Newspapers / Winston-Salem Chronicle (Winston-Salem, N.C.) / Oct. 25, 1984, edition 1 / Page 4
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\ ' ? TfinU"? iii Pag? A4-The Chronicle, Thursday, October 25, 1984 Winston-Salem Chronicle bounded IV74 ERNCST H. Pin, NDUBISI EOEMONYE ALLEN JOHNSON ( " / i'nm/c t \n Htur t dthf ELAINE L. Pin ROBIN ADAMS MICHAEL Pin tHhi? Wu"u*?' \wsMuni tilt!'* * tr% uUitH*A m ? r* , *> 4 <* ' v. a" Let them eat cereal :52?r ? ?*? Marie Antoinette advised the hungry to eat cake. School board member Mary Margaret Lohr would have them pour milk and cereal. Mrs. Lohr prescribed that menu in response to recent questions concerning the availability of free school breakfasts in the city-county schools. When asked whether the schools should provide breakfasts, Mrs. Lohr recently told a local daily newspapei that, as a mother, she can't understand why some of the .children are going to school without eating breakfast. 4'Most can pour cereal and milk," the Winston-Salem Journal quotes Mrs. Lohr as saying. But can most buy cereal and milk? fi .Apparently not, according to figures indicating that the majority of the children who receive the breakfasts are from low-income backgrounds and either receive the meak free or for a reduced price. In fact, 30 percent of the students in Forsvth County are eligible for the program. What Mrs. Lohr and her fellow board members need tc realize is that, for whatever reason, children go hungry ir our community. She should also realize, despite the veil ol middle-class white biases that obviously cloud her thinking, that a child is not nearly as likely to concentrate on the rudiments of reading, writing and arithmetic when his 01 her stomach is empty. Yet,* Mrs. Lohr hardly is an evil or uncaring Grinch who stole breakfast. She simply doesn't know any better. "I think she's sincere but she's sincerely uninformed on that issue," says NAACP Vice President Walter Marshall. Meanwhile, some principals in the city-county school system, who ought to know better, continue to shun offering the breakfast program in their individual schools though federal funds are available to subsidize the meals - for all the wrong reasons. It's too time-consuming some say. It requires additiona staffing, others add. But, while those principals deal with "matters of conve lenience," says Bert Grisard, executive director of Big - S: ^Brothers/Big Sisters of Forsyth County, children still gc : Sr: -SThungry. J Though the four major housing projects in the city feed f ?S^~into 12 schools, only three schools - two of them high schools ? serve free breakfasts. ?. u*? V?>#. tt ' % ? ?: What we appear to have here is a problem of perception .: r?rr?Lacking racial and economic diversity as it does, the city : H.:??."C?unty school board needs to cross the Cherry-Marshall Ex f ?iripressway and witness where some of the students live. ; ?? .-il? We can argue until the cows come home about where the '^school's reponsibility begins and parent's responsibility spends. The reality is that children are hungry. rliIprosswinds - w * . um-w Iff Reagan as a loser IziS- From The Black Chronicle, Oklahoma City, Okla. ' ~ ~~~ President Ronald Reagan was the clear loser in the firs ^ ^of two presidential debates last Sunday night and, if thi ? ..-^1?*fTlOmPfttlim f*rrtm if ?U?11 ?^ ? * m * * ? ? 11 viii n suaii cuiuuiuc ior wauer Monaan H|||ithrough Nov. 6, America will be the clear winner. %33E America can only win on Nov. 6 if the Democratic con rr-blender, Mr, Mandate^ wins on-that-d^ The ^iebate-pro r vides some justifiable hope that, indeed, Mr. Reagan will b< : Sh retired at that time. - ??? : ^ne reasons why we have that hope (admittedly ' iH! *^ter heing nearly without hope to that effect before Sun % day night) is that the diametrically opposed futures offeree t>y the two candidates, assumably, would make the choice ??r: ?f that future offered by Mr. Mondale an easy one. Sr] The future which Mr. Reagan proposes is one when 'iHij Americans would choose to continue fooling themselves in i Sc? to believing that somehow things are better for mos ? iHJ -Americans than they were before 1980, the year Mr ? Sg Reagan assumed the presidency. r jiE? The ' 'voodoo economics" (Remember that phrase? Ii was made by Mr. Reagan's vice president, who was, at th< i time, a critic of oronosals heina maHp Kv ^ariHiHofo D ~ _ , ? ?? toMMw wj vuiiuiuuiv ixvagan which Mr. Reagan and his cohorts have offered the pasi ^7; four years have left the poor poorer, have provided th< culture for the bacteria-like regrowth of abject racism ir this country and has created a fiscal mess which can only b< . preferred to as a horrendous nightmare. - r: In order to bring about the temporary, cosmetic "improvement" in the economy, Mr. Reagan has followed policies which made the "growth" he frequently referred tc on Sunday a possibility only by making those who could least afford it to suffer. Mr. Mondale, thank God, was astute enough to make Please see page A14 a.