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Page A4 Winston-Salem Chronicle Founded 1974 ERNEST H. Pin ^ Publisher MICHAEL A. PITT NDUBISI EGEMONYE Assistant to the Publisher Co-Founder ANGELA WRIGHT ELAINE L Pin Managing Editor Office Manager JULIE PERRY YVONNE H.B. TRUHON Advertising Manager Production Manager Jesse must be taken seriously Jesse Jackson's win in Michigan has sent a message to the Democratic Party that it can no longer ignore -- at the rate he’s going, Jackson just might wind up as its presidential nominee this fedl. The Chronicle welcomes letters from its readers, as well as columns. Letters should be as concise as possible and typed or printed legibly. They also should include the name, address and telephone number of the writer. Columns should follow the same guidelines and will be published if we feel they are of interest to our general readership. Vfe reserve the right to edit letters and columns for brevity and gram- Submit your letters and columns to Chronicle Mailbag,'P.O. Box 3154, Winston-Salem, N.C. 27102. Winston-Salem Chronkk Thursday |/g Black eJL on firing I* Political analysts say Jackson's almost 2-1 victory over pst- while front-runner Michael Dukakis in Saturday’s Michigan caucuses is a clear signal that the preacher-tumed-politician is a very viable contender for the nomination. Jackson, treated as an also-ran in 1984, has won in eight states so far this year - Michigan, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, Virginia, South Carolina, Alaska — and in Puerto Rico's non-binding contest. The string of victories is forcing the party to re-examine the theory that a black cannot be nominated for president in 1988. "The Democratic voters are sending a very strong message to the party," said Ann Lewis, a Democratic strategist and informal adviser to the Jackson campaign. "The quality of leadership is something they like and admire. This is a refer endum on him and a referendum he's winning." The campaign-watchers also said the Michigan win could translate into victories in other high-stakes contests, including the New York primary on April 19. "I don't believe Dukakis can stop him," said David Garth, a New York media consultant who is working for Tennessee Sen. Albert Gore Jr.'s campaign, "unless something different happens." New York, which has 255 delegates at stake, represents a serious challenge for Dukakis, who has failed in the major industrial states of Illinois and Michigan. "The stakes could not be more critical," said Paul Maslin, pollster for Illinois Sen. Paul Simon's campaign. "He can't just finish second to Jesse Jackson. He can't say I'm the leading white candidate. It’s not going to work this year. "Dukakis has got to win big to even say 'This is the guy the party wants,"' Garth said. A New York Daily News poll published Sunday showed Dukakis favored by 45 percent of the 528 Democrats sur veyed to 29 percent for Jackson. The poll, conducted between Monday, March 21 and Thursday, March 24, had a margin for error of plus or minus 4.5 percentage points. However, New York Gov. Mario Cuomo has said that if two or three candidates are left in the Democratic race prior to the primary, Jackson has a chance of winning. A poll by the Marist College Institute for Public Opinion found that 57 percent of 459 Democratic voters surveyed in New York earlier this month gave Jackson a favorable rating, to 30 percent unfavorable. In a survey by the same group in January, only 44 percent had given Jackson a favorable rating while 41 percent rated him unfavorably. "New York is a fairly volatile state," Garth said. He noted that the state has a large Jewish vote, a group that has been skeptical of Jackson in the past. In the most recent Marist College survey, 36 percent of the Jewish voters gave Jackson a favorable rating, an increase from 17 percent in January. Forty-three percent gave Jackson an unfavorable rating compared to 62 percent in January. The results had a margin of error of 5 percentage points. The numbers suggest Jackson is mending fences with Jews whom he offended in 1984. "There are still some in the political establishment who think 1988 is an inevitable replay of 1984," Ms. Lewis said. But, she added, "The day after Michigan a new world has dawned." - Donna Cassata OK, OK, SilWSTHjM W 9lilT CAmBT PO^T,^ Drug abuse funds: Reagan 'just said no' NEW YORK - President Rea gan’s drug prevention program has popularized the slogan "Just Say No." Well, the president certainly knows the meaning of the word. He has said "no" to adequate funding for urgently needed drug preven tion, treatment and rehabilitation programs ever since he