Newspapers / The Charlotte Post (Charlotte, … / May 17, 1984, edition 1 / Page 2
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The Olympics: Oiir I -nut Hop.._ The Russian pull-out of the 1984 Summer Olympic Games accompanied by some of its allied nations should be no sur prise to any. Non-participation by a nation or nations is not exactly something new except that the U.S. government raised it to its highest level when foolishly America’s youth was denied the opportunity to parti cipate in 1980 allegedly because of Russia’s invasion and oc cupancy of Afghanistan. Jimmy Carter made a tragic mistake when he ordered a boycott of the Olympics in 1980. Politicians don’t pay for the Wood, sweat and tears by Ame rica’s youth who seek only the right to free uninhibited compe titive sports on a world stage. Yet every gold, silver or bronze medal won is viewed by most national government more as an ideological political victory than a sports event. It doesn’t really matter who is really at fault - the Russian government, the Reagan Admin istration or whoever - for the escalating 1984 Olympic boycott. What does matter is that the Olympics, one of the last two real hopes for world peace is rapidly deteriorating and slipping away. In all fairness, the decline of the Olympics reaches far beyond the interruption created by po liticians. TTie games have be come the victims of international terrorists, corruption by big money, the use of drugs to enhance one’s competitive po sition, avenues for spying, the seeking of political asylum, and of course motivation to win for all the wrong reasons - politics. Any soul-searching on our part as a nation may lead us to conclude that Russia’s charge that their athletes’ safety would be endangered should not he labeled as a political smoke screen, even though it probably is. Yet, we have made it con venient for them to make such allegations by the way we man age or don’t manage our cities, or more importantly our values about decency. Let us face it, in the words of The Detroit News: “What gua rantees do we really have for their (Russian athletes) safety? We can^-even keep our own streets safe - how could we possibly assure them of their safety? Not even our own sta diums are safe anymore...” Thus, as long as politicians can’t promote moral values, deny our sons (not theirs) the right to free competitive sports participation, yet send them off to war for purely political rea r sons, our sane society is on the brink of total decline. Ironically, there are only two reasons the Olympics as a world class event should continue. One, strangely enough, is political, that is, as long as the world’s youth can come together every four years in competition we have a glimmering hope for general world peace. The other is the opportunity for the per sonal pride and feelings of self . worth that the athletes get from the game and the moral values it may carry with it. Thus, let the youth play games, it may be the only real hope we have to survive to the year 2000. More Bureaucracy? __ For a number of years the University Pkrfc Improvement Association and' a ' number of other homeowner neighborhood organizations have been oppos ing plana to extend and widen McArthur Avenue and wideA" LaSalle Street through Univer sity Park to Brookshire Free way to accommodate commer cial truck traffic. Ironically, the local entity that has final recommendation au thority to the state on such road projects is not the Mecklenburg Board of County Commission ers nor the City Council bub rather something called the \ Chariot te-Mecklenburg Metro politan Planning Organization (MPO). Stranger still ip the fact that the majority of the i. in thj$ organisation- are' by representatives from the >afl town in /the county outside the city. Recently MPO voted, over the objection of the City’s (a Coun cil member) representative, to extend and loop Ashbury Avenue around a cluster of streets to connect with LaSalle at States ville Avenue. We wonder how in a representative democracy can people who do live in the city, were not elected nor appointed by the citizens affected, and are not even familiar with the neighborhood, how can they vote to run a road through or around a neighborhood. That’s the new bureaucracy. SUBURBIA Well Deserved -•i i Dear Sir: Congratulations on your recent Community Service. Award presented by Bar ber-Scotia College. It was a well-deserved recognition from my point of view. Your history of 90 years makes The Charlotte Post one of the oldest weeklies in' the nation. During these present times, it is still impor tant that newspapers are maintained to serve the black community The mainstream media fea tures us, but often from a “fishbowl” perspective. A case in point is the re cent coverage about studies on preserving the black family. An April 30, 1964 article in The Charlotte Observer highlighted that nearly aEwnrs men and morts than half gf all black babies are born to unwed mothers. It noted a breakdown of traditional family structures that scholars and politicans consider a threat to blacks’ economic gains. The question of economic gains for the black fdA ily-at-large has hardly even been seriously de bated in the mainstream press. Yet, the general news slant is usually one that implies blacks “were .making it big” or "on wel fare.” I too km concerned about the black family, all of us, particularly at a time when the economic scene is one in which many Ame ricans, black and white, realize that people can turn less to the government to provide for their needs. What better place to be gin solutions than within a black perspective? We work for a living, we have black businesses and or ganizations It’s up to us to seek economic change and sufficiency among us. One vital source for com munication with each other