Newspapers / The Charlotte Post (Charlotte, … / May 25, 1989, edition 1 / Page 6
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Page 6A - THE CHARLOTTE POST - Thursday, May 25, 1989 ®!)t CljarlottE $o£(t Gerald O. Johnson, Publisher Robert L. Johnson, Co-Publisher Jalyne Strong, Editor The Business of Publishing Editorials Neighborhood Drug Busters By HOYLE H. MARTIN Editorial Writer tn the city of Philadelphia, a six year old boy was shot and paralyzed as the result of cross fire between disputing drug dealers. In a Houston neighborhood, an elderly woman was murdered by a teenager who was burglar izing her home in search for money to buy drugs. In yet another city, a child Is shot and killed, again In some way related to drugs. These horrible Incidents of wounding and killing of law abiding citizens, often In public housing project neighborhoods, has led to the forming of neighborhood-based anti-drug groups In many cities across the nation. In a USA TODAY cover story recently, the grandmother of the paralyzed youth was quoted as saying, 'We own this neighborhood. We're not going to let the drug pushers take It away." The shooting, the reporter wrote, "lifted (the grandmother) and her south Phil adelphia neighborhood out of their paraly sis." Thus In Philadelphia, and In other cities across America, neighborhood-based groups are being organized to protect their commu nities. "Law enforcement (alone) is not the answer to the drug problem. It's got to start with people," says one federal drug enforce ment administrator. And start it has, as neighborhoods across the nation have come to the realization that, as the Philadelphia grandmother has said, the "police alone can't stop the drug trade." The neighborhood-based drug busters, with out any public financial assistance, have boarded-up so-called crack houses, sat out side their doors or In doors at their windows at night to call the police as soon as the drug dealers entered theft neighborhoods. Others have chased the unwanted guests out of theft neighborhood. In addition, coalitions have been formed to encourage more police in volvement and clean-up teams have worked to clear the neighborhood of discarded drug paraphernalia In order to protect small chil dren playing In a given area. In some communities, people have placed signs In theft front windows that read in large letters, "No Drugs." Likewise, others have placed anti-drug placards on street cor ners often frequented by drug pushers. Here at home in Charlotte. Mayor Sue My- rlck hosted a three-day drug information and education conference that has at least heightened concerns and awareness about the drug problem In our community. Subsequent ly, Fay Jones, president of the Faftview Home Residents Organization, referred to a drug-free neighborhood festival held last Sat urday as "The First Block Party Against Drugs." The event was highlighted by the presence of policemen, firefighters and emer gency medical personnel Interacting in a so cial setting with the residents. Refreshments were served as approximately 300 youth or more enjoyed a relationship with people whom they usually only see In times of trou ble or conflict In the community. Mayor Myrlck told the group, "This is only the beginning of what we can do. We can't rid your community of drugs without you (the residents) being Involved." Nonetheless, let us not be fooled, the drug problem Is not limited to public housing pro ject communities only. Therefore, all of us need to join In the war against drugs In some fashion if we want a better future for our selves, our children and theft children. The time to act Is now, for tomorrow may be too late. We Need To Keep PAL Last Saturday afternoon about 50 youth, 9 to 12 years of age, gathered around their youngest member, 2-year old Julius Antoine In front of the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Gov ernmental Center to demonstrate their sup port of the Police Athletic League (PAL) sports program. The message they were attempting to communicate to the City Council was to that It continues to support PAL. For nearly a half hour the boys chanted "Keep pAL Alive," as they marched In front of the new City Hall. PAL. which began In Charlotte in 1977 to provide recreational and sports activities particularly for Inner city youth from low in come families. Is now facing the possible loss of Its approximately $150,000 annual city funded budget. City Manger Wendell White has proposed eliminating the PAL program because It costs about $100 more per child than Park and Recreation programs per child. In support of theft cause, the PAL youth carried placards that read: "Don't Bal ance The Budget on the Backs of Children " and "Save PAL and Save the Children." Since It was a Saturday and all offices were closed, none of the Council members nor city staff witnessed the children's demonstration at 1:30 p.m. Any prudent adult can sympathize with the plight that City