took office. The president says that the counuy is "beginning to win the crusade for a drug-free America," while his wife, Nancy, says that "the people who casually use cocaine are responsible" for the drug crisis. Both statements divert attention from a major problem - lack of funding for drug programs. From 1980 to 1986 the Reagan administration slashed funding for such programs by a whopping 40 percent, according to the Congres sional Select Committee on Nar cotics Abuse and Control. The effect of insufficient funding fix these crucial programs was noted by Diane Canova, director of public policy fx the National Associatitxi of Stale Alcohol and Drug Abuse Direc tors, known as NASADAD. This non-profit organization is composed of the state administrators of publicly funded drug prevention and treatment programs. Cle^Iy, they know where of they speak. Canova discussed the impact of the funding cuts, saying: "In most states, waiting lists for drug treatment are common, usually averaging a two- to three-month wait. What this means is that even 1987 level, a level which the administration agreed to only because Congress forced the issue. We have all become alarmed CIVIL RIGHTS JOURNAL By BENJAMIN CHAVIS JR. when intravenous drug users finally make the decision to seek treat ment, they are being turned away, and then have nowhere else to turn. These users are at particularly high risk of contracting and spreading AIDS." It is estimated that there are, right now, as many as 1.5 million IV drug users in this country. NASADAD estimates that only 10 percent of these addicts are current ly being treated. More impcxtantly, they also estimate that an additional 30 to 40 percent of these addicts would seek treatment if only it were available. The Reagan administration, with its usual one-step-forward- two-steps-back approach, has pro posed an increase in drug abuse funding over last year. But, as Canova points out, this will simply bring the new funding level to the by the evidence the increasing drug crisis - and the related AIDS epi demic - in our communities: the young people who roam our streets like the walking dead, the innocent children who have been slain by errant bullets during battles among drug dealers. The nation's cities are under siege. Yet the funding for those pro grams that might offer some relief is woefully inadequate. Rep. Floyd Flake, the congressman from Queens, N.Y., sections of which are ravaged by drug violence, reminds us that on the federal level, the S3 billion earmarked for drug educa tion and enforcement represents a meager 1 percent of the S300 bil lion defense budget And this at a time when the drug abuse crisis has been called the No. 1 threat to this country's national security. Please see page A5 Jackson's victory: Time to face facts NEW YORK - "Jackson’s fer vent preaching style also troubles some (whites). He’s kept his flam boyant rhetoric mostly for Afro- American audiences during the campaign, and made appearances before traditional political gather ings more low-key," wrote Leslie Phillips in USA Today of Jesse Jackson's 1988 campaign style. Phillips also pointed out that the most successful Afro-American candidate for president in history is "speaking less about black empow erment, the crux of his 1984 cam paign, and more about economic injustice ... and has kept his rela tionship with Black Muslim leader Louis Farrakhan under wraps." Jesse Jackson has compro mised and gained political power, not unlike any successful politician. On Super Tuesday, with the least capital resources of the Democratic candidates for their parly’s nomina tion (a campaign void of any dis cussion of Afro-American issues). Jackson won several states, placed second in eight and third in three. Jackson’s victory was so asionish- ing to white people, and Afro-Ameri can people who doubt Afro-American empowerment, that the New York Post TONY BROWN Syndicated Columnist claimed him as a "man whose ancestors were black slaves, Cherokee Indians and Irish plantation owners" - no longer just Afro-American. Although Jackson received 20 percent of the vote in Minnesota, where the population is only 1.3 percent Afro-American, and 28 percent in Maine, where only 0.3 of the population is Afro-American, about 23 percent of the national while population will not vote for an Afro-American because he or they will not even consider voting for him, in part due to his ultra-lib eral views) and it will provide the correct context for understanding the 91 percent Afro-American and 7 percent white vote (Peugeot Yup pies, not poor whites) that made history in 12 southern states on Tuesday, March 8,1988. While Jackson plays down black empowerment in his cam paign, that is exactly what he is Please see page A5 JO §L|QUai ByJOHiru% NEW YORK . t America's ■can executives varies some companies goi'*- groom promising 'Jk rate leadership and the harassments fat,jc American manasen A couple*,, Po Harvard BmnasKt^; ■ a landmark article bvp, lones Jr. which put barriers placed in the i American managers. Ru, off a wave of interest* nauon, as it effcctivelysi,..