cdiiofidu dcomi. -
Freedom Rights Husder
This newspaper has repeatedly
warned that the battle for first class
citizenship-is-too importanL to be
used for personal gain. The right of a
defenseless people too sacred to
be played with by money-gougers.,
The future of the next generation of
Blacks, is in too much jeopardy for
anyone to speculate with.
It is rather ironical that many
daily newspapers carried a dispar
ing column about Jesse Jackson’s
seeming vacillating on crucial is
sues, especially politics, just as a
book, depicting his purpose, was
released.
This newspaper has watched the
events in the life of this young leader
- ever since he led the sit-down strike,
while a student at North Carolina
A&T State University. We knew him
as the quarterback on the football
t:: team at the Greensboro school.
We have admired his generalship
and have every reason to believe
that he would use the same guide
lines in calling the plays of life, that
he did in calling the football plays.
We felt that there would be times
wherr~hewouid“have to use deeoys. —
We did not believe that he would call
plays, in his role as a national Black
leader, that would cause him to get
in bad repute with his followers and
to become the prey of his adversa
ries.
We do not know how much authen
ticity there is in the accusations,
read in the column. We hope there
are none. We say, however, that all
leaders, of just cause, should be like
Ceasar’s wife, above reproach. We
know Jesse has to live and we feel
that any servant is worthy of his
hire. We say “tainted money and
“Taint'’ people. Don’t be like the
fellow who had eaten three “help
ings” at a friend’s table and re
marked to his host, “this food is
tainted.” The exasperated host re
plied, “What do you mean?” He
relpied, “Taintenough!”
Strange Phenomenon
It is a strange phenomenon that
Black people in most low income
communities can purchase Mark
IV’s and Cadillacs and other luxu
rious automobiles in great numbers
from local dealers, the great majo
rity of whom do not put anything
back into the Black community—and
is unwilling to make an appeal to the
Black consumer.
Isn’t it about time for Blacks to
find better directions for their mis
placed values? Are we going to
forever beg for what we need while
purchasing what we want?
There is no better demonstration
of faith in our community than to
invest in that community’s future.
It is easy to understand that a one
owner restaurant would be much
better off financially if say 20 or 30
citizens of our community were
investors.
Indeed, it would provide more
capital, better management and a
greater projection for future growth.
Research shows that one of the big
problems of the Black businessmen
is that he tends to want to do it all by
himself. Therefore, nine out of ten
times, he’s doomed for failure or is
limited to forever being small-time.
Inflation - Recession - Hard Choice To Make
rresiaeni r ora s f iscal 1976 bud
get proposal calls for extremely
tight spending and massive cuts in
current programs which provide
basic benefits to the nation’s poor
and elderly. The •budget, together
with the annual report from the
President’s Council of Economic
Advisers, strongly suggests that the
Administration will seek to fight
inflation and recession simultane
ously and that neither will improve
this year. Thus unemployment and
high prices are here for a while.
The Adminstration projects that
the unemployment rate for this year
will be around 8.1 per cent, reaching
a peak of 8.5 per cent by mid-year.
Moreover, unemployment is not ex
pected to dip below 6 per cent before
1980. With the unemployment rate
for March already at 8.7 per cent, it
is eveident that the projected rate
for this year will be revised upward.
That means a lot of people will be
out of work for a long time, and that
unemployment compensation pro
bably will not last as long as unem
ployment. To make the picture even
more uncomfortable, prices will
continue to rise The Administration
expects inflation to increase this
year by 11.3 per cent. Not since the
Great Depression has the U. S.
economy experienced double-digit
unemployment and inflation at the
same time. Virtually every econo
^-—
mic indicator, except the cost of
living, is moving towards depression
levels. We can not continue to sit
back and let this happen. We must
accept the fact that recession is our
primary enemy, and give top prior
ity to reversing the downward trend
of the economy.
It is clear that inflation is a serious
problem and that measures needed
to stimulate the economy may very
well increase the cost of living. But
that pill will be a lot easier to
swallow on a full stomach than on an
empty one. I agree with the most
unanimous view that a quick stimu
lant to the economy through a tax
cut is necessary to halt the spread
ing economic decay. This view was
reflected in the vote of Congress
when it passed the Tax Reduction
Act of 1975. The intent of the bill is to
encourage consumer spending
through tax cuts, and encourage
business production through in
creases in their invesment tax cre
dit. This tax reduction is one step in
the right direciton. To be effective,
other steps must also be taken. The
bill provides a rebate on 1974 taxes
of 10 percent for most taxpayers
with a maximum of $200. Eighty-five
percent of the 1974 rebate and
ninety-five per cent of the relief on
1975 taxes will go to families with
incomes of less than $20,000 a year.
