Newspapers / The Charlotte Post (Charlotte, … / Oct. 30, 1997, edition 1 / Page 4
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4A EDITORIALS/ The Charlotte Post Thursday, October 30, 1997 ®I)e CJjarlotte The Voice of the Black Community A subsidiary of Consolidated Media Group 1531 Camden Road Charlotte, N.C. 28203 Gerald O. Johnson CEO/PUBLISHER Robert Johnson CO-PUBLISHER/ GENERAL MANAGER Herbert L. White EDITOR IN CHIEF A chance to be heard: Vote Nov. 4 Charlotte-Mecklenburg voters have opportunity to make eommunity-altering decisions Leake Cannon Dunlap McCrory Rousso Reid Greene Majeed Charlotte-Mecklenburg Board of Education: District 1 - Jim Puckett District 2 - Vilma Leake District 3 — George Dunlap District 4 - Louise Woods District 5 - Molly Griffin District 6 - Malcolm Griggs County-wide bonds School bonds - Yes Jail bonds - No Community College bonds (CPCC) - Yes City of Charlotte Mayor Pat McCrory City Council At Large A1 Rousso Joe White Don Reid Lynn Wheeler City Council Districts District 1 - Todd Capitano District 2 - Malachi Greene District 3 - Patrick Cannon District 4 - Nasif Majeed District 5 - Tim Sellers District 6 - Charles Baker District 7 — Mike Jackson Spirituality is a force for good I William Raspberry “We cannot allow spirituality to he the exclusive preserve of the politically conservative,” Jeffrey Klein cautions in a lead editorial that is almost as striking for where it appears as for what it says. Klein is president and editor in chief of Mother Jones, and my first thought, on seeing his piece in the November/December edition was: What is an investigative magazine (and a liberal one to boot) doing devoting nearly an entire issue to religion? In truth, much of the content of the issue is a lot nearer the usual Mother Jones treatment: articles on sexually unfaithful priests, phony faith healing and religion as a virus, for instance. But it is Klein’s lead essay that grabs. “For too long,” he says, “pro gressives and the establish ment have ceded public discus sion about morality to the reli gious right. That’s a major rea son Mother Jones has dared to step foot on this sacred ground. Still, we do this not just to counter the religious right.Spirituality, if approached with integrity and intelligence, is an effective force for the public good. Brave mainstream people of faith have made common cause with reformers at key moments in America’s past - from aboli tionism to the Progressive era, from the New Deal to the civil- rights movement.” It is strange and marvelous stuff to hear from a liberal muckraker (the magazine is named for Mary Harris “Mother” Jones, 1830-1930, described in the masthead as “orator, union organizer and hell-raiser”). Maybe it strikes me as mar velous only because it express es so much of what I’ve been trying to articulate. Klein even echoes my political fear that liberals and progressives, already having yielded patrio tism and morality, are in dan ger of ceding yet another signif icant piece of ground - spiritu ality - to the right. I find almost painful, for example, the dismissive treatment by so many liberals of the Promise Keepers - on grounds hardly more substantial than that Pat Robertson finds the movement attractive. Let the effort to address the spiritual hunger that I believe much of America is feeling become exclusive turf of the religious right, I keep warning my friends, and your fear of a Christian Right takeover could become a self-fulfilling prophe cy. “But,” says Klein, “I’m much less worried about a theocratic takeover than about the lopsid edness of the American spirit. After all, the realm of the soul - real or imagined - is where most of us make our most important moral decisions.” The great difficulty is in find ing a proper place in public life for this “realm of the soul.” Assuredly I do not want theolo gians — Bible-thumping or not - running the government. Nor do I want to see the govern ment treat citizens as though they are merely physical beings. Maybe all one can hope for is some acknowledgment, in policies and in attitudes, that what people believe is impor tant. Isn’t it of some account that 96 percent of us profess a belief in some universal spirit that transcends our physicali- ty? Klein believes it is. “Balanced spirituality can provide vision in times of crisis by placating the ego and pulling for both strength and humility... As we enter the 21st century, it becomes harder not to recog nize the commonality of the human condition. Our societies are fragmenting as we contin ue to