Editorial potpourri
Kudos to Wachovia
Wachovia bank officials did not have to expend their
time and energy trying to find something useful to do
with the Patterson Avenue building. Undoubtedly, it
would have been a simple matter to just sell the building
to the highest bidder.
Instead bank officials worked with city officials and
came up with a plan which, qjnce formalized, would
transform the building into a facility that could be of
great benefit to the neighboring community.
As a multi-purpose service center, the site will not
only make dealing with local government agencies a lot
more convenient for many residents, but it will also
regenerate pedestrian activity in the area and that, in
turn, might invite more economic development.
Wachovia bank officials are to be commended for
going the extra mile.
A case tor set-asides
Anyone who still questions the need for minority set
asides in government contracts need only to look closely
at the local situation involving the convention catering
contract.
City officials summarily issued a five-year contract
~on a $1.8 million business venture, aHowing no competi
tion. Minority and women owned firms were not given
the opportunity to bid on the contract.
Now eyes are focused on the new coliseum. The con
cession businesses at the new coliseum are already spo
ken for ? with no competition. The city will operate
those businesses as they operate all concessions through
out the city.
The most the city seems willing to offer minority
owned firms is the opportunity to bid on individual
catering jobs for receptions and special events ? in other
words, a job here and a job there.
Meanwhile majority firms get long-term contracts
that ensure a constant flow of revenue.
It could come in handy
A county museum sounds like just what the doctor
ordered for Winston-Salem. Given our stagnant econo
my, the rate at which we're losing industry, and our pre
occupation with nostalgia, we may one day be able to
turn the entire city4nto a museum* ?
If given a choice ....
Is anyone wondering why local government officials
didn't bother to find out if local residents vvanMo bring
the Board of Aldermen meetings into their homes via
cable?
Take the lives, but leave the flag
The Supreme Court issued two controversial deci
sions this week. It decided that juveniles and mentally
retarded offenders can be executed. It also decided that
burning the American flag is an accepted form of free
dom of speech guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution.
Guess which decision has created the greatest protest
and engendered the most debate. For many, it seems, the
lives of the young and the mentally ill are expendable; a
flag, however, is sacred.
CHRONICLE CAMERA
Of elephants and chlorofluorocarbons
To The Editor :
As executive director of the
Nature Science Center, I would like to
respond to the recent letter in the
Chronicle Mailbag from Rutherford
B. Williams titled "Save the ele
phants."
Mr. Williams' letter is not to be
taken lightly, and our world popula
tion must take heed or we will contin
ue to see more than just elephants
added to the Endangered Species list.
If we are not careful, man may well
be on the list of mammals being
threatened.
Here at the center we try to get
that message across, not in a preach
ing fashion, but in a way that every
one, young or old, can understand.
We are glad to see that the Chronitle
felt that Mr. Williams' letter was wor
thy of printing.
Our elephant population is in
serious shape, and we should do
everything we can to eliminate illegal
poaching.
David D. Bonney II
Executive Director
Nature Science Center
A rebuttal
To The Editor:
The Society of the Plastics
Industry Inc. read with interest a letter
to the editor in your June 1 edition
("Environment should be everybody's
WHAT/sW)
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concern"). In her comments, the writ
er stated her intent to cease the use of
plastic foam cups. She's doing this,
she said, because the cups contain
chlorofluorocarbons, or CFCs, that
"are depleting the ozone."
Not so.
No ozone-depleting CFCs are
used in any plastic foam foodservice
packaging today, and, in fact, most
foam cups never were made with
CFCs.
Thus the writer - and your read
ers - can continue to enjoy the supe
rior benefits of foam cups without
worrying that they are contributing to
I
CHRONICLE MAI LB AO
Our Readers Speak Out
the destruction of the earth's ozone;
Connie Merrill Limbach
Director, External Communications
The Society of the Plastics Industry
Inc.
About letters
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.
We reserve the right to edit let
ters and columns for brevity and
grammar.
Submit your letters and columns
to Chronicle Mailbag , P.O. Box 3154,
Winston-Salem, N.C. 27102.
Minimum wage veto is a matter of fairness
NEW YORK - On the same day
that President Busfr vetoed ^ mini
mum wage bill passed by Congress,
the newspapers reported that congres
sional and administration experts
were studying a proposal to cut the
capital gains tax.
That puts the spotlight on the
minimum wage as a fairness issue, at
least as much as it is an economic
By JOHN E. JACOB
issue7~And if fairness is any te?tr~
Congress should override the veto.
The president was ill-advised in
vetoing the bill. A higher minimum
wage advances his vision of a "kinder,
gentler nation," and the administra
tion should have been pushing for a
higher wage. The president did sup
port a raise in the minimum wage and
only 30 cents an hour separates his
proposal from that passed by
Congress - hardly enough of a differ
ence to go to the mat over.
The bill would have raised the
current minimum of $3.35 per hour to
$4.55 in three years. Even that would
have left the legal minimum wage
below family poverty levels.
The arguments against a higher
minimum are long familiar ? it would
curtail job growth, it would benefit
teen-agers who don't need the extra
money, it would impose burdens on
employers and make them less com
Please see page A5
It's dangerous to make racism a generic term
Perhaps one ot the most
overused, misused and misunderstood
terms today is racism.
