Newspapers / The Charlotte Post (Charlotte, … / Sept. 27, 1984, edition 1 / Page 2
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EDITORIALS & COMMENTS Beyond Immorality Some 56.697 children were reportedly sexually abused in 1982, mostly by parents, step-parents and relatives, according to the American Humane Association. Others accused of such molestations include day care workers, babysitters, YWCA work ers, and public school teachers and ad ministrators. In spite of the sexually explicit lesbian pictures appearing in Penthouse maga zine that led to the dethroning of Miss America 1984, Vanessa Williams, Miss Williams, or more accurately her behavior, made her the final judge for Miss Ameri ca 1985. The new Miss America, Sharlene Wells, the 20 year old daughter of a Mormon Church leader, does not smoke, drink alcoholic beverages, gamble nor believe in premarital sex, abortions or the Equal Rights Amendment. Miss Wells said, "I have no ‘skeletons’ in the closet,” and ‘‘I guess they (judges) were looking for somebody like me.” Some of the other contestants felt the pageant was so pre occupied with its image that they were not fairly judged on the pageant’s criteria. Thousands of elderly citizens are the targets pf sleazy con men and two-bit hustlers who are victimizing older Ameri cans out of their savings, insurance money, home repair overcharges, purse snatching and numerous other swindles. A disturbing number of Americans have too often imposed their own religious values and beliefs or opposed the beliefs of candidates for public office based on bigotry, denomination and the narrow rigid application of selected Bible scripture or doctrine. Over 50 percent of all the black babies born in America since 1980 have boon born out of wedlock and over half of all black children live in homes with a single parent. Each of these comments on our level of morality appears to indicate that we are becoming a sex-obsessed society, an abuser of our children, a prey on our elderly, and a debaser of our politics With religion and our religion with politics. When a nation’s adults use its children to satisfy its own selfish sexual passions, is eager to spend thousands of dollars to see nude sexually explicit photos, victimizes its elderly and debases its politics with reli gion and its religion with politics it is pagt time to shift gears to reassess our sense of morality, values arid ethics. These issues are critical moral and social issues that must be dealt with now. Just think, these 56,597 sexually abused children will grow into adulthood emotionally and psychologically scarred unknowing how their childhood experiences will affect their level of maturity. In addition, babies born out of wed lock, often to young, immature mothers, growing up in single parent homes are starting life with a major handicap, thus they too will reach adulthood with emotion al and psychological scars that will un doubtedly affect their level of maturity. Thirdly, with a growing elderly popula — tion we must take some positive action to protect these older citizens to reduce the exploitation and fear that they face even in their own homes. We cannot consider our selves a free and democratic society if our elderly loved ones cannot experience a sense of safety, security and happiness in their declining years. Finally, the manner in which religion is taken, or more significantly, God’s Word to support or justify a particular political philosophy or political Party is the ultimate show of disrespect for our Maker. Let us be ever mindful that while our religious values and sense of morality should be an influencing force in our political and other secular life decisions, we should not assume that God is, for example, a Republican or a Democrat. God loves us all, Republi cans, Democrats, Independents and all those in between. MaintainingThe Free Press--— In recent years a growing number of newspapers have had to discontinue their businesses because of declining advertis ing sales and presumably declining read ership. Urider lying these losses to our free press is in part a misunderstanding by too many newspaper readers-subscribers as to the economics and business side of a news paper. In television, the money used to pay for commercial time underwrites the cost of your favorite TV show. Likewise, the ad vertisements in a newspaper pay for the cost of the paper itself, the printing, personnel and the distribution costs, in surance, rent and related business costs. It means, too, that a newspaper’s man agement leadership must judge the amoifnt -% if its news copy versus its advertising space, keeping in mind that the latter pays for the former. Thus column inch space in a newspaper is costly, the more that is used for news information the less that is used for advertisement revenue and likewise. It is for this reason that newspapers edit their news stories; to assure adequate, factual and informative news information while being aware of the importance of needed space for the advertisement re venue dollars. Equally important for newspaper readers to understand is that the price of a typical daily or weekly newspaper is a very small percent of the income received when compared with the paper’s overall operating expenses. Just as