-;?. ?* " REAj&MS/ UNFAIR?/ N Or NON&GNS ./ BUT UNDER REA6AK A LOT M0R6 POOC ? < r^_ I Criticize h ft t \ By MANNING MARABLE j Special to the Chronicle ft The failure of the Rainbow Coalition?to?extract?a ivy ) significant reforms at the Democratic National Conven_ tion this summer has created a strong degree of hostility > towards the Mondale-Ferraro J ticket among Afro-Americans. Minister Louis Farrakhan has not urged an election y boycott this November, but has stated, "We see nothing in Reagan or Mondale to vote 1 for." Members of the Black United Front in Washington, D.C., recently circulated a [ pamphlet attacking Jesse's "sell-out of the Democrats" and call for "a clean departure from the political manipulations and false pretenses of the . American electoral system." Still other black activists are saying that we've "survived" four years of Reagan and 5 another four more years won't > be all that bad. Other than Tony Brown, I Thomas Sowell and a few black Reaganites, the vast ma1 jority of Afro-Americans this November will either vote for the Democrats or will stay home. Some ate so disgruntled with Mondale, however, that they may vote for senate, house and local races, but skip the presidential choices. ' What decision must we I Do song I, By MARIAN EDELMAN Syndicated Columnist A group of young school children was asked recently t who they would choose for 5 president if they could vote. ? The candidates, listed by last name only, were Mondale, Jackson and Reagan. 5 thought they wre choosing . superstar singer Michael Jackson, not the Rev. jesse 'Jackson. " This brought home once * again just how much our 5 children idolize musical artists. At the same time, 1 ; became worried when 1 thouaht about what th^v aw ? learning from some of the lyrics of many popular singers. If you turn on your radio and really listen to the words t of some of their favorite ? tunes, you may be shocked. | Let me give you a few ex. amples. Prince is among the most popular singers and musicians 1 i bill, wtyo's essponsibi* foe THIS l ~ ? NUtt ASVNCrt INFV-AHOM IS AAAtftS (toot ll^Jjij I THECE ACE EXACTLY" A PEOPLE BETTEC OH im, but vot make in 1984? Surely, there are thousands of reasons nor to vote for Mondale. His commitment to raise military spen ding alr?n<? will rnntinne tn drain fiscal resources from urban centers and the black community. His cynical manipulation of Andrew Young at the convention was shameful. His opposition to Jackson's minority platform planks alienated most of the Rainbow's constituency. Contemptuous of blacks, Latinos and the poor, Mondale suddenly acquires the political backbone of a wet noodle "Boycotting the 1984 electi it fC t>Ynrtl\) \Afhnt thd> Bona, ww >w rwwwwmw ???v when confronted by AFL-CIO bureaucrats. In short, the Minnesota Democrat has all of the charisma of a sleepy clam. Saying all this, we still cannot permit Ronald Reagan, a man with the morals of the mafia, to run wild for another term. There are critical and measurable differences between a reactionary like Reagan and Mondale. What have been the actual socioeconomic and political costs to black people because of Reagan? First, a dramatic increase in poverty. As of this August, there were 35 million poor people in the U.S. Reagan's 1982 welfare cuts inyrics hurt c today. I think it's pretty safe to say he is second only to Michael Jackson. On his latest album, "Purple Rain," there is a song called "Darling Nikki," which is played frequently on the radio. The first stanza of the song is as follows." I knew a girl named Nikki/ I guess you could say she was a sex fiend/ ^kuwt rhtr 4 hotel1 Infcby maTtTjTbaTrng wTtTi a"~ magazine/ She said "How'd you like to waste some "(Rock stars) must con0 espousing in their songs a ballads have to be x-rated time?"/ And I could not resist when I saw little Nikki grind. Not all of Prince's songs have sexual overtones and he has great musical gifts. Nor is he the only singer whose lyrics are sexually explicit. Another adolescent favorite, Rick James, has a song called "Seventeen and Sexy." James tells of his desire to have an affair with a 17-yearold female fan. He calls her W^LL-. \T SttMSTo Bt-me WOUkL 0*OVfcBKALOUS 1 1W1 >(?