Newspapers / Winston-Salem Chronicle (Winston-Salem, N.C.) / June 3, 1999, edition 1 / Page 6
Part of Winston-Salem Chronicle (Winston-Salem, N.C.) / About this page
This page has errors
The date, title, or page description is wrong
This page has harmful content
This page contains sensitive or offensive material
OPINION k * * fntiMlii?? ?? Hk* f?i?i The Chronicle Ernest H. Pitt pubhshertco-fouukr ndibisi egemonve .Co-Founder Elaine Pitt Business Manager Fannie Henderson advertising manager jeri Vol nc Managing Editor steven Moore Production Manager K aren J. Olson Circulation Manager ikmnmp^v piIImamocmwa of Circulation pubiiisnlltae. America shows true colors with refugees It wasn't the racism that so surprised us. Racism is a fact of American life. It was however,-that the Clinton administration, and the gen eral population as a whole, failed to see it when it was so promi nently displayed. American racism was prominently displayed, in this country's justifiable response to the ethnic bloodshed in Kosovo compared with the government's response to the ethnic bloodshed in other parts of the world, most specifically in Africa. It should be clearly understood that we understand the gov ernment's reasons for intervening in the conflict in Kosovo. Europe is a major trading partner with the United States, where we annually send billions of dollars of American goods and receive billions of dollars of European imports, everything from cars to cheese, from furniture to food. Both our economic securi ty and political security are threatened to some extent by any war in Europe. A State Department official last week said more than 2,000 innocent Kosovars are believed to have been maSkacred by Ser bian forces before NATO responded with bombs and cruise mis siles. ' ' '? For the LJnited States, a major partner in NA1 (J, to sit idly by and do nothing as Serbia slaughtered civilians in Kosovo .would I have been morally repugnant. The type of response could rightly be debated but a strong response was necessary. But a response was also required following the October 1993 assassination of President Melchior Ndadaye of Burundi. The assassination of Ndadaye, a Hutu, sparked ethnic warfare between the Hutus. who make up 85 percent of the country's pop^ ulation, and the Tutsis. who make up the other 15 percent. As sto ries of entire villages of people being hackedfo death with knives started reaching the West, and as pictures of rivers running red with victimsyblood,started to appear on our nightly news tele easts, our country's response was nearly mute. The Clinton administration did not send Stealth .bombers and cruise missiles to halt the bloodshed. It did not send cargo planes to airlift out victims, ft did not consider sending in ground troops. It barked and decried the .bloodshed but did little else as 200,000 people died. Sr Understandably. America has less strategic interests in Central Africa. But it does have interests in maintaining peace and stabil ity in its own back yard in the Western Hemisphere. Haitian refugees fleeing death and violence on their island' natipn were housed in tents behind wire fences on the U.S. military base at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba, more than 100 miles fron^ the U.S. mainland. The United States set up refugee camps on American soil for the fleeing Kosovars. No high ranking U.S. officials - such as New Jersey Gov. Christine Todd Whitman or first lady Hilary Rodham Clinton - greeted the arriving planes filled with Haitian refugees and visited them in camps., as they did for the Kosovars. With the Haitians, there were no heart-tugging stories of babies being born on U.S. soil just days after their mothers' arrival at Fort Dix. There were only pictures of acre upon acre of white tents behind wire fences. We are not trading lives for lives here . We deplore the deaths of civilian Kosovars as much as we deplore the deaths of Burun dians But the U.S. government clearly does see a distinction between ethnic cleansirig, .the term for'the murder of Kosovars, and tribal warfare, the euphemism for the deaths of many Africap peoples. If does see a distinction between the senseless deaths of Euro peans and the senseless deaths of Africans. And the distinction is clelarly racist: This government is prodded into action with the deaths of 2,000 Kosovars and was not with the deaths of more than 200,000 Burundians. Other than the racism of the whole thing, what other conclusion could reasonable people reach? We are just surprised that so few people seem to have noticed it. ? , , 4 The Philadelphia Tribune To the Editor: Hundreds of mostly very credi ble people who are concerned about the resegregation of our schools went to a rally on May 24 and heard Dr. Maya Angelou make an inspir ing delivery. The Winston-Salem Journal quoted Donald Martin, school superintendent, the next day as say ing those people could have found better things to do with their time. He suggested they might try to con vince white parents to send their kids to primarily minority schools. In (last) weeks Winston-Salem Chronicle; Dr. Martin wrote a col umn in which he criticizes those who oppose his budget request, which includes money for theme schools. He states, "No one has yet to explain to me how taking S50,000 from a - school wijl improve academic achievement." Dr. Martin seems to not quite get it, although at some level he sure ly does The redistncting plan is a failure and a lie. We know parents are not willingly going to send their kids out of the neighborhood to school if they can avoid it. We have always known it, as has Dr. Martin and the school board. The rally and opposition to the " budget are the ways to let them know we aren't lending credibility to the farce. The emperor has on no clothes Hopefully, Dr Angelou's remarks will give more of-us the courage to continue to point this out. Maybe those who attended the rally could better spend their time getting a new school board elected, a board who wants a superintendent to lead our system to a plan which does not segregate our children. Bert Grisard To the Editor: Please accept my sincere appreci ation for the wonderful write-up you did on The NRG Stop. Being a novice at marketing and advertising. I am certain the abundance of new customers we are serving daily is directly related to your article. Several of my custodiers men tioned the article, and some brought the article with them. Please extend my appreciation to the staff. Sincerely, David Griffin Operations Manager The NRG Stop Inc. The 2000 census: Why does it matter? fMelvin w.?. Guest Columnist When 13 percent more African American men registered for the World War II military draft than the 1940 census indicated were liv ing in the