Newspapers / The Charlotte Post (Charlotte, … / Oct. 31, 1985, edition 1 / Page 2
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You Must Vote Your Conscience Once again we are approaching the time when responsible, concerned, involved citi zens should or will be prepared to cast their votes to the candidates of their choice to mayor, council members at-large, and dis trict council office seekprs. As we look forward to Election Day, Tuesday, November 5, we want to pause and look back over our shoulders to a reminder of the embarrassingly low voter turnout our city had in the primaries. Only 16j>ercent of the city’s registered Republi cans and 10 percent of the Democrats used their votes to decide who, hopefully, a lot more of us will vote to o*} November 5. We are reminded again of the comments made in this column last week about how fragile our freedoms are. They are even more fragile and in fact in danger of being lost if we don’t exercise our basic and fundamen tal right to vote, and vote our convic tions on Election Day. Taking their cues from the candidates, letters to the editors and the mood of the voters, The Post has clearly and, hopefully objectively, iayed out the issues in the campaign - transportation, growth man agement, taxes, neighborhood preserva tion, and uptown revitalization - to your careful study and analysis. Now, it is up to v you, the voters, to act with your votes to determine which way and by what method Charlotte will move and grow and lay a foundation for the decade of the 1990s * the launching pad for propelling into the 21st century. Consistent with our policy over the past eight years, we offer no candidates for endorsement. We believe we have offered you, our readers, varied opinions on the ' issues in a fair, objective, accurate, and balanced way. Therefore, we don’t believe we need to clutter your minds with opinions on specific candidates. As a community newspaper, we believe we have done our part in keeping you informed about the issues. Now, it’s your turn to tell us, to tell the candidates, what you, the citizens, the taxpayers, want and expect through your votes. It’s your city, your neighborhood, your home, and your tax dollars, so you decide • what’s, best for your future and the future of your children by voting your convictions on election day - November 5. VOTE, VOTE, and VOTE, it’s your right, your duty, and your freedom. % Sam Johnson Teaches Valuable Lesson Community Control ...«...By Whom???? With the recent organization of the West Trade-Bee ttiee Ford *Area Merchants Association, followed by a dynamic address to the organization and its supporters by the renowned journalist Tony Brown on pro moting a Beatties Ford Road economic renaissance, optimism is high and interest is growing. However, before we get carried away with the dream, as important as the dream may be, we need to get back to the world of reality and hard work. First, as we noted in this column last summer (August29), the promise of Ameri ca is not guarantees, but rather Is op portunities. Howevter, opportunities be come realities in business only to the extent that we Can apply and practice good man agement. . Secondly, in searching for a good ex ample, or a role model of good business management, we come across a profile of •Sam Johnson, president-owner of Sam Johnson. Lincoln Mercury, Inc.* ip the Network' (July, 1965), a publication of the Charlotte Chamber of Commerce. . . Network, referring to “Business Oppor tunity Network,” says that while Sam Johnson has “a business with more than $35 million hi sales, a workforce of 95 em ployees, and one of the largest car dealer ships in the area....” apd is considered by mahy in the industry to be highly suc cessful, he says there is always room for growth and development. One former Beatties Ford Road black businessman has noted that if he had followed this principle he might still be in business. In Network Mr. Johnson notes some basic “but often overlooked principles of manage. ment”: -Personal benefits for employees. He subscribes to the view that employee loyalty heightens the success of a business and therefore should be rewarded. In this regard, too, Mr. Johnson practices an “open door” policy with his staff and speaks to each employee daily. He wisely believes people are his most important asset. -Likewise, Mr. Johnson continues to deal directly with his customers. -Thirdly, Johnson says, “commitment” to a project is the “key element” parti cularly in the start-up phase of a new business. -Finally, Johnson makes the important point that as a business owner, a com mitment of financial resources is second only to a commitment of time required to develop a business. This, Johnson con cludes, may mean sacrificing time with your family, persional financial resources and social activities. Simply stated, Sam Johnson is a suc cessful businessman because he believes success is constantly reaching for new heights. He knows, too, that this is the only way to survive in a highly competitive industry. We would add, standing stUl to glorify in one’s success is the first step of decline and failure. The Post hopes and advises that the businesses, new and old, that will be a part of the landscape of the West Trade Beatties Ford Road area will heed the advice of Sam Johnson because he offers sound common sense viewpoints on hew to be truly successful in a way stUl largely foreign to most black business people. AIDS Numbers Are Scary And Confusing Some call it the Bubonic Plague of the 1980s. Others compare it to the cholera outbreak in the 19th century. However, it is a problem unique in its own way - acquired immune deficien- ; cy syndrome (AIDS) - one of the top health problems cur rently. Such a health pro blem that it has Americans afraid of their shadows in the doctor’s office. It is true that AIDS has killed more than 6,000 people in the country. An estimat ed 6,000 are sick with small chances of survival. The numbers are scary and confuting. Public state ’ orients Aid sfatistics show AIDS wili^ouble each year, or 10 months or nine months, approximately one million of Americans have been ex posed to the virus. It is a disease of homosexuals, and heterosexuals, old and young. The virus has been iden tified, isolated and cul tured. Studies now show how it is spread throughout the body. Soane drugs have been developed to slow down the process of the virus repro ducing and scientists now , know how the virus destroys Sabrina disease-fighting blood cells. Some people view AIDS as strictly a homosexual pro blem With which the entire population should not be con cerned: and that taxes should not be spent to aid in combating the disease. That is a sad attitude for Ame ricans to take. Since the passing of actor Rock Hudson, people are realizing that AIDS