Open School Offers Positive Benefits
as a parent oi a cnua at me
Elizabeth Open Optional School I
have become more and more con
cerned at the negative presentation
given by the media of the optional
school. Having tutored in five
schools beginning at Hawthorne
Junior High School 10 years ago and
working at Elizabeth this year, I feel
the open school offers many positive
benefits not found at the convent
ional school.
In the last week I have talked with
many parents, teachers, and admi
nistrators to try to understand why
the community is critical of these
programs. In these discussions we
talked of the value to the child of
individualized instruction when he
has a learning problem. If Johnny
cannot add 3+5 to get 8, he certainly
cannot subtract or multiply. So the
teacher or an aide helps him learn
addition and tnen progress to more
difficult math. In the same way
basic reading skills are worked on
until they are mastered. But another
type of learning occurs. The tea
chers treat each child with respect -
giving support and encouragement
in weak areas and recognition of his
strengths-enabling him to grow as a
person.
Why doesn’t the community re
cognize the value of this type of
learning? Partly because mistakes
have been made in establishing
these schools. But, we also have
failed to clearly state the purpose
and goals of the schools. The pur
pose is to see that Open Schools offer
the best educational experience
possible. To be truly open we must
represent the community in all of its
diversity. This means we can be a
really good school only if we have
strong black support.
One of our goals is to have many
more black parents send their child
ren and actively participate in the
school programs. Together we can
build a school in which children,
DiacK ana wnue, can learn to live
together, to learn together and to
appreciate the richness of the back
ground each brings to the school.
Children are different and they
learn in different ways. For many
children, black and white, the varied
programs of the optional schools
offer the best educational approach.
I invite you to make the open schools
your schools and to work with us in
realizing their potential.
Flo Cobey
1620 Meadowood Lane
Editors note: 366-2041
Mrs. Cobey is a member of the
Elizabeth School Committee. She
has daughters at East Mecklenburg
and Randolph Junior High.
roor Kationale
6535 Hidden Forest Dr.
Charlotte. N. C. 28213
Bro. Johnson.
I defend the so called poor ratio
nale that helped defeat the bond
package. I used the same reasons
you listed in your paper as my
defense. The same reasons you
rational.
(1) More pressing things needed
attention.
(2) Blacks don’t use the airport.
(3) Jobs created by the expansion
would not help blacks because the
work would be manual labor.
“Basically”, I think this is pretty
sound reasomng. The basis of your
argument was the condition of the
economy with emphasis placed on
the unemployment situation. I un
derstand that unemployment is very
important in this situation. But jobs
would be created with whatever the
money would be used for. The
majority of black people do not use
the airport directly but most blacks
are affected by the airport .indirectly
' rectly.
Howard Mungo
TO
BE
EQUAL
Black Aged Hit Hard
Everyone’s hurting in this Depression, but hit
hardest are elderly blacks. They don’t have the
securities, bank savings and bonds affluent
people sock away for a rainy day, and few have
ever worked in the kinds of jobs that allowed
them to plan a comfortable retirement.
In fact, they were explicity barred from jobs
that carry decent pensions and other retirement
benefits.
All most of them have are social security
checks, other government payments including
supplementary Supplementary Income (SSI), or
earnings.
That’s not enough in these days of sky-rocket
ing prices. Stories of old folks buying pet food
because its cheaper indicates the extent of their
hardship.
SSI payments are less than half of what the
federal government estimates as a moderate
standard of living for a retired couple. They’rf,
even below the proverty level in most places.
Most older blacks are poor or close enough to
being very poor to feel the pinch badly. And with
growing unemployment, financial help from
children is drying up too.
The thing to remember about the black elderly
is that they are survivors. Most of them survived
the Jim Crow system and low-paying, low-status
jobs, and now they’ve got to try to survive
further indignities instead of enjoying well
earned retirement years.
Compared with older whites, elderly blacks
have less education, fewer financial resources,
more have chronic health problems, live in
substandard housing and have less access to
private and public resources available to the
affpH
They are survivors in a literal sense, too. Most
of their contemporaries have passed on. The life
expectancy for black males actually declined in
the 1960s, from 61.1 years to 60.1 years. This
means the typical black man will never live to
collect social security benefits, deductions for
which were taken out of his measly paycheck all
through hig working'years.
