Newspapers / Winston-Salem Chronicle (Winston-Salem, N.C.) / Jan. 10, 1981, edition 1 / Page 4
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\ I 7 ~" Page 4- Vhc C hroniclc, Saiuidas, January 10, 1981 viewpc u . ^ . r .. 1 r ikm Ht Pui M?mb*r North C arollna . . Blmik Publisher* Association EdiiOf/ / ubtisht i NCPA _Roberl.1L!lcr L Sports Editor N.C. Press Association \ Guest Editorial by Josep> ? ?The Deat The recent action of the Supreme Court of the State of Alabama affirming the death penalty is disappointing and disconcerting. We condemn capital punishment. It is cruel and inhuman by nature; irreversible in implementing; and discriminates against the poor and non-white in administration. The legalized sanction of the killing of a human being as a means of resolving social problems sets an example of violence that has deadly reverberations throughout our inmprilf?H fiv ili7Qtinn Tho ciiriiinnl r-*r #U? - - ? vkmiluiivm, i iv suMivfli me wui iu is surety threatened by violence, and unless we put an end to \ iolence, s iolence will put an end to us. The death penalty denies the saeredness of human life, while offering no proven deterrence to crime. We find especially disappointing, the opinion of Justice Adams that we must no longer fear racial discrimination in the imposition of the death penalty. We strongly refute such an assertion. While we find it somewhat painful to repudiate the opinion of one we love and respect and who has attained a high office he deserves, nevertheless, our responsibility to conscience, and ojur calling as advocates of the poor and as lovers of justice demand that we cry out against that which denies the moral imperatives of our faith and ignores the lessons of history. The indisputable fact is that in Alabama the decision to seek the death penalty in criminal cases is still (as always) an all-w hite decision. The district attorneys who make the decision, in all 38 judicial circuits in Alabama are white! The indisputable fact is that while Blacks comprise approximately 25 percent of the population, 60 percent ofi the inmates on death row are black. The indisputable fact ~W} rl" . J ? Peace Elusive Despite the Election last April of Robert Mugabe to Prime Minister, ending 7 years of bloody warfare that took 30,OCX) lives, peace has not come to Zimbabwe. As of November, more than 55 civilians had been killed and about 3,000 injured in internicine fighting between guerrilla factions in the ruling Zimbabwe African National Union - Patriotic Front (ZANU-PF) coalition. There are about 35,000 restless guerrillas congregated in post-war bush camps anxiously awaiting compensation in drunken marauding on neighboring white farms. Also discontent is prevalent among the native popula tion, many of whom have begun squatting on private white farmland because they are angry that government land reform is too slow. The Commercial Farmers Union, which represents white farmers, said that 60 percent of their land holdings have been hit. AROUND THE WORLD /77Wrvj^^HKv by 111 I I iJiri t | uiwrvnco munammaa Whites have been leaving Zimbabwe at a rate of 18,000 per year and are getting even more edgy. The former white commander of the Rhodesian army, who had remained after liberation at Mugabe's request and was one of the Prime Minister's most important allies, quit last Fall in frustration over continued guerrilla feuds. And many professional whites, who provide management and technical expertise for the country's diversified industry, applaud Mugabe's easy transition from guerrilla leader to statesman, but are given pause when his democratic pledges are postscripted with qualifiers like "at least for now" and "for the time being," which may signal that vengeance will come in the future. Exacerbating these fears was the recent acquittal of a militant black government official who was accused of murdering a white farmer. Prime Minister Mugabe, who has pledged compensation for all white land redistributed and adherence to multi-racial, democratic government, is walking a tightrope. After 90 years of Africaneer rule, beginning when Cecil Rhodes established camp in Salisbury in September 1890, the bulk of the country's wealth is in white hands. So wtxile the government is 80 percent black controlled, the <bcial structure of colonialism remains unchanged. Whites are still atop the social pyramid, most government functionaries arc holdovers from the Ian Smith regime, and whites control most of the arable land and produce the bulk of agricultural goods. But Mugabe has pushed for black advancement, appointed blacks to the judiciary and in high civil service positions, put a freeze on white promotions, and set one of the highest minimum wages on the continent. Using I tints ifl/CJii H )unded 1974 . Member |1 Donna L. Oldham A J i A. 1* fclaine L. Pitt auou oureau Office Manager of Circulations I > 11 s- iilli Hi ii mi i?itiiiiifSHII >h E.Lowery h Penalty K ! hnl Ihn ni??viriiim i?i n-i,.U u..