Manager White has in provid ing a budget within the existing tax rate However, cutting the PAL budget is totally in consistent with the comments in the above editorial and with the intent of the city to continue building bridges of cooperation and understanding. According to data provided by one of the PAL staff members, the program serves 10 football teams, 43 basketball teams and 12 Little League Baseball teams, about 75 youth participate In the boxing program and 100 girls serve as cheerleaders — for an average participation of nearly 1700 youth each year. When the program began In 1977 about 30 police officers served as volunteers along with about 100 civilian volunteers. However, with the cost of living constantly rising, po lice officers with families to support were faced with the choice of either serving as a PAL volunteer or performing private duty service at the rate of $12 per hour to help with home expense. Understandably, most select the pay-for-service activity. It appears too that the City Manager be lieves with fewer officers Involved in the pro gram, the initial reason for creating the pro gram, that Is, for officers to serve as positive role models, has been fulfilled or is no longer needed. The question might be asked. Is It better to have fewer police officers and maintain the high Interest of youth or should we scrap the program for a relatively few dollars? We need to be ever-mlndful of the sensitivity of youth from low Income families who too often have low self esteem because they don't have the opportunities children from more affluent families have. Thus, the loss of the PAL pro gram by these youth will be just another of their disappointments and makes them a little more vulnerable to the grips of the drug and crime lords that frequent their commu nities. Tragically, the cost of recapturing or reha bilitating a youth who Is lost to drugs or the world of crime Is staggering. We can only hope and pray that the City Council will see the value of the PAL program not only in monetary terms but also in terms of the qual ity of life that we so often talk about but do little to support. The newspaper business Is an exciting and Interesting busi ness. Unfortunately, we don't spend enough time explaining certain aspects of how the busi ness works to the public. This Is unfortunate because some of the process utilized in producing the paper has a direct impact on your news getting published. So, to partially correct this Inade quacy, I am going to talk a little about the business of newspaper publishing. Newspapers receive the bulk of Its revenue from advertising. The space utilized by ads basi cally pays for producing the news. Advertisers place ads In publications based on who Is reading the publication and how many people are reading It. Con sequently, the price publica tions charge for ad space is a fac tor of how many newspapers will be distributed. Hence, circulation In my opin ion Is the lifeblood of any publi cation. Circulation of course means you, the reader. In order to attract and maintain an audi ence, It Is necessary that the publication's content provides the type of Information that Is desired by the audience. At The Charlotte Post we use what Is known as the 60-40 rule of publication. Basically, this says that 60 percent of our news paper each week should be ad vertising. This percentage will cover the cost of producing the paper. This also says that the amount of ads sold dictates the size of the paper. If we seU 14 pages of ads, then we can pro duce (theoretically) a 22 page pa per. In reality we would have to produce a 24 page paper because the pages come In sets of fours. Sixty p>ercent of a 24 page papier As I See It Is roughfy 14 advertising pages. The ads are scattered throughout the papier, but this Is how It Is done. The 60-40 rule Is a newspaper standard. To be classified as a newspapier, you cannot run more than 60 percent ads. If you do, your publication Is classified as an advertising publication and not a newspaper. If you run much less than 60 piercent, your cost of production will soon put you out of business. There is a catch-22 in all of this for us. As the newspaper continues to gain in popularity and more and more jieople want theft news In the paper, we find ourselves prioritizing what Is going In each week. The editori al department guarantees all newsworthy Information will get In the papier. However, they can't guarantee when. The size of the newspapier Isn't determined until late Tuesday evening. Articles to go In the pa pier have been accumulating for a week. It becomes the difficult task of the editors to prioritize the articles to go Into the size pa pier we will run. They only have a few hours to complete this task. We want all of you to continue to flood our office with your ar ticles. Moreover, we want you to continue to bug potential and current advertisers about using the Post as an advertising vehi cle. But, I do want