Black women live fewer years than do whites
the typical black woman lives to the age of 69.3
years, while white women can expect to live to
75.6 years.
These life expectancy figures have given rise
to suggestions that instead of limiting social
security payments to those 65 and over (with
many getting payments starting at age 62), a
system of differential age eligibility should be
instituted.
Under such a system the population would be
broken down by subgroups and those subgroups,
such as black men, whose life expectancy is
below the national standard for social security
eligibility, could begin to collect at earlier ages.
Such life expectancy tables could be computed
regularly, with eligibility limits moved up or
down depending on the actuarial figures. Other
groups in our society, including Native Ameri
cans and many Spanish-speaking peoples, have
low life expectancy and it seems only fair that
such persons should get back money they’ve
been paying for retirement.
It’s an interesting idea that certainly deserves
further exploration. It might even spur better
health care efforts by the government, and that
should be a major item on the agenda for helping
old folks.
Garbage Collection Problems
By Gerald O. Johnson
Redd Foxx use to tell a joke about
his families poverty. Foxx would
quip that his family was so poor that
they use to tell the garbage man to
leave three cans. Well, with the
Charlotte Garbage collectors you
don’t even have to ask. The cans
along with most of your other gar
bage will be placed in strategic
locations all over your lawn.
If this isn’t enough the men in
green will just leave your garbage
where they found it. When this
occurs, however, it is because your
garbage doesn’t meet city specifica
tions. The garbage is either too
heavy, too messy, or too dispersed.
Let me inform you of several
occurrences that happened to some
one near and dear to my heart....me.
After supervising a family project
to have some blackberry bushes
removed from my yard, we discard
ed the bushes on the side of the house
for the Wednesday pick up. Two
weeks later the trash was lying in
exactly the same place. I resorted to
calling downtown to find out what
was going on. I was informed by a
rude lady that mv trash could only
be picked up if it was bagged. I
informed the lady that bushes with
thorns are not exactly bagabie.
Then I proceeded to tell her what
they could do with all the trash. She
informed me that if I did that with
my trash maybe they would pick it
up.
Well, I bagged the thorny bushes
and left the neat pile for local can
man. You’ll never guess what hap
pened ! The thorns tore into the bag
and when the g-men picked it up the
botton fell out. Well, the mess was
left there for another two weeks or
so before the street cleaners finally
removed the collection of garbage.’
Another incident happened when I
had my trees pruned. The leftovers
from the pruning were placed in the
regular pick up spot. After a month
of waiting for someone to pick up
this mess I again called downtown.
The same lady answered and this
time was a little more agreeable.
She had the supervisor come to my
place with a truck to analyze my
garbage for pick up. He decided that
my garbage wasn’t good enough for
his truck so he left. Another month
went by before the street cleaners
finally picked up the mess.
I have had several other skir
mishes with the trash people, but I
don’t even want to talk about those
Now on July 1,1975 the rules of the
game are being changed again. Tbe
trash has to be put on the curb at a
certain time and the cans removed
from the curb by a certain time
after pick up. All rule breakers are
subject to fines.
To tell you the truth I would prefer
retaining the portion of my taxes
that goes into garbage collecting and
use that money to hire a private
garbage collector. Maybe that way
the garbage will get picked up.
THE CHARLOTTE POST
“THE PEOPLES NEWSPAPER”
Established 1918
By A.M. Houston
Published Every Thursday
By The Charlotte Post Publishing Co., Inc.
9139 Trinity Road - Charlotte, N.C. 28216
Telephones (704 ) 392-1306 - 392-1307
Circulation 11,000
Bill Johnson.Editor - Publisher
Gerald O. Johnson.Business Manager
Robert L. Johnson....Circulation Manager
Second Class Postage Paid at
Charlotte, N.C. under the Act of March 3,1878
Member National Newspaoer Publishers
Association
National Advertising Representative
Amalgamated Publishers, Inc.
45 W. 5th, Suite 1403 2400 S. Michigan Ave
New York, N Y. 10036 Chicago. Ill 60616
489 , 220 Calumet 5-0200
IT IS UP TO US, BLACKS WHO CARE ABOUT THE BLACK
FUTURE, TO IMPOSE ORDER WHERE HONE EXISTS TODAY— "
\
^ WE HAVE TO DO IT BECAUSE WE CANNOT ASK OUR OLD PEOPLE
TO SPEND THE REST OF THEIR LIVES PASSING THROUGH A
GAUNTLE T OF MUGGERS.
JtfOf COMBS
V K r*A6AZ!Hli
Time For Blacks To Do Something!
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