Newspapers / The Carolina Times (Durham, … / Nov. 15, 1975, edition 1 / Page 2
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STK2 CAROLINA Tli&ES SATH NOVEMBER 16,875 . Law and Order ... ? PRESIDENT FORD, USING THE CODE WORDS A FDHCkU I BUSJNG'AND QUALITY EDUCATION CnmiEO THECOURT ORDER AT THE VERY MOMENT THE MOB WAS STIRRING. HIS JUSTICE DEPARTMENT HAS SO FAR BROUGHT NO CASE AGAINST ANYONE FOR OBSTRUCTNG THE LAW." ANTHONY LEWIS jf'.TS1-. H.Y.7IMES J fj&Zkj '' ' V r .- 7 i -1 v, 2 mm 1 1-' ' r MM p- BO5TON50OIRP ' if 10)Of0li urn' "T m tTrjuwswflftflHW Wasted Resources . V167J1JI costs TO BE EQUAL By VERNON E. JORDAN, JR. ! Executive Director ' National Urban League v The Presidential Clemency Board, created a year ago to help Vietnam war registers clear their records, is no longer in existence. . ' My experience as a member of that Board had a great influence on my thinking about how best to heal the scars left by the war in Vietnam. When I was appointed to the Board, I agreed with its basic mission to sift the records of war misters, deserters and ; others and recommend alternate civilian service to earn Presidential clemency. .w. : ' It didn't take too many weeks of service for me '. to see that there was; a, lot moire .to it. The conventional image of the spoiled rich kid who ran away to Canada to beat the draft just didn't hold true for most cases. . ; ; ? The great majority of cases before the Board involved young people, who were denied their rights as conscientious objectors, who deserted for compelling personal reasons unrecognized by their superior officers, or who simply should never have been drafted to begin with. The typical case involved someone who was poor, not rich; who was victimized by arbitrary and unfair rulings by his officer, or who could not articulate the views that got other, better educated young men, deferments. Most were individuals who were helplessly caught up in the snares of a giant bureaucracy, and, rightly or wrongly, chose to escape their situation in ways that the law defined as illegal Not a few cases involved men who had served at the front and only after returning to to the U. S. or Europe, deserted for personal reasons. And we only got a fraction of the cases still on the books. Many men just didn't believe their resistance to an immoral .war was wrong, and refused to apply for clemency. Other resented having to do alternate service, feeling they'd already paid their dues by being forced underground for such a long time. So while the Board is no longer in existence, amnesty is still a hot issue; the long awaited national reconciliation won't take place until it Is dealt with. And hovering in the background of the Amnesty Still iAn Issue diacuaslon about clemency h the urJversal realization that the War was wrong. p " iff time to finally end the war by declaring ' complete, immediate, universal and uwionditlonalj amnesty. In my year on the Board I learned that the case-by-case treatment just wont work. Let'a wipe the slate clean and end the war (till being waged against the draft resistors and offenders. , While most of the public attention' has been focused on 50,000 or o war resisters, total amnesty should include the more than 200,000 -n Vietnam-era veterans who hold less than honorable discharges, which amount to lifetime penalties keeping them from government and many private sector jobs, and from rights and benefits enjoyed by other veterans. Bad discharges carry penalties absurdly inappropriate to the real or imagined offenses, often minor, that have sometimes been imposed for racially-inspired reasons. They continue to dog the lives of men who did serve and who risked their lives only to be busted out of the service for a host of reasons that would earn no penalty at all in a civilian setting. The system is rigged against these men from the start. The discharge process is shot through with abuses of servicemen's rights and many bad discharges are given unfairly. These abuses are compounded when veterans try to appeal their bad discharges and again, when they try to apply for Verterans Administration benefits where the VA has authority to assess their discharge. In both the clemency cases and the less than honorable discharge cases, individuals have been caught up in a heartless system that penalizes them unfairly. The vast majority of both groups have paid dearly for not complying with the nations error of going into Vietnam, ot for running afoul of irrational military regulations and procedures. We should have a policy of total amnesty for both groups, and a reformed system of granting and rating discharges. While affluent Americans have previously seen minorities, especially blacks, new immigrants and the unskilled standing in lines for unemployment compensation, food stamps and even some medical care the present state of the economy has brought home to many of those who formerly castigated such lines of unfortunate individuals that each of us may now be vulnerable to such experiences. For now nearly one tenth of the best educated, most skilled workers in the world, engineers, office workers, construction workers, teachers, and many of our richest human Now is the time and in fact, it is past time, for the Administration to set up again the. second Bill of Rights for Americans at all levels. This means the right to a job in industries or shops, farms, mines of the nation, especially the right of every farmer to raise and sell his products at a return which will give him and his . family a decent living; right of every ; businessman to trade in an atmosphere of freedom without domination by monopolies or big business interests; the right of every family 1 to decent housing; the right to adequate J protection from the economic fears of old age? 