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SAT,, MNUARY 31 197fi THE CARPI iiyA TIMES - 13
By Benjamin T. Forbes
This year, America will be celebrating
its 200th anniversary as an independent
country. Yet there are still many
Americans who feel certain ethnic
groups should not participate in the
festivities.
When talk of celebrating the nation's
bicentennial first began, there were some
Blacks who felt that America had
nothing to celebrate because of its racial
policies. The question still has not been
answered in a unified way.
Blacks are not the only ones
questioning this celebration. Recently
many of the Indian survivors of the
massacre that occurred at Wounded
Knee, South Dakota, expressed their
feelings about that incident. Most felt
that the federal government should have
done something to prevent the massive
onslaught of human lives.
America will celebrate its anniversary
regardless of how Blacks or the
American Indians protest the facts that
Blacks were inhumanly enslaved; the
Indians were cheated by the white man
when he bought Manhattan Island for a
scant $24 and were than put on
Democrats Conduct Affirmative Action
Delegate Selection Seminar
The Durham County
Democratic Party will
conduct an "Affirmative
ActionDelegate
Selection'' seminar on
Saturday, January 31,
from 1:00 to 3:30 p.m. in -the
Compass Room of the
Northwestern Bank,
comer of Parrish and
North Roxboro Streets.
The seminar, led by the
County's Affirmative
Action Chairman, Ben
Ruff in, and Paulette
Robinson, its Publicity
Director, will consist of
two workshops; these
workshops are centered
around two questions: (1)
' Why should traditionally
underrepresented persons
get involved in the
Democratic party?" and
(2) "How do I get involved
in the Democratic Party?'
Each workshop will
have a moderator and
several panelists who are
active in the County party.
Moderating the first
workshop will be,
Catherine Debnam, a
buyer for the IBM
Corporation; moderating
the second one will be Jeff
Alston, in mortgage
investments at N. C.
Mutual Life . Insurance
Company. Among the
panelists are Dr. Philip R.
Cousin, pastor of Saint
Joseph's AME Church, and
co-chairman of the
Durham Committee's
Political Subcommittee;
Pratt Edwards,
co-chairman of the
Durham Committee's
Political Subcommittee,
and active precinct
worker; John Niblock,
Chairman of the Durham
Voters' Alliance, and
Treasurer of the County
Democratic party; Carol
Schroeder, Chairperson of
the White Cross precinct;
and George Miller,
representive from Durham
County in the N. C. House
of Representatives.
Special attention in the
seminar will be directed to
senior citizens, blacks,
women, and other
traditionally
underrepresented persons;
representatives from these
"target groups" have been
invited to attend the
seminar. Also invited are
precinct officers and
elected officials from
throughout the county.
The goal of the seminar is
to ensure opportunity for
full participation by all
Democrats in the affairs of
the party, particularly in
the delegate selection
process for country,
county, district, state, and
national conventions.
The seminar is open to
the public.
Yes, We All Talk
by Marcus H. Boulware, Ph.D
GOOD TELEPHONE SPEECH
The telephone has become a necessity in the life of
most every citizen. It helps him manipulate the
environment.
Remember that in making telephone calls, as in
speaking over the radio, you are judged solely by
your voice and words. Your telephone voice is
stripped of facial expressions, smiles, gestures, and all
other visual mannerisms that offset abruptness and
rudeness of face-to-face conversation. Your voice and
words alone must convey the message and make the
desired impression.
The voice with a smile wins. You have often
noticed how a smile lights up a person's face; you
have also noticed how contagious that smile is. If it is
a sales clerk who smiles, you are more willing to buy.
So it is with your voice over the telephone. It is the
voice with a smile that makes a good impression and
brings the desired response.
Telephone conversations are often indistinct and
lact directness of statement. Much time is wasted by
irrelevant speaking and the misunderstanding of
words. Numbers and letters must be spoken very
distinctly.
READERS; for pamphlet on "Good Telephone
Speech", send two 13 cent stamps and a long
self-addressed business envelope to MH. Boulware,
430 Mercury Drive, Tallahassee, Florida - 32304.
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reservations in their own land.
While this nation has been preparing
for this great celebration, only the
glorious moments have been recalled and
spoken of. However, this country should
remember its dirty deeds as well as its
glorious ones. Too many things have
been left out of the history books for
too long.
America should celebrate its 200th
anniversary, but let the celebration
involve all of the people of this nation,
and let the truth be known.
REED LARSON
NO APOLOGIES,
SENATOR WEICKER
By Reed Larson
A few weeks ago, Sen. Lowell Weicker, the reluctant
Connecticut Republican, made a spectacle of himself in a U.S.
Senate floor speech by berating us for our efforts to focus public
opinion on widespread union violence in the construction
industry.
It seems that the series of newspaper ads we published across
the country opposing the controversial "common situs" picketing
bill were a bit too candid for the Senator's sensitive palate. So the
Senator, in typical fashion, thought he'd tell us so by staging an
oratorical spectacular on the Senate floor (with advance copies to
his friends in the AFL-CIO publicity department).
Among other things, the Senator accused us of "toilet" tactics,
suggesting also that we were engaging in the "politics of threats"
and "an exercise in ugliness." And all because w.e da.redjnention
in our ads the fact that building trades union officials frequently
rely on strong-arm tactics to convince workers who wouldn't
otherwise do so that it's in their best interests to join unions.
"The basic question involved is whether Congress is going to
force even more Americans into corrupt and violent unions in
order to earn a living," we wrote. Quoting a major Philadelphia
newspaper, we added, "A person's right to earn a living, whether
in a union or non-union job, is the most fundamental of civil
rights. It must not be surrendered to goons seeking to substitute
force for law."
Few other unions, we said, are as scandal-ridden,
mobster-tainted and violence prone as the building trades; the
"situs" picketing bill would give these same union bosses, we said,
the power to shut down an entire construction project "by
setting up a job site picket line that no construction worker,
truck driver or delivery man in his right mind would dare cross."
Senator Weicker accused us of being ugly - though the
genuinely ugly record of the building trades unions, which he
chose to ignore, will substantiate our every statement.
Sen. James Pearson (R-Kans.) was another who criticized our
ads. We believe he was also in error. "No informed person," we
told Senator Pearson, "can deny that the use of force and
violence is an instrument of union policy, especially in the
construction unions. The sorry spectacle of beatings, bombings,
shootings, arson, and other violence is too widespread to ignore.
Whether our attempt to call public attention to union terrorism
in connection with the common situs debate was productive or
counter-productive is a question of judgment which can never be
decisively resolved.
"Even if it is not politically expedient to do so, I believe we
have an obligation to do our best to remove the veil of secrecy
from this hidden disgrace. I think every citizen who understands
this problem should speak up, whatever the political
consequences. . . In any event, regardless of the fate of the
common situs bill, the problem of union violence remains a
serious national concern. We need your help, and that of every
other American who is concerned about the rights and freedoms
of our nation's working people."
Senator Weicker is right about ugliness. Union violence and
corruption, rampant in the building trades, is an ugly spectacle
that cannot be ignored. Federally-sanctioned compulsion is
responsible. And only by eliminating the coercion of workers by
union organizers can it be stopped.
Like it or not, Senator Weicker, that's the way it is. Ugly, very
ugly.
(Larson is executive vice president of the National Right to
Work Committee. His column appears in several hundred
newspapers.)
In Washington, the National Press Club's gala inaugural for
incoming president Bob Alden will feature Pearl Baily in a
show from 6 to 8 p.m. on Sunday, February 1.