~ i ? ...... .... . nuiM^ v' i w i mi cu>c iv.i Uf 11 1 L'U 1111UCI the death penalty structure in Alabama, will be white! Every circuit judge who tries eriminal^ases in Alabama is white! (And always has been). There is only one circuit judge in Alabama who is Black and he tries only eases related to domestic affairs. In virtually every ease in Alabama involving a Black defendant (and a white alleged victim), the district attorney "strikes" the available Blacks from jury service. When Tommie Lee Hirics was tried recently in Birmingham (where Mr. Adams was Hines' attorney), the district attorney used every jingle challenge afforded him by law to "strike** Blacks from the jury. As a result, only one Black juror served on the case in spite of the fact that one of three residents in the community is Black. The total lack of Black "district attorneys and criminal court judges, and the pattern of racial discrimination in this stale soundly refute any claim that justice is now color blind* in Alabama. We applaud the appointment of ML. Adams to the Supreme Court of Alabama as a step in the right direction, but stand in stout denial that this one step in the right direction wipes out all the inequities of history or closes the gap existing between justice and injustice for Black and poor people in this state. Ttre~ criminal justice system in Alabama remains repressive for Black and poor people! We support the Black elected officials in the state who have consistently opposed the death penalty. Capital punishment is still for people who have no capital. The affirmationiof the death penalty is a step backward in man's journey toward human-ness and justice! *? n. 'mi. i j, .?'^1. i :?. ' i l 1 '? j? j* vv, .v ?, j,,.. if! 7imhnbi'\A}/o ft * ml-J + M f nyucy KKC some $13 million in government funds, 320,000 acres of land previously owned by whites has been redistributed. But more compensation for his restless soldiers and war-weary-civilians must come at the expense of the whites, who the Prime Minister does not want to disturb because they are vital to the commercial sector and produce 90 percent of the marketable farm products. Ian Smith's Rhodesia, while racist and repressive, bequeathed Mugabe a Zimbabwe with more black college graduates? more black grade school pupils, more paved "roads, cars, televisions and western creature comforts than any other black-ruled African country. It has the continent's most balanced economy, and it earned more than $8 billion annually in foreign trade even under trade sanctions imposed during the war vears. It nrnHnrp^ 7 s million tons of food each year, which makes the country See page 5 ~ Dear Editor: Among those participants included: Aldcr, This is just a note to ex- man Larry Little, Ms. Dotpress my appreciation to tie Butler, Herman Duane and Rachel Jackson, Aldridge, Angela Ingram, Khalid Eattah, and the Linwood Oglesby, other organizers of the (1st) Rashidah Iddeen, Nelson first Winston-Salem Molloy, John Stepney, community-wide Kwanza Lynn Harper Epps, Tracy Celebration. Singletary, Marty Penn, The festivities were held Veronica Templeton, and on Friday, December 26th Mazie Woodruff, and Wednesday, December Providing the cultural 31st (the first and sixth days entertainment were the fanof Kwanza) at the East tastic "Healing Force," the Winston Library. Both talented Otesha Troupe, nights, overflow crowds Howard Mungo, Bill jammed the library to get a Jackson, riiftnn fuller understanding of the and Larry Leon Hamlin. African cultured celebra- The spirit of unity that tion. The seven principles was present at these of Umoja (Unity), Ku- festivities speaks well for jichagulia (Self- the ,organizers, as well as determination), Ujima those community folk who (Collective work and came out in support of this responsibility), Ujaama program. Those of you who (Cooperative * economics), missed the local Kwanza Kuumba (Creativity), Nia certainly were deprived of a (Purpose), and Imani culturally rewarding ex(Faith), were elaborated on pericnce. very effectively by guest Again, Asante (Thankparticipants - each you), to the Kwanza Planndelineating how these prin- ing Committee, ciples can be applied to our struggles here in WinstonSalem. Clifton E. Graves, Jr. * g. rtrvinnTTiiiiiiBi^wM , t\>\*m\WW11 IMU.U IW1 .1, .,? ? i.I i Washington?We finally licked my weight problem. For a year, I've been assaulting my bathroom scale t< the tune of 175 pounds?a blubbers 15 pounds more that the charts say I should weigh for my height and build. I am now pleased to report that 1 am some 25 pound underweight. Moreover, it required no jogging, no star vation, no diet boks or liquid protein. All it took was Dr J^eubin Andres, that brilliant Johns Hopkins professor. 