is in the black media. MiMred Dwiggins Swift Professional Financial Planner Self Interest People? Dear Editor: The 1963 Civil Rights March on Washington for jobs, peace and freedom generated a sense of unity among minority leaders; however, when Jesse Jaek son announced his candi dacy for President, we noticed a breach of enqr m«Us proportions in dvil i ! i selves rather than address*., tag the needs and services of the masses. The time has come when we (as a peo must mobilize our ef on a much wider basis than civil rights if we are to choose our own destiny. We must learn that sometimes the follower* must lead, as it was with Saul, after he was blinded and those who journeyed with Mm took his trembling hands and led him to Damascus (Acts 9:8). Let us remember also that every Mack leader of today, whether elected or self-appointed, came into prominence on the coat tail of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. For three and ooe-half years, times have not been good for minorities and at the worst of times, appall ing silence fell upon Jo seph Lowery, Andrew Young, Benjamin Hooks, Julian Bond, John E. Jacob, Coleman Young, Norman Hill, the members of the^ongrasSional Black Caucus tad our First Lady of Civil Rights. Since Mr. Jackson broke ranks and came forward as a viable candidate for Presidential nomination and has ex celled all expectations, black leaders are coming out of hibernation and jumping on Mondale’s and Hart’s bandwagons by using our churches for their political bases to pro vide a forum for the can didate of their choice and are using voter registra tion to create the illu sion that they will be able to manipulate the black vote in November. James Brown Rocky Mount THE CHARLOTTE POST “THE PEOPLE’S NEWSPAPER” Established 1918 Published Every Thursday by The Charlotte Post Publishing Co., Inc. Subscription Rate $17.68 Per Year Second Class Postage No. 965500 Postmaster Send 3579s to: 1531 Camden Rd., Charlotte, N.C. 28203 Telephone: 704-376-0496 Circulation: 11,023 106 Years of Continuous Service Bill Johnson Editor, Publisher Bernard Reeves ■ General Manager Fran Farrar Advertising Director Dannette Gaither Office Manager Second Class Postage No. 965500 Paid At Charlotte, North Carolina Under the Act of March 3,1878 Member, National Newspaper Publishers’ Association North Carolina Black Publishers Association Deadline for all news copy and photos Is 5 p.m., Monday. Airphoto* and copy ' . submitted become the property of The Post and will not be returned. National Advertising Representative Amalgamated Publishers. Inc. 24M S. Michigan Ave. 45 W. 45th 8t.. 14*3 Chicago. III. SOSIt New York. New York 1*035 Col a met 5-0200 2! 2-480-1220 from Capitol HiU Reagan Cannot Dismantle AA Methods Alfreds Madison Special To The Post Again the Reagan Ad ministration has been re buffed by the Courts, in its ; continuous persistence to reverse all civil rights gains. The City of New Orleans with a* 55 percent black population, had a police force of 35 percent black with practically all of them in the lower echelon rank. To correct this condition the City and police reached an agreement that would promote oh a one-to-one black and white ratio until the blacks reached 50 per cent in the upper bracket. The white police, Hispanic* and women objected to the decree. In October, 1961, the dis trict Court Judge Sears concluded that the provi sion requiring black and white officers to be promo ted on a one-to-one ratio until blacks constitute SO percent of all ranks ex ceeded the Courts’ reme dial objectives and serious ly jeopardized the career interests of non-whites. The case was appealed to the Fifth Circuit of Ap peals, which overturned the district court's decision and upheld the concent de cree. The Reagan Civil Right* Division of the Justice Department bead ed by William Bradford Reynolds, asked that all 13 Fifth Circuit Court Judges hear the complete case. Alfreds L. Madkon This action is highly un usual for a Justice De partment. The Court responded to the Justice Department’s statement which said that affirmative action reme dies in the New Orleans case are contrary to pro vision of Title VII Jus tice said, “The last sen tence of Title VII prohi bits the use of any remedy which is not limited to actual victims of discrim ination, since the ene-to one quota system in the concent decree was de signed to benefit all blacks in the plaintiff’s elaas." In reply to Justice De partment's statement, the Court said, ‘This Court has long upheld the use of afflnnative action In can cent decrees under lltle VII and has not required that relief be limited to actual victims of discrim i tuft ion.” The Court die missed the women and His panic charges, since, at the time of the suit, they were adequately represented on the police force. The Reagan Administra tion which is echoed by his Civil Rights Commission objects to class action and emphasizes that the indivi dual who can prove that he or she has been discrim inated against can bring a suit for remedying the case. The panel of judges disavowed the Adminis tation’s individual only ar gument. The Administration and the present Civil Rights Commission contends that class action is reverse dis crimination. Fifth Circuit said, “The burden of re medying past discrimina tion, may be borne by someone. The ideal goal in this type case is to pro vide a suitable remedy for the group who has suf fered, but at the least ex pense to others " President Reagan, in protecting his efforts to re verse civil rights gains, has stated that he has a color bUnd policy. The Court aaa phasized that color bUnd is not a constitutional dogma “When a vice is inherent in a system, the vice can be eradicated only by reetrue turtqg the system . ” The Fifth Circuit refuted Justice** argument that the