Newspapers / The Charlotte Post (Charlotte, … / May 10, 1979, edition 1 / Page 2
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cliiZcoiir I Run In Feai\.Or Learn For Progress Like many other situations which come about in the national commu nity such as quick insurance plans, dubious housing plans, fast money plans, sure-fire job plans, the Black community has to be especially watchful. Somehow, the hustler and the schemers rush to the Black community first to unload their shady products and mysterious mes sages. Even to God’s own Gospel! The present nuclear matter is no exception. Already literature is being distri buted, sometimes finding its way into the Black press, about the horrors and the doomsday predic tions of the use of nuclear energy. This is unfortunate, because the future of nuclear energy in America, and in the lives of all Americans, is Dositive To begin with, present day natural gas which heats the boilers which cause the generation of electricity, has twenty more years before the supply gives out...if we use it at the rate we are using it today. Oil, which powers generators to supply electricity, will not last much longer at the rate we are using it. It is clear that the remaining supply of gas and oil must be reserved to meet the many uses for which there is no substitute. Add to this the present tragedy in Iran and the supply might end sooner. Let us remember we are getting nearly half of our nation’s oil supply from foreign countries; nations which can again cut us off without notice as they did just four years ago before quadrupl ing prices. Or their internal prob lems can put us in national jeopardy. Take a look at the comparative figures: Electricity generated from nuclear power costs substantially less to produce than electricity from coal or oil. The exact amount is one and a half cents per kilowatt hour. Coal costs two cents and oil costs four cents. Imagine, it would cost eight billion dollars to buy enough foreign oil to generate the amount of electricity that will be produced by nuclear plants this year. Blacks Organize A recent syndicated article speak ing against nuclear energy suggest ed that the Black community organ ize against nuclear power and that the Black community rise up against waste disposal as a part of the overall liberation struggle. How ever in December of 1977 the NAACP went on record to say that "The fact is that nuclear power will be required to meet our future needs for electricity. If we do not move ahead now with the nuclear power development, the next generation is likely to be sitting around in the dark, blaming the utilities for not doing something this generation’s officials would not let them do.’’ As for high level waste, one storage site of less than 1000 acres --- - * ■ ■■ • ■'_ •___-_ _ _ can provide au tne storage capacity this country needs for its civilian nuclear power plants through the year 2000. On radioactivity released from nuclear power plants is only a small fraction of the amount coming from x-rays, granite buildings and airplane travel. One out of every ten hospital patients in this country depends on nuclear medicine for the diagnosis of human ailments. The risk safety factor regarding American nuclear plants is less than minimal. In fact, the nuclear power industry is the most closely regulat ed industrial enterprise in this coun try. No person in public has been injured by a nuclear-related incident at any commercial nuclear power reactor. This is an impeccable record. There are serious charges that the American nuclear industry would be involved with using nuclear weapons on emerging African nations. Yet none of the present nuclear-weapons states has produced any weapons from materials used in commercial nuclear plants. Nor has any nation used nuclear power plants for wea pons development. Stand On Energy To support the NAACP’s stand on nuclear energy, opinions have come from many responsible sources: The department of nuclear engineer ing at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology states, "The public would be adversely affected by the outright rejection of the nuclear alternative...or by any further delay in its development." On January 16 of 1975, thirty-one outstanding scien tists met and determined, "We see no reasonable alternatives to an increased use of nuclear scientists in Chicago went on record in 1975 to support nuclear energy and use as a way to a better life for Black and disadvantaged Americans. But back to emerging African nations and America’s nuclear wea pons directed toward them. Such an attack for military purpose has only been used when another powerful nation has held America’s military power in critical abeyance. Japan, for instance. No African nation can do this. Without seeming crass, the largest Black nation in Africa might have a serious problem battling the combined national guards of New York, Pennsylvania, Illinois and California...and certainly without nuclear weapons. The important item for Black Americans to know as far as nuclear energy is concerned is how the future ties them in with progress. Nuclear power is cheaper, it is cleaner, it is easier to produce, it can give far more electricity to homes than any other energy source. It will be with us forever. Its capability will match and even accelerate the growth of industry in this country... which means jobs. |J 1* fi|J i *I^WB A#4 ■Bflv BXAwB^y^■ We Have The Toole To Do The Job For A Better Mack Community ^Let’8 Uee Them ’ Week Of Student Abuse by Rev. Dr. Maggie Lamb ati _»—1 iv KTYMann Charlotte has Just closed a week’s observance at cMM abuse, so I thought It ms a good time to remind our rend ers that students are chUtkea and were also considered as being abused. This to tbs resolution that is beta* sent out to several organisations as well as the superintendent of Charlotte-Mocklenburg schools: “Whereas the education of our young has deteriorated with forced bussing of -friiti. ren to schools distant from their homes; and further such bussing has kept the parents of the bussed children from being able to have with the teachers and admi nistrators of these distant schools; and further k denied by practical access to uie distant schools, participa tion in social and parent teacher activities, thereby denying to the bussed student the advantages and benefits of such parental activities, anti, Whereas such obvioiw dis advantages resulting from the bussing of these students to distant schools far ramovsd from their homes and social environment, they the biased students, are bring dwded equal educational opportuni ties; further, the emotional impact of this program of bussing students to far distant schools is doing great harm to young students of grades one thru grades three, be it there fore resolved, tnat we go on record as opposed to tte bus sing of children in gradee one thru three to far schools and that they hat tail attend the schools nearest to their homes, thus restoring a feeling of security to tbeoe pupils and a feeling of belong ing to the parent of these i / Dr. Nicholson pupils in relation to their schools and the administra tors thereof. Be it further resolved that a copy of this resolution be presented to