1 still weigh 175 pounds, mind you. Andres' brillianci rests in his discovery that the charts are wrong. Hear this genius: "The results (of his review of 40 studies, covering si? million people around the world) all point in the sarm direction: The desirable weight if you want to live longei has been underestimated. The current charts on doctors walls, and our own ideas of desirable weight fixed by 2 sense of esthetics, are pot desirable if you want to liv< longer." Particularly encouraging is his finding that the highesi longevity for one group of middle-aged workers (employees at a Chicago utility company) was for mer who were 25 to 32 percent over their "desirable" weight What that means is that instead of the 160 pounds the charts mandate, my best weight is actually between 20C and 211 pounds. The 175 pounds that once had me 1 i pounds overweight now leaves me practically svelte, Brilliant man, that Andres. Actually, Andres isn't the first person to discover thai the power to define is the power to cure. Several years ago, the American Psychiatric Association cured the problem of homosexuality--not by changing anyone's sexual behavior but by deciding that homosexuality is not really a problem. More recently, there is phenomenon called "the new chastity." Adherents, including a fair number of newlyweds, simply decide to abstain from sex. What January 20 marks the day America changes Ad ministrations; the White House gets a new occupant an< the nation new leadership. It is also an appropriate timi to assess President Carter's four years of leadership. That leadership was judged and found wanting by thi electorate last November, but 1 have a feeling that histor will judge the Carter Administration more favorably thai did its contemporaries. Burdened by the pressing problems of the day, peopl tend to blame the Administration in power. Separate* from those day-to-day problems by the distance lent b; time, we tend to see the broad outlines of policies better By and large, the Carter Administration accomplishec V \ ^N. * > ^ ? r . II ng Touchy Subjects? | these pioneers have created, thoueh thev sppm nm tn :> aware of it, is a cure for sexual dysfunction. If sexual i dysfunction is defined as the inability to perform normal. ly, then it can be cured by the simple device of changing s the definition of normal. If chastity becomes normal, there is no such thing as sexual dysfunction. Any careful newspaper reader can think of other examples: school districts that cure the problem of nonlear? ning not by improved teaching but by setting lower standards; social statisticians who cure poverty not by improving income but by reassessing the assets of the imi pove r is h ed_. ? Marijuana use-is no longer a social problem but a norr mal, if illegal, activity of the young. What used to be marital infidelity-a problem-,-is now "open marriage"--a i new "lifestyle/* t I remember seeing (in the New York Times, I believe) a feature on "natural gardeps.'' The idea was to declare a [ truce with bindwee^,/hjstlqwchickweed and plantain: to s stop calling them weeds,, wftjcb is a declaration of war, i and make peace wijh then),3s,part of a "natural*' land SC3Pe- ... y> its" ; Your scraggly, ynkemp.t lawn is transformed, like magic, into nature's own garden, and you don't even ; have to cut the grass.4* > > i0f,v The prospects are en$jpsj^ Yoke robbers could be transmuted into \ncbme-transfer specialists, Joblessness t could be redefined as fulf-lime'leisure. Racial animosity ; v could become ethnotension. . i We've got a hostage crisis;? No, sir. We've got 52 peoI < pie on indefinite foreign ^ssigriment. ' ? The beauty of the apprbpdh is that ft doesn't cost J' anything, neither monev nor 'exertion. Problems simply - 7 evaporate, like dew m dhe Aiigust sun. * I , J | i 4 J. I J | / J | So pass the buffer,"sell tne lawnmower and let's light up a joint. And please not tonight, dear. ^ * ? ? A2 *W ^ * I much. It presided over f6iir>*ar$ of peace, itf itself an aci complishment in this trotrbhdd world. In the Middle East, e it helped Israel and bury their long enmity. However imperfectly Implemented, its human rights e policies saved counW&i lives and brought a measure of y morality to the international scene. i And the Carter team can be especially proud of its success in improving America's relations with the Third e World, and especially with the closer ties with mineral3 rich Black Africa. A major accomplishment was helping y to bring independence and majority rule to Zimbabwe. The domestic situation was plagued by inflation and i See Page 12
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Jan. 10, 1981, edition 1
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