hyper-focus on personal consumption. Lip service has replaced real service. How . much longer can we afford toi ignore the mutual responsibiU-t ties we bear for the health of our symbiotic web?” 4 Nothing in what he has writ-' ten offers a clue as to how “reli gious” Klein is - nor should it. That would only invite argu ments about the specifics of his religion, when his point is the - importance of recognizing the near-universal belief in our common spirituality and of honoring the validity of one another’s search for truth. Klein believes that, whatever - our doctrinal particulars, our desire to connect with some - transcendent power or idea - with something bigger than ' ourselves - is deeper even than our drive for economic satisfac-- tion. I believe it too - and I i believe, moreover, that it is our -• societal failure to address that- longing that tempts us into the - nonspiritual excesses that- threaten to bring us ruin. I just 1 didn’t expect to find it inJ Mother Jones. ' c WILLIAM RASPBERRY is a Washington Post columnist. ' ’’ Next week’s elections will be crucial for the future of Charlotte-Mecklenburg. Voters will decided who will lead Charlotte city council and Charlotte- Mecklenburg School Board, as well as decide on bond referen- dums for schools and jails. After studying the position of candidates for each governing body as well as the pros and cons of both bond packages, the fol lowing are The Post’s endorsements for election day. Regardless of how you cast your vote, we encourage every person eligible to do so. After all, it’s our future. •rio r'ji -io >'i: 4)/}ie/0/^ecFi4ifp|?rA/c£' ^!^UT|CA4-V WTtO .'(■2 Medicine goes beyond our reach By Gregory A. Antoine M.D. NATIONAL NEWSPAPER PUBUSHERS ASSOCIATION WASHINGTON - The late Betty Shabazz, the widow of Malcolm X, prolonged her fight to survive burns over 75 per cent of her body earlier this year because of the availability of artificial skin. Former star athlete Bo Jackson is not a cripple thanks to hip joint replacements. And tens of thousands- of other African Americans are today leading healthy, produc tive lives because of silicone- based medical innovations such as heart pacemakers, brain shunts and corneal implants. The availability of medical implants that save and prolong life is nothing short of miracu lous. But these miracles may soon be available only to those people with the time and Life-saving breakthroughs may be found only outside U.S. because of lawsuits money to travel to other coun tries to get them. Medical breakthroughs and the materi als to make them are disap pearing in the United States. Why? Because product lia bility lawsuits and the escalat ing cost of insurance are mak ing it too expensive for compa nies to continue to make them. And if the current legal climate continues, everything from birth control pills and heart pace makers to certain child hood immunizations could be affected. Many suppliers of raw materials for these products are worried about the fast growing number of lawsuits being filed against manufac turers of medical devices. And their fears are causing them to conduct their business differ ently. Some companies are severe ly restricting the sale of raw materials to medical device manufacturers. Other compa nies are not willing to provide these materials to manufactur ers at all. And who can blame them? Look at what happened to the Dow Corning Corporation. Several years ago, thousands of lawsuits charged that Dow’s silicone breast implants caused connective tissue disease. Defending against so many lawsuits forced the company into bankruptcy. The whole affair has sent chills through companies whose products such as the lens implants that fight the blinding effects of glaucoma are also made of silicone. ; Healthcare in many poor,, and minority neighborhoods , has historically been limited. I Dollars are often limited for. anything but emergency care; the choice of doctors is limited - and opportunities to form a' lasting doctor-patient relation- ' ship is often limited as well. ' Now there may be limits on devices that address acute health problems in the African ‘ American community such as ’ glaucoma, diabetes, breast and ‘ prostate cancer, and hyperten-', sion. And the result could fur ther widen the gap between those who can afford the best,, medical services and those who,, can’t. GREGORY A. ANTOINE, , M.D., is an adult and pediatric ■ surgeon in Washington, D.C.„ who specializes in plastic and.', reconstructive surgery. ^
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