protect* the rights of the individual who has been discriminated against and it does not protect class <fis crimination. The Court said that the Thirteenth, Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments take into con sideration a pattern of class discriminatory prac tices. It said the Thirteenth Amendment, “seeks to at tain a universal civil rights for blacks. Remedial ac tion must address the needs of blacks as a race.” Peter Sherwood of Legal Defense, Fund who suc cessfully argued the case for the black police in the Detroit and New Orleans cases, said, “The Fifth Cir cuit Court of Appeals, soundly rejected (he United States Justice Depart ments'attempt to overturn an affirmative action plan." This decision is an other of the many adverse decisions that the Admin istration has encountered in its attempt to reverse civil rights gains. Sherwood further re sponding on the Court's decision said, "The govern ment urges us to find that quota provision violates Title Vli. We cannot accept this per se rule: the statute does not so require. As we said in "U.S. vs. City of Maimi,” at this point in the htttory of the fight against discrimination, it cannot be seriously argued that there is any insur mountable barrier to the ase of goals, or quotas to eradicate the effects of past discrimination.'' Sabrina Air Traveler’s Rights There are three sure ways to arouse negative reactions from air travelers - smoking on commercial flights, compensa tion for being “bumped” and the liability of <f^Saj®i°8fcPyfemage luggage. The civil SmiMutcsJjoaUiCAB) is facing the task of deciding to wftat extent to enforce no smoking regulations op commercial flights. Sm<Mbg <itde£.htve ho real home, trans portation Secretary Elizabeth H. Dole, ■jtting individual airlines decide —‘J-“r rules within the ml_ ..... . ' The CAB had initially supported a no smoking rule on short flights’ However, on March 19, 1984, it ruled smoking to be banned on aircrafts of fewer than 50 seats, and outlawed the smoking of pipes and cigars on. all commercial flights. Hence forth, both rules reflect existing policies rather jthan toughening rules. Witli the onset of the ho^mbkihg revolu tion, the CAB now guarantees nonsmoking travelers seats in nonsmoking areas of the aircraft - provided they check in on time. If the carriers fail to comply, they can be fined up to 81,000. Under this same rule, the CAB has restricted smokers to a separate section of seats also. In theory, this all sounds wonderful, however, smokers complain that occasionally smoking seats are not avail able thus forcing them to take nonsmoking seats. Nonsmokers complain that smokert in smoking and nonsmoking sections are rude and intolerable. Both feel that the airlines do not rightfully attempt to accom modate their requests. According to the CAB, carriers occasionally overlook these complaints, since they make up only 2.6 percent of customer complaints. Although 75 percent of air travelers request nonsmoking sections, major car riers do not want to expand the limits on smoking once airbourne and are uneasy of state regulations If federal regulations are eliminated. According to major areas, federal regulations as they stand, work well. . A few carriers, small carriers, have made aggressive moves in the nonsmoking direc tion. Dallas-based Muse Air Corporation began in 1981 as a nonsmoking airline. Midway Airline, Chicago-based, prohibits^ smoking (since November 17,1983), as part of the “Great American Smokeout.” When Air Alaska, Inc. has made its mark for converting its business class to complete nonsnjbking in December. Major carriers are not looking forward to the increased customer complaints on the issue. A spokesman for Eastern Airlines, Inc. stated that to tell a business.person that he or>she cannot “light up” after take off would be suicidal since smoking is a per sonal preference. If this became true, then mis-assignment of seats would be grounds for complaints and lawsuits. . Q Smoking is a personal issue that each person must decide for himself : It is only when that personal satisfaction .offends or bothers others that it becomes atsocial and health issue. When and how l a person smokes is his business but he or she must be conjfideratp Of those around him tjiat do not enjoy that pleasure. Cigarette, tfgar and pipe smoke does offend people apd taking that into consideration smokers should curtail their smoking when in public areas such as airplanes and restaurants. Blow ing smoke in someone’s face who is eating, whether or not a smoker, is rude - r-u-d-e! Stop and think, would you like to eat smoke with your steak? Smoking regulations on airplanes will be a battlefield fight for a long while. Air- • lines have tried to accommodate everyone by having individual blowers that can be < operated by the passenger. However, some smoking passengers do not make good use of the blowers but instead turn them off. The smoke drifts forward to the nonsmoking sections and causes discomfort. Second hand smoke “ain’t no fun.” II makes one’s eyes water, sneeze and queezy. So do not infest nonsmokers on airplanes, be consi derate and think about where the smoke is going. Another point of consideration that smokers should align is to ask nonsmokers if they mind if one smokes in a non smoking section. Being polite never hurt anyone, if anything it Enhances one's character. Whatever the CAB decides to do about the situation, it can be precluded that the decision will be made to benefit everyone, the smoker, the nonsmoker and the air line. In the meanwhile the word from smokers to nonsmokers and vice versa Is polite -.It goes so much further.
The Charlotte Post (Charlotte, N.C.)
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May 17, 1984, edition 1
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