<:> W WAY DOWK/, AND THAT > PEOPLE t^TTEC OFF W>RE PEOPLE ^ ^ e Mondale creased the number of poor by 2.2 million. The administration is currently fighting food stamp legislation which would increase flHr>wanr<?g hy r*ri.? pients by only a penny a meal. In the areas of health care, education and women's rights, the identical situation exists. Reagan cut funding for screening urban children for lead poisoning. He slashed real spending for handicapped children's educational programs and 124,000 fewer college students now receive Pell Grant aid. Black women's wages have on may sound 'radical,' but anites want us to do. " fallen sharply and AFDC and other social assistance programs have been curtailed; A total of SI20 billion has ben cut . from programs which directly help people - Social Security, child care, etc. Workers' real wages have declined $380 billion since 1981, and the wealthy, large corporations and the banks have received $750 billion in tax breaks. In just the last two years, families earning less than $10,000 annually lost $23 billion, while households earning over $80,000 annually almost no blacks -- got $35 Please see page A5 hildren ? "young and fine and oh, so tender." James is a man in his 30s singing about committing li rl . ! siaiuiuiy rape, wnai IS me purpose of avsong like this? One more example of a song that disturbs me is "Be Good to Me" by the SOS Band. A woman sings: As long as I can be your number one, you still can have your fun/ And if you ?get- bored; i'mg emg toffivr it to you just the way you like it." Does this suggest to young front the values they are nd ask whether their 'love' to be hits. " boys and men that they can be as sexually promiscuous as they want to be and their girlfriends or wives won't r*r% pa*) veil V i Aren't these singers saying that sex is an activity divorced from love or respect and without responsibility or consequences? Is this what we want our children to be hearing daily, even hourly? Please see page A5 SoAAEONfc TOTAU.Y OUT Of TOUCH VmH POUCV, WHO HAS MO 6BASP Of THS Letters An appeal for Neal To The Editor: Having been identified with (the) Fifth District Congressman, the Honorable Steve Neal, in some measure ever since the first time he announced as a candidate for Congress from our Fifth District, I have never regretted this action on my part because Congressman Neal has given the Fifth District the recogni- * tion it so richly deserves nationwide. He brings integrity, a very reasonable approach and argument and an unques. tionable scholarship to any A _ i-1 _ ti- is? cuniercnce taoie. ne waiKS, carries and conducts himself as a true statesman, one individual without seeking the * flair and glory of being in the limelight, but the illumination, the awe and the observation of the people is always constant and present. Congressman Neal, who has always made his congressional duties his very first priority, has continued that pledge during this unusually lengthy session of Congress. He was forced to ignore the very vicious and poisonous and untrue darts that his unlearned op position has been using to undermine his very prestigious and spectacular and very successful tenure in the United States~House of Representatives, as he continued to prove his attendance during the undramatic last 10 days of the 98th Congress, whereby the Republican-controlled Senate killed or delayed many good bills, including the civil rights bill. The bill on civil rights was not a bill that would do ^ something for our country's black citizens, but this civil rights bill was only trying to do something for all of our women. I do hope that you will let this very important fact dwell constantly on your minds. Congressman Steve Neal's opposition, in his futile attempt to paint a picture of Congressman Neal as being naive, unproductive, taking jobs away from our peole, being for progressive programs like Social Security and Medicare, voting for our Democratic platform at our national convention and publicizing on television a pic< ture of Congressman Neal with a dirty rag stuffed in his mouth. This kind of tactics not only very adequately dramatize our opponent as being vindictive, as well as abusive, but his philosophy, if you would care to study it, is that of a very little boy. I want to make this open appeal in behalf of our incumbent Democratic con* >&i?&*i4iiku, rMi.v&ieve<rbtealv our vOterTTntTTe~ N.C." Fifth District ? the senior citizens, who have so much hanging in the balance; the middle-aged, the young and those who just turned 18, members of each party, all races and religions - to cast your most precious vote for Steve Neal on Election Day Nov. 6. Congressman Neal will be always true and humbly submitted to your needs and anx leues. Kiease do not allow yourself to be misled by someone desperately saying words like a learned and rehearsed recitation, who very openly has exhibited what to Please see page A5 WD IS OBStSSep BV WH*X 1 calls "We eviu ewes 4 j *lJt1
Winston-Salem Chronicle (Winston-Salem, N.C.)
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Oct. 25, 1984, edition 1
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