all of you to understand the process that the staff goes through each week to bring you the news. It Is Important to remember, also, that we have a small staff. It Is Impossible for us to cover all the events and activities go ing on In the community. How ever, if you know of a newswor thy event that you would like to see In the paper, just do this: Write a press release stating the essentisd information about the event. Make sure the release reaches the office of The Char lotte Post at least a week before the event. Earlier if piossible. In clude a contact person's tele phone number on the release. It's best If you follow up your release with a telephone call to the person who will likely handle your news. The editor of The Post Is Jalyne Strong. Sec tion editors are: Lora Vander- hall. Lifestyles and Herb White, Sports. Milllcent Link handles news for the Alliance. Because we have a small staff it still may be impiosslble to have a repxirter cover a certain event. In that case, make arrangements to have pictures taken at the event. It's best to hire a photographer. Once you have your pictures and press release, mall both or bring both by the office. We will take care of the rest. On behalf of The Charlotte Post staff. It Is a sincere pleasure serving you, our public. Thanks for your continued suppiort. Democracy Gaining In China And Soviet Union - What About The U.S.? All over China, people have gone to the streets to demand democracy. In the Soviet Union, contested elections have gener ated unbelievable excitement. As people In the communist countries push towards an ex pansion of democracy, you have to ask this question: ■What about us? Is democracy expanding In the United States? The answer Is a clear "no" If you look at recent elections to the United States House of Rep resentatives. There are 435 seats in the House. Guess how many seats have changed from one party to the other since the 1980 elec tion. Only 50 seats, according to the Congressional Quarterly Week ly. That Is an average of less than 15 seats In each election. Democracy In action? But there Is more. Guess what percentage of Incumbent Con gressmen won reelection last year. Would you believe 98 per cent? It sounds Uke election results from the old days In Russia. But It Is here In the United States. Last year, almost every Con gressman who chose to run for reelection won—unless he was Involved In some kind of scan dal. The message? Once a Con gressman Is elected, he stays there are long as he wants. Democracy? I don't think so. "But," you say, "we could kick them out If we wanted to. We have a democracy, but we just don't choose to use It to kick out members of Congress." Maybe you are light. But I don't think so.. Answer these ques tions. Do we like what Congress Is doing? With the deficit? With defense policy? With ethical matters? We don't, do we? Then why D.G. Martin One-On-One don't we change our Congress? The answer Is, we can't. As a practical matter, we are stuck with Congress and all Con gressmen as long as they want to serve. That Is no democ racy. Why? What has happiened? PACs and postage. They are two of the biggest reasons for the loss of democracy in House elections. PACs. You know the story. If you give to a business or Inter est group PAC, you know why you give. You want your group's lobb)dst to use that money to get across to Congressmen--- access and influence. That Is why PACs give mostly to Incum bents. PACs give a lot, but little of It goes to people running against Incumbents. Why? Challengers don't vote. So PACs don't waste theft money. If a challenger should win, PACs can give him money after the election. In short. Incumbents have money. Most challengers don't. People who have money to spend generally win elections. Postage Is the other reason. Congressmen get free postage and they send a lot of mall.. Six mass mailings can be sent to eveiy home In their district each year. Plus, they can send an un limited amount of free Individu ally addresses first class mall. My Congressman buys lists of veterans, farmers, educators, and all kinds of other groups. Thanks to the computer, he malls thousands of special let ters to Jieople like you and me. All of that Is a taxpayer ex- pense---and almost all of It Is thinly disguised campaign mail. A challenger has to spend hun dreds of thousands of dollars to send out the same amount of mall. And the challenger Is the one without the money---thanks to the PACs! With the advantage that PACs and free postage give to Con gressmen, challengers seldom win. In fact, it won't be often that you can get a challenger to try. What can we do to get our de mocracy back? Do we have to go to the streets like the Chinese? Or wait for a Gorbachev like the Russians? I don't think so. Here are a few Ideas that would help open the process up. First, limit the role of PACs In House elections. If it means some public funding of Congres sional elections to get democra cy