there are no free lunehes, there is no free space in a newspaper The Charlotte Post North Carolina’s Fastest Growing Weekly 704-376-0496 "The People’s Newspaper’’ 106 Years Of Continuous Service Bill Johnson Editor, Pub. Bernai d Reeves Gen. Mgr. Fran Bradley Adv. Mgr. Dannette Gaither Of. Mgr. Published Every Thursday By The Charlotte Post Publishing Company, Inc. Main Office: 1531 S. Camden Road Charlotte, N.C. 28203 Second Class Postage Paid at Charlotte Member, National Newspaper Publishers' Association North Carolina Black Publishers Association National Advertising Representative: Amalgamated Publishers. Inc. One Year Subscription Rate One Year $17.76 Payable In Advance From Capitol Hill President Reagan Is Running On Hidden Record! By Alfreds Madison Special To The Post . President Reagan is running hard on a hidden record. Women and minorities make up a large votihg constituency in this nation, so this Administration is attempting to keep its unfair discrimination em ploymemt record under cover, at least until after the election. The House Education and Labor Subcommittee on Employment, Opportunities recently issued its analysis report on the State of Affirmative Action in the Federal Governmemt 1960-1963. The facts are startling. The report analyzes affirmative action practices in 45 Federal agen cies for the period of three years. It was found that minorities and women suffered disproportionately from government-wide reductions in-force (RIF) in 1983. Of the 6,170 Federal employees affected by RIFs, 35.9 percent were women and 38.7 percent were minorities. It was reported that the higher the rank, the smaller the proportion of minor ities and vice versa. Despite af firmative action goals and legisla tive mandates, the minority status in the Federal workforce in 1983 is little improved over 1979. Although women constituted nearly half of the total GS workforce, they continued to be clustered in the lower salary grades Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act adopted anti-discrimination po licy to protect private sector em ployees In 1972 the Equal Em ployment Opportunity Act added Section 717 to Title VII to extend the anti-discrimination coverage to federal employees The Reagan Administration re duced the Federal workforce be 1--1 Alfreds L. Madison tween 1960-1961. but increased it by one percent in 1962-1963 with the largest increase occurring in agen cies dealing with national de fense and international rela tions The Administration cut growth by RIFs affecting thou sands of governmemt workers through downgrades, lateral re assignmemts or forded retire ments or separations. While the Defense Department increased its workforce by three percent, women and minorities are disproportinately concentrated in the lower level Jobs - below GS-6. The agency reported a 23 percent increase in the upward mobility program has resulted in some pro gress for these target groups in the mid-levels GS 9-12. There was little or no improvememt made in GS-13 grades and above. Severe patterns of discrimina tion were found In all Armed Services related agencies. It was revealed that 66 percent of all minorities employed by the Air Force were concentrated in the lower-paying grades and 60 percent of all women occupied the lowest positions. There were no minorities and women employed in the GS16-18 level. Even though the Army had a civilian workforce of 241,000 with an increase of 31,888 from 1980-1983, It did not significantly upgrade women and minorities - Of the 36,202 min orities employed by the Army only three percent were graded Gf-13 or above. Women constitute six percent of the upper level employees but All 72 percent of the lowest-paying jobs. The Navy's workforce increased by 10 percent-women made up 40 percent and 20 percent minorities, some small cuts were made in GS 9-12 levels but gains in GS 13 and above were almost miniscule. Before the Civil Rights Commis sion was robbed of its independence by President Reagan, it demon strated that affirmative action goals can be achieved if the institutions developed reasonable goals and timetables and strive to achieve those goals within a reasonable period of time. The Justice Department, which has the responsibility for upholding our nation’s laws on justice and equality, has not demonstrated a strong commitment to affirmative action for minorities and women The Department itself underutilizes women and minorities at the pro fessional and higher-paying ranks. Approximately 80 percent of all of the Department’s employees in grades GS-9 and above were either non-minorities or males. It was found that the lower the grade, the higher the concentration of women and minorities. The representa tion of women and minorities in GS-9 and above was below the govern ment average. The Federal government has the responsibility to be the lead em ployer in enforcing equal employ ment opportunity laws and imple menting affirmative efforts to improve the standing of minorities and women. Since the Justice De partment has not only taken tie lead in refusing to make determinations of underrepresentation of women and minorities in the government workforce, it is under this Admin istration making a concerted effort to overturn measures that remedy these