The mere mention of the word
sends ethnic group scurrying to erect
some kind of mental or emotional
defense against this monster, real or
imagined:
We prepare to do battle but,
regretfully, too many of us swing at
mirages or fight as though we're inT
dark room taking swipes at an oppo
nent we know is there but cannot see..
Everybody is calling everybody
racists. Even Afro-Americans are
being catted and are calling each
other racists.
Racism, by common agreement
among the scholarly, is the practice of
those ideals that promote the belief
that one's ethnic stock is superior, or
another's ethnic stock is inferior. _
A racist slur or insult is not the
same as a racial slur or insult because
the term racial is a reference to race
with no degree of superiority or infe
riority implied. Likewise, prejudice
and racism are not the same. Preju
dice, racial or otherwise, is a precon
ceived preference or idea without any
factual basis. It is commonly nega
tive, but not necessarily so.
Finally, bias , a condition or belief
that prevents impartiality, also is con
fused with racism.
All of us have our prejudices and
biases, and certainly we make racial
references, but that does not make us
r digest?lt conjures up all the images of
the demeaning, debasing and other
horrible things we have had to endure
since being brought to this country.
Racism is a product of white Ameri
GUEST COLUMN
By ROOSEVELT WILSON
racists. And we must understand that
everyone else, regardless of race, who
exhibits these characteristics is not?
necessarily racist.
Somewhere in the semantic maze
we get lost and label everything unfa
vorable as being either an act of
racism or inspired by racism or racist
motives.
In many cases we are right, but
too often we are wrong, and when we
do not identify the enemy by name,
racism, prejudice, bias, or whatever,
we cannot fight it by name. Thus, our
blows for freedom and equality some
times hit the wrong target and wind
up doing more harm than good.
To us Afro-Americans in particu
lar, racism is a term impossible to
ca.
I want to make it clear that when
I use the term white, I am not talking
about white people, rather, the system
of racism and oppression that is a
white system and is perpetuated by
whites.
Racism is whv whites can see no
harm in something that would be
totally offensive to Afro-Americans.
You see, those whom whites con
sider racists are those who openly
avow supremacy and say and do
things that are obviously offensive to
Afro-Americans. But, believe it or
not, these racists are the least of the
problem. They know they are racists
and are not trying to deceive them
selves or others.
The dangerous racists are the
ones who will openly denounce the
KKK or a David Duke, yet behind the
curtain vote against Jesse Jackson
simply because "America is not ready
for a black president"
The most dangerous racists are
the ones who don't know they are -
racists and don't know they don't
know. They are many of our "friends"
who walk the picket lines with us
while, inflnany cases without intent
because <^fjnsensitivity, perpetuate
racism by tolerating (and sometimes
promoting) the racist system.
If we are ever to have any chance
at waging an effective fight against
this'monster racism, we must clearly
understand it, be able to recognize it,
be able to articulate it to others and
develop counter strategies based on
reason, not emotion.
And most of all, we must put the
good of our people above any person
al gains. Otherwise, the white man
will dangle a few bucks and bu^ off
our best fighters and leave our people
still wanting.
Roosevelt Wilson is working with
the Chronicle this summer as the
T. Thomas Fortune fellow.
How can gun owners be held responsible for accidental shootings?
State law-makers in Florida
are in the midst of passing legisla
tion that would make parents
responsible in shooting accidents
involving their firearms.
If an adult leaves a gun where
it is accessible to a person 18 or
younger, the adult could be
charged with a felony if the minor
is injured in a shooting incident,
according to Rep. Harry Jennings'
bill.
The Republican's bill evolved
out of a recent rash of gun-related
accidents involving children. The
most tragic of which occurred
when a young boy pointed a gun,
he thought was empty, at his baby
sister. He pulled the trigger and
killed the girl.
According to the National
Safety Council, firearms are the
fifth-leading cause of uninten
tional death among children aged
The govern
ment should
b e c o m e
stricter on
selling guns
end make
them (owners)
more respon
G*orgt
William*
"They (own
era) should be
held responsi
ble and pun
Is h m e n t
should fit the
crime, espe
cially If s
Malcolm
Calhoun
14 and under in this country.
In 1983, 20,000 Americans
were killed with handguns used in
accidents, suicides and homicides.
"A new study suggests that a
gun in the house is a bigger threat
to the inhabitants than to anybody
else," according to an article in the
"I think they
should make
them (owners)
be response
ble and pun
ish them as If
they had shot
somebody."
Lucy McDonald
June 23, 1986, edition of Time
magazine.
In a study of 398 shooting
deaths occurring between 1973 and
1983 in households in the Seattle
area, only nine deaths involved an
intruder or were the result of self
defense. Twelve of the deaths were
" Take them
(guns) away."
Tlayonna Wilson
accidental, 41 were criminal homi
cides and 333 were suicides.
A 1 989 Time/CNN poll shows
that the majority of Americans
want the government to crack
down on gun owners. The Chroni
cle asked local residents what mea
sures should be taken.
"I think they
should take
the guns from
people when
they can't
keep them
away from
children."
?V ?' ? ?; '? 5- ^yV ^ '
L?tnekta Hicks ?