'sickness, 'accidents and unemployment;d,the ,i;si; resources, the youth; : arestandwg mljnes and,. flghtto- a 'good education; job training facta most refer to them ?a& tihmSwtitZZ'Cl u -Lj.wAutl "a-. tinmi irnpitw fmm. violent icrime't" resources. . s . through proper and well needed gun controls4. It has always been most unfortunate and We must somehow restore the dream of oegraoing ior any person wno may nave lu bccK America that brought immigrants to these shores. We must also restore the belief that we can make the dream work, whereby all America in this great Bicentennial year will get his share of the pot. the bare levels of existence from public support and assistance, for after all most people do have pride. It has often been said that the most poverty stricken individuals the greatest amount of pride. Your Support Is Needed Now Supporters and friends of the NAACP are needed now more than ever as reports of its financial status is brought to public notice. Throughout its 66 year old history the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) has been the legal and Congressional watchdog in the struggle for freedom, equality, justice and civil rights, not only for Blacks and other minorities, but for all people. The problems of ouf National economy which have forced industries and municipalities to cut costs by lay offs and dismissals have affected many blacks and others who have supported the NAACP throughout the years. Donations and grants from philanthropic r t lo ii boJii' srli .C ;ia organizations have also been sharply curtailed through a general decline of the economyBand non-tax statues. ; We would hope that the many beneficiaries of thi continuing struggle for equality at all levels, education, jobs, and civil and social rights will now put forth even greater sacrifrcies and make sizable contributions to this greaand ever watchful organization. jjsr Eternal vigilance is still the price of liberty' in 1975 and the NAACP needs all the financial help that people can and will give. Making NAACP contributions a part ofJyour fund giving is a necessary duty if we would keep this great organization a continued and viable source of help for all people. " C, From No To No! Do you recall that from the day that ' President Nixon chose him to replace Spiro Agnew, Ford had spent a Congressional lifetime voting against progressive legislation - against the jobs bills, health bills, and education bills under three prior presidents? '' Further, . there i appears not a piece of legislation bearing his name during his thirty three (33) years in the Congress. So his continuing veto is just another instance of Ford saying NO to the Aperican people and to our country, . " "If then is no itruge there is no progress. Those who propose to favor freedom and yet! ' " l s v.'. - ' , ' t. JV dspneitta agitalion, are men who want crops without plowing up the ground. They vanf' ftin without thunder and lightning.They want the oceans' majestic waves without the awful fosv of its watafi.' Frederick Douglass "SS, JL. Mophs FCC Commissioner One of the more significant speeches made recently in respect tq the importance of the Black Press working in harmony with the black community was that of Carlton B. Goodlett's before a workshop media panel of the Congressional Black Caucus. Dr. Goodlett, who is publisher of the San Francisco Sun-Reporter and president of the National Newspaper Publishers Association (NNPA), a consortium of black newspapers, stressed the historic importance of the role played by the Black Press in keeping alive a sense of community among America's oppressed blacks. But Dr. Goodlett was not content to rest his case on history. His aim was far more aggressive and bold. He laid down a challenge to the Congressional Black Caucus and black political officials everywhere in the U. S., that it is, indeed, "time for black officials to pay their dues" to black people and their communications instrument, the Black Press. "If they fail to pay these dues, and the black community should band together and rid the community of those black officials who play the safe rules of the game by not rocking the boat and following orders of their white masters." Said he: "From this day, on, the NNPA is going to demand that its member papers start telling it like it is without fear or favor. The Black Press has been a light in the darkness for years and now that a few selected blacks are getting a little coverage in white papers and on radio and television, let's not get cocky and turn our backs on the Black Press." One of my constant' themes in talks to groups, young and old, male and female, is: "Don't forget from whence you." Indeed, I have taken a vow that I would not permit Potomac Fever (ambition for power and the good life of Washington, D. C.) to cloud my vision, mute my efforts for or stay Dues Owed Black Press iHMjjoui liiwiii) dial boHiisup my hand in the round-the-clock struggle for equality and justice for blacks and other minorities. In short, I will never forget from whence I came. Mrs. Coretta Scott King, widow of our beloved martyr, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., recently observed that there are some folks who seriously believe that a politican cannot be both moral and a politican. She says she does not subscribe to that view and points to Rep. Walter Fauntroy of Washington, D. C, and Rep. Andrew Young of Georgia as cases in point, and adds there are others. To say that both are ministers is to beg the question. For both are politicans as well and, as BiU Strickland a fellow of the Institute of the Black World said recently in Black World Magazine, "Blacks ... have a different legacy. We belong to the tradition of America's victims, a tradition which has given us a particular angle of vision largely at odds with America, a tradition which has led to the repudiation, ridicule, exile and assassination of our prophets by a society determined to deny the validity of their vision and the truth of our history.'1 He adds, however, that this "black vision has survived. It has sustained us throughout the years, anchoring us in a reality far different fantasies America has had about itself." And now the black vision is becoming the larger community's, he says. Accountability to our communities, constituents, our brothers and sisters ought to be the watchword of every single black elected or appointed official. And since the Black Press has been such a potent and cohesive force in our long and tortured history, our black officials and leaders should be especially accountable to It. We must never forget from whence we came. (NNPA). ffizp Yea &aH Kccu A M . Bishop, born insaccma GRADUATE Of DICKINSON COUU0 AND A g- 1834-1903 'is, TH60LOQICAL HISTORY ypgEWTHeXflQiCA . , SEMINARY, MADISON, N.J. lN H73M BCClUg THBRpfCapfNTlNiaeO ABISHOf i 1 1 .WWTWWMAWTeXTSyMlSOUTSTANOlNO ' , ISCMOLARSHIP WON 0REAT WttkADC FOU THlOOL- I .'I uoein and ouTor thechunch -Ht HURST WU0HTBWVUY FOR NEMO ftQHTS
The Carolina Times (Durham, N.C.)
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Nov. 15, 1975, edition 1
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