back, it wUl be a bargain. Second, take away free post age for Congressmen. Put them on a budget and limit theft use of the malls to what It takes to do the job. Third, limit the time a Con gressman can serve without a break. A President can serve only two four-year terms. Why not apply the same eight-year limit to the House? Don't you like those Ideas? If you have better ones, share them with me In care of this pa per or at Box 2688, Chapel Hill, NC 27515. But we have to do something. Otherwise we may have to learn—like the Chinese and the Russians—-that democ racy Is not easy to get back. It's Not Enough To Have A High Intelligence Quotient In America Today Intelligence QuoUents (IQ) are both a blessing and a curse for many people. They legitimate elitism amongst the supposedly gifted and become a stigma for the so-called average. There have been controversial attempts to exploit even race to explain differences In Intelli gence between groups of jieople. For example, black Americans were garroted by a Nobel Lau reate's skullduggery when he at tempted to authenticate Blacks' Inferior Intelligence. This sort of race bashing Is exacerbated each year when the national ac ademic achievement test scores show that black children score significantly lower than white children. Thus, It Is easy to equate suc cess with high academic achievement. We show great reverence for a person who makes straight A's. These ge niuses are often considered the most likely to succeed. Let me highlight some stories which suggest that high aca demic achievement is not a suf ficient condition for success. I define success as having ac complished one's personal goals and objectives. I am acquainted with a doctor, a graduate of an Ivy League Med ical School, who fell In love with a young lady. He was brought up In a cloistered environment where his life centered on high academic achievement. This doctor fell victim to naivete'. When he purchased a new home to Impress the young lady, she took little note of this costly gesture. This young lady emotionally crushed the naive doctor by chasing after a playboy. She later became pregnant by this playboy. The doctor Is still un- Miller Says By Sherman Miller able to comprehend that the playboy's offering of strength and excitement were more im portant than his high IQ and worldly goods. A Spanish lady told a tale about her husband's mother be ing taken to a dress shop to pur chase some dresses. The fa- ther-in-law purportedly dictated to this woman what dresses she could buy. Now, the son, a medical doctor, wants to adopt his father's chauvinistic style. This Spanish lady claims she Is a liberated woman who produces world- class musical events. She says she has left her husband several times because he still cannot accept her equality. Finally, I was trapped at the Chicago airport on a Friday night because of an ice storm. "While standing in line at the Air port Hilton Hotel, I chatted with a Pennsylvania businessman. He only wanted to get home to take his dog to the veterinarian. He spoke of a wife, but he placed her second in priority to the dog. I commented, 'You are one of those guys who kiss the dog and says goodbye to the wife." He retorted that he had been married 12 tough years. The underlying commonality amongst each of the above sto ries is that each person can be accused of emotional torpidity. They were all highly successful In their academic pursuits but losers in the emotional arena. When Johnny Carson Jokes about his inability to keep a wife, he gives credence to the idea that material and emotion al achievement are separate and distinct gifts. Let us propose that there are at least two IQs. We will call these Academic and Emotional IQ. Further, we shall break peo ple into four groups. Group A has both high academic and emotional IQ. Group B has a high academic and a low emo tional IQ. Group C has a high emotional and a low academic IQ. Finally, Group D has both low emotional and academic IQ. What all this amounts to is America's success depends on people with emotional not scholars but who are masters at utilizing other people to accom plish tasks. These emotionally gifted people recognize the Im portance of establishing an emotional link with the other Jieople if they are to lead them. When the 1989 achievement scores for America's youth are announced this year, I only ask that you look beyond the Im plied jierformance gap between blacks and whites. Consider the possibility that high emotional IQ is a requirement for surviving In America's death laden ghet- toes. Perhaps the framers of these national tests will someday start to measure Emotional I.Q. , as well. Win emotional genius, ' when Juxtaposed to academic genius, eventually be recognized as equally Important to success in life?
The Charlotte Post (Charlotte, N.C.)
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May 25, 1989, edition 1
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