top law enforcement officer or commissioner of police at Portland, Ore., Houston, Atlanta, and New York City. His successes made him a much sought-after leader. chosen for U.S. Cabinet jobs. They are Robert C. Weaver, a Harvard U. Ph. D. in sociology and Secretary of Housing and Urban Develop ment appointed by Lyndon Johnson, and Louis Sullivan, M.S., appointed Secretary of Health and Human Services by George Bush. When Brown is confirmed by the Senate, he will be called the head of the Office of National Drug Control Policy. President Clin ton has not announced the probably different job title Brown will have when he enters the Cabinet Brown has "paid his dues" through public service on all sides. He is a long-time member of the NAACP and the National Organization of Black Law Enforcement Officers, the Boy Scouts, Houston Rotary Club and many other Experts indi cate that what Colin Powell is in military science expertise, so Lee Brown is in police i science expertise. I President Clinton ? = MINORITY REPORT By JAMES E. ALSBROOK said he was fortu nate to get Lee Brown aboard his "ship of state." Brown's very impressive record indi cates that Clinton is right Brown will join four other blacks in Clin ton's cabinet. They are Ron Brown, Secretary of Interior; Hazel O'Leary, Secretary of Energy; Jesse Brown, Secretary of Veterans' Affairs, and Mike Epsy, Secretary of Agricul ture. All reports indicate that these black lead ers are doing very well in serving the nation and the president. Other black officials high in the Clinton administration are Dr. Jocelyn Elders, 59, U.S. Surgeon General, a pediatrician who was head of Health Services in Arkansas, and Dr. Clin ton R. Wharton, Deputy Secretary of State and second in command only to Secretary Warren Christopher. Wharton has earned degrees from Harvard U., John Hopkins U. (International Studies), and Chicago TJ. His honorary degrees are numerous. His salary was more than one million dollars per year as head of a billien-dollar Fortune 500 insurance invest ment firm when last December he decided to top off his career with the highest ranking position a Black person has ever held in the State Department. Before 1992, only two blacks had been groups. He has taught police work at Howard UM Texas Southern and several predominantly white universities. He co-authored two books and his produced numerous magazine articles. Some black democrats say Brown should be named director of the F.B.I, when the cur rent Republican-appointed director, now under fire for misconduct, is gone. Others say Brown will be handicapped as F.B.I, head because it is as riddled with racists as it was when J. Edgar Hoover was badgering Dr. King and trying to kill the civil rights movement Brown's upcoming, anti-drug efforts in the inner cities will be more difficult now that the Republican filibuster killed Clinton's pack age containing thousands of jobs for young people. Behind closed doors some want to "reward" rioters or give them jobs. Moreover, the informant continued, the Republicans claim inner cities consist mainly of Democrats anyway, so they must be punished. ? The nation will see how effective Brown's proposed "education and rehabilitation" pro gram is when the evening news shows fewer Black youth being taken to jail in handcuffs or to the morgue of in body bags. ' \ AFRAIP50. We 60IN6 GOTAMBeTINSAT quj 7H5WHITB HOUSe JCmt* MTH7H5\ CABINET HAV&fnOUHMWX THGCROUP Nft/e*. eoesHOMt. rrs oovmmmw AU--N&HT&&, \ P07HCV err any ACTUAL (VORK PON t AT NOONB KNOCiS. 90MePBOPta THINK THEY JUST swr id am. S?NP HBRIN, 5MILY. BUT... BUT W1&JUST A BABY! - I . I KNOOO. 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