^ underside of the great pa,.^eii has been made. Jones found liulereji-ia and a lot of harassraem jjan blocks placed in the way tijwl Afro-American executive :J:y ture is C(mfmnedinaDew!S)il Richard Clarke Associt cxecuuve recruiting firm The Clarke survey;w 500 managers in seven tually all have college % half hold graduate degreeime ing they they are qualifiejtJiw positions. jo But the picture that tfOi is a discouraging one,'fiee.o believe race is a liraitirji-ini their aspirations, and htfjav their companies arenoiX committed to affirmative The majority also fat their white peers quesiiceiiK they're qualified to holdtkiat implying that Afro-AnieM54 in those positions cmly h affirmative action prograoii^^' so despite their obvious fications. Ke The surveyed execubtJ'^ say that things have becoK-.P*’' the past five years, clainiirtii^P companies have followed ton's lead by downgradii^dj:^ tance of equal opportunities Regardless, the oven*, majority say they get a sira^ ing of accomplishniKitaj^^ and expect future promotict j.‘ Half of them, convinced that they'll to the top, and a majwitvr^j sidering moving fromthei: jobs because they see she is Afro-American. An Afro- American would need 65 percent of the non-racist electorate to offset the racism factor alone. Add to that Jackson's high neg ative percentage (42 percent say B advancement opporiuiiieiF Afro-Americans at their The Qarke survey, the heels of the Jones gests that Corporate long way to go befweiiK' Afro-American managersli^j Unfortunately, many are simply not taking ment to equal opponunitv x enough. Fortunately, swkp For at the same toe lu finding limits placed crnfeLi tuniiies available to Afio-.'t; managers, we also seefcij) Afro-American execuDvesi _ tions of extraordinary pj responsibility at other ft® Sc In February, for exto-tre Enterprise magazine devdiine' story to "America's HodfTin Managers," including pe?’sui tified as "the 25 mosipo*^tei executives in Cwporate Aattej It's an extraordinarjithe some of whom head major corporations thai’ Me Please see CHRONICLE CAMERA What do you think when you see the Confederate flag Several high schools have made the news lately because of the controversial issue of whether T-shirts or other articles of clothing should display the Confederate flag. First to make the headlines was a school in Surry County, then a school in Durham, and just recently East Forsyth High School was the scene of a major con frontation between Afro-American students and white students over the same issue. A sawed-off .22 caliber rifle, knives, sticks and clubs were confiscated by Forsyth County deputies. Ten students were charged with possessing weapons on school grounds and several were also suspended. The school had banned the wearing of the Confederate flag, but several students wore it because they felt as if they were being denied Iheir right of free expression. School adimnisttators believe the symbol causes too much tension and stirs up hostility between Afro-Americans and whites. The Confederate flag is the "The first thing i think of when I see that flag is the Civil War and racism. I think the fiag is symboiic of .white kisupremist ^ views also." .it Bernard Hicks "I can’t stand that flag. It stands for racism. It lifts up the views of how people of the old South thought about black people." Lee Valentine "The Confeder ate flag has n’othing to do iwilh racism. It Just symbol izes the south." , banner under which the Confeder ate army stood during the Civil ™ “i rebellion against the North and the abolition of slavery. The Chronicle asked several locd residents what the Confeder ate llag meant to them. Among most Afro-American respondents, the a® same. They believe t bolic of a racist attin prevalent through^ during the Civil Wat. OthCTS believe i bolizes the South aixl associated widi ttois iiF'' ll^ Melissa Akers "lfssyit*olicof the racist afti- Itudes the con- tederaleshad towards black |peopte. tfs very iftensiveand people should be nnore considerate." " VioiaGentry
Winston-Salem Chronicle (Winston-Salem, N.C.)
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March 31, 1988, edition 1
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