United States, the Cen sus Bureau must have sensed that something was not quite right. There was special irony in the fact that these men were willing to go to war for a country that didn't even acknowledge that they exist ed. Since World War II the Census Bureau has made a concerted effort to improve the method and accuracy of its counts. Unfortu nately, the census has continued to be inaccurate. Reliable estimates indicate that over 26 million errors were made in the 1990 census and over 8.4 million people were missed, most of them minorities, children and poor people. More than 129,500 of the people missed were in North Carolina, the state with the seventh largest under count in the nation* There are at leqsf three good reasons why a accurate census mat ters. The legal reason: Our Consti tution requires that a count of peor pie in the United States be made every 10 years. The political reason: The cen sus determines how many repre sentatives each state has in the U.S. House of Representatives.'If the population is undercounted in a growing state like North Carolina, it could mean the difference in whether North Carolina gets another representative or whether that representative goes to another state where the population may have been overcounted. Census numbers are also used to draw electoral districts within each state (U.S. House districts, state House and Senate districts, and county commissions-city coun cil and school board districts). If low income or minority residents are undercounted, the very resi dents who need their voices heard most in the political process can end up with their representation diminished. _ The economic reason: Perhaps the most important impact of an inaccurate census is the economic impact. More than $180 billion in federal funds annually are distrib uted based on census data. Among the many important federal pro grams that distribute funds on the basis of census data are Medicaid, highway and mass transit, foster care, community development and many education programs (Title I, child care and development, Goals 2000, Safe and Drug-Free Schools, vocational education, employment and job training) and social ser vices programs (WIC, social ser vices block grants, drug abuse, rehabilitation and treatment ser vices, adoption services and employment services). When a state's population is undercounted (especially its seniors, children and poor), that state simply gets cheated out of federal money it would otherwise have received for important federal programs and services funded on the basis of the census. Between the 1990 census and the 2000 cen sus, for example, North Carolina will lose more than $68 million as a result of the 1990 census under count.. ? The impact of the undercount on local communities is dramatic. In Charlotte and Winston-Salem, for example, approximately 50 per cent of those who were not count ed in the 1990 census were chil dren, 5,091 in Charlotte and 1,441 in Winston-Salem. In Charlotte the undercount is the equivalent of nine more schools and 312 more teachers. In Winston-Salem, it is the equivalent of two more schools and 88 more teachers. Schools and teachers, of course, are not allocated by the federal government. But federal education funds are. And the eco nomic impact of shortchanging local communities can be pro found. The federal government contributes about $650 annually to the education of each child, $6,500 over a 10-.year period between cen sus counts. The 5,091 Charlotte children the census failed to count in 1990 will cost the Charlotte Mecklenburg Schools over $3.3 million in federal education funds by the time the next census is taken. The 1,441 Winston-Salem children not counted in the 1990 census will result' in the (Winston Salem/Forsyth County Schools) losing over $936,000. We simply can't afTord that kind of economic * loss. Either the children get short changed or the part of their educa tion costs normally paid by the federal government gets trans ferred to the budgets of our local communities. ?. Republicans suspect that a process which assures that minori ties and the poor are counted more accurately could cost them seats when electoral districts are redrawn following the 2000 census. Democrats sense the prospects for pdlitical gains and throw down the political gauntlet. Unfortunately, both Democrats and Republicans have lost sight of the dramatic eco nomic importance of an accurate census and made the debate far too partisan. Rather than being a par tisan debate, if there is to be a debate at all, it should be a geo graphic debate between states that stand to gain from an accurate cen sus and states that stand to lose. . V The fact is that North Carolina .' gains from an accurate oensus and every North Carolinian has a vest ed interest in assuring that the 2000 census counts everyone. It's the only way we can prevent a major loss of federal funds for the next 10 years to states with declin ing populations or populations that are easier to count. If we allow this to be a partisan debate, all North Carolinians will lose. Nei ther North Carolina Democrats nor North Carolina Republicans can afford to let that happen., U.S. Rep. Met Watt represents the 12 th Congressional District of North Carolina, which includes parts of Winston-Salem. i rO/CES FROM THE COMMUNITY... The abbreviated NBA season has now rode into the playoffs. Four teams? the New York Knicks, Indian Pacers, San Antonio Spurs and the Portland Trailblaz ers? are battling it out for the. title of world champion. We asked locals which team they think will win the NBA championship crown. Juanita Glenn "J think the Pacers are going to win. They have a very good team ill , he surprised if they do not win it all." ? ' I ? j i .*? JamaI Carpantar "/ like San Antonio. / think they match up pretty good in the paint / right now. And I like Tim Duncan < and David Robinson, the twin lowers. They have a good front court and hack court. They are going to take it." Edward Williamt "Tim Duncan is looking real food this year and / think the Spurs ire going to get it." i Daniel King "I think the Knicks are going to win the championship. They are playing relentless defense and they are hitting their free throws. In the game Sunday they stepped up and hit eight free throws in the fourth quar ter. If they keep that up. they have a shot at winning the championship" Steve Miller "I Relieve Indiana is going to win the NBA championship. I think they are a heller team, they are mature enough where they can win." I
Winston-Salem Chronicle (Winston-Salem, N.C.)
Standardized title groups preceding, succeeding, and alternate titles together.
June 3, 1999, edition 1
6
Click "Submit" to request a review of this page. NCDHC staff will check .
0 / 75