conditions. Committee Chair man Hawkins, in speaking of the Justice Department’s action, said, “This type of blatant disregard of our nation’s commitment to justice and equality is a sorry example for private employers.'' The report stated that easing of affirmative action requirements of employers by the current Admin istration has resulted in slowing down the commitment of hiring and promoting qualified minorities and women. Poetry Seminar A poetry and painting seminar is scheduled for Saturday, September 29, and Sunday, September 30. This seminar is being sponsored by Reynolds House Museum of American Art and Delta Arts Center, 1511 E. Third St The work of Lois Mailou Jones and the poetry of Gwendolyn Brooks will be on hand for the public.. Both artists will be present to share with the public the work that has given them national acclaim. For the schedule of each artist, call 725-5325 for more information. The public is cordially .invited. i SLACKS HAVE BEEN AWAKENED..? IT IS UP TO US, BLACKS WHO CAKE ABOUT THE BLACK FUTURE, TO IMPOSE ORDER WHERE NONE EXISTS TODAY.— WE HAVE 10 DO IT DECAUSE WE CANNOT ASK OUR OLD PEOPLE TO SPEND THE REST OE THEIR LIVES PASSING THROUGH A GAUNTLET OF MUGGERS. OQ'JU CjWbt' __...._: v V V I'lJtiAJZfSl: __ __ m U.S.-Yatican Diplomatic Relations? By Sabrina Johnson . .On Wednesday, September 19, a coalition of Baptists, Presbyterians, Unitarians, Evangelicals and members of other religious groups filed suit in U.S. District Court seeking a ban on U.S di Vatican. The formal complaints contend that the government is establishing formal ties with the Vatican that have enhanced the ability of the Catholic Church to compete within the religious market place.— The plaintiffs explain that , the, Reagan administration has violated constitutional prohibitions against the mingling of church and state by spending tax money to send an ambassador to the Vatican. In excess of $350,000 has been given to William A. Wilson to act as the U.S. ambassador and to cover salary and expenses. The White House has declined to give any comment to the suit or about Wilson as a Vati can ambassador. It was in January of this year that the administration announced it would seek full diplomatic relations with the Holy See, the government of Vatican City, and that Wilson Sabrina would be appointed ambas sador. Keep in mind that no formal diplomatic ties had existed since 1867 - when -Federal Statute banned such - actions. President Reagan urged congress to repeal the bah, which they did, in November; 1983. ,r" The coalition of plaintiffs has asked for an injunction prohibiting Wilson from per forming any ambassadorial functions and forbidding the spending of government funds to support his post. Basically speaking, the law suit accuses the admin istration of showing prefe rence to one religious deno mination over all others. It also argues that the new found diplomatic relation ships with the Vatican will effect the advancing of one religion , thus inhibiting all others. The-relationship creates the potential for ex-, cessive church-state entan- [ glement and provides the „ means whereby the federal. government can openly or secretly participate in the affairs of one specific reli gious-organization, — Who are the people fight ing so hard against the rela tionship? They include: 1. Americans United For Separation of Church and ' State; 2. The Unitarian Univer-i salist Association; —3. The United Presbyterian^_ Church; 4. American Baptist ,r Churches; 5. Church of the Brethren; . 6. The National Council of Christ in the U.S.; 7. The Presbyterian Church of theU.S.; and 8. A Catholic group called The National Coalition of American Nuns. The Jews have not, as of yet, spoken out against the relations but are expected to formally complain also. The location in which the suit was filed is Philadel phia as being the birthplace of Democracy. The named defendants in the law suit are President Reagan, Ambassador Wilson, the U.S. Govern ment, Secretary of State ; George B. Schultz, and Se- ; cretary of the Treasury, ; Donald P. Regan. r urmai reiauonsnips De- - tween the state and one • church is improper in a na- • tion where the principle of • the separation of church and • state has been written in • constitutional law and in the ; souls of Americans. This act } can be conceived as being callous because it disregards what the founding of this country is based upon. The colonist? left England to seek < religious and social freedom. This act seems to be, point ing towards one religion and that religion will be the “official” one of the United States. The Cathdlic religion is not supreme nor in ferior to any religion, but such a relationship between the United States and Vati can City can implement it as being the government’s reli gion; thus giving them undue power in persuasion. Basically speaking there is nothing truly wrong with the government seeking diplo matic relations with the Vatican. But if it’s going along that route then diplo matic relations must be formed with all major reli gious leaders home and abroad. It seems to be an all or nothing situation: either recognize all religious lead ers or recognize none. a a
The Charlotte Post (Charlotte, N.C.)
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