is not a homosexual disease. AIDS is a viral illness that is spread through sex anp the expo sure to contaminated blood. While it is difficult to catch, anyone can get it, including unborn children and hemo philiacs. In full force AIDS is total, however many who are infected have only limited symptoms. Education and research are the keys to combating the problem and are much needed. Evangelist Don Boys calls AIDS “cultural and moral suicide to make perversion acceptable, legal and nor mal.” He states that the only way to8top the spread of the disease is to stop sexual promiscuity. The statements made by Boys is due to the fact that he feds Congress is afraid of homosexual lobby; whose “sodomites” want fe deral funding that would in dude his tax money. ^ To people like Boys public funding of research tor AIDS shows society’s ac ceptance of the disease. How can a society accept a dis ease that to wiping out mil lions annually? Buys is viewing AIDS from an off shore island view. AIDS is not the. “gay-plague.” It is man’s plague. Don Boys suggests five steps in stepping the spread of the disease. They basical ly are: l. make sodomy THE CHARLOTTE POST North Carolina’s Fastest Growing Weekly 704-37MMM "The People's Newspaper** lOTYeaxs Of Continuous Service Berserk Reeves F Gwe.Mgr FraaFarrer-Bradley Adv. Mgr. Daaaette Gaither Office Mgr. fY-Jtll-s - -a ip,, , _ ruwisnw tvcry Thursday by The Chiaiettc Past ^hH*MabBCOmceJ 1531S. Camden Road Charlotte, N.C. 33308 USPS No M&SM - i Miller Says: Small Business: A Step Child Or Tomorrow’s Job Security By Sherman N. Miller Special To The Post Remorse is the stereotype emotion that one is expected to feel when the major in dustry in their community announces plans to phase out its local operations. How ever, Steve Theye, president of Summit City Radiator of Fort Wayne, In., argues that the departure of a major corporation can be the best thing to happen to a city. Theye averred, “..(When) International Harvester left ...It was good for Fort Wayne.” His comments ran counter to traditional thinking, so I asked him to help me un derstand his reasoning. Theye continued, “Primary one, it put the city in crisis and forced the civic leaders to be active in wooing new businesses to the area.” Theye seemed to be ar guing the cdse that stress t brings action. He said that the local Chamber of Com merce got busy on a na tional advertising program to attract new businesses to Fort Wayne and they were “very successful.” However, Theye appeared to harbor great disdain for the ill-natured reception that was afforded small business es. He says there was some i • softening of the step child treatment of small business during For Wayne’s crisis “....(The) city and large business paid more atten tion to small business,” contended Theye. Theye vented his frustra tion when he poured forth, “There were a lot of Jobs that would have stayed if they had been treated right. Ser vice business always seems to get the back seat. People do not get excited about service (industry) because it is not as obvious as some one with a manufacturing plant.” He attempted to offer cre dibility to aervice indus ' tries by pointing out that a chap with 2S dry cleaning stores may hire as many people as some manufac turing operations. Theye went on to explain that some service industries like dry cleaners are naturally low key operations and they are built over long time spans. He readily recognized that these two service industry characteristics did not make their growth exciting media grabbing events. As I grappled with Theye's comments, I felt a certain disquietitude. Small business is the leading ge nerator of new jobs. My stress was exacerbated when I learned that the above ill-favored impression of small business once per vaded the United State’s psyche. Sue Birley and David Norburn, in their ar ticle, “Corporate Ventur ing,” document this malevo lent mainstream American impression of small busi ness. <■ In the summer 1985 issue of The Journal of Basi neso Strategy. Birley and Norbum write, ‘Ten years ago, small businesses were very much viewed as ‘coun try cousins’ and were con siderably patronized by their counterparts in big busin ess. The small business own er was considered rather odd. and was certainly be reft of the modern tech niques and skills possessed by the larger company man ager.” * . I did get some solace when Birley and Norbum went ont to report, “Today, larger businesses are constantly de bating the ways in which the virus of entrepreneurship could be injected into the bloodstream of their own existing management The boot is very much now upon the other foot.” Theye’s face seemed to radiate an aura of excite ment when he was asked to comment on the future of small business. He pro claimed, “It is bright as its ever been. It is attracting more bright people. It’s fun to work for yourself. It hurts more if you goof. It’s a little higher high.” In retrospect, let us hope , that many U.S. communities will start to develop con tingency plans to prevent their collapse if their ma jor industries are forced to leave. Furthermore, Ameri can workers in industries that are being decimated by foreign imports ought to Join forces with the U.S. small business lobby to foster an atmosphere conducive to the proliferation of the entre preneurs) spirit Theye did offer one fleet ing comment for the U.S. government. ' &’Vv **. Vr ' ■** L* v . * 1 ,4-^. illegal again; 2. close all bath houses and porn shops as health hazards; 3. Test all blood donors for AIDS; 4. -infected homosexuals would be required to provide a list of sexual partners to public health officials; and 5. sodo mites should be prosecuted. While his five-step plan may be well intended, it still focuses in on his view of AIDS being a homosexual problem and not a general population problem. Boys’ plan makes AIDS infection as easy as a common cold While he claims to have empathy for those with the disease, he feels “angry and agitated that tax dollars are being used to find a cure." Mr. Boys, AIDS cannot be transmitted by touching a door knbb, eating finger foods, (hp by being in close physical proximity to s per son with AIDS, such as hugging. Yes, Mr. Boys, AIDS victims have feelings and minds just as you claim. Instead of Attack and criticism, is not it time that the population bypassed the sensationalism and got down to brass tackfc as far as the disease is concerned? The entertainment indus try is one of the few to show compassion and support for persons with AIDS. The re cent fund raising dinner was a success and s prime ex ample of how the industry feels about combatir* the virus.
The Charlotte Post (Charlotte, N.C.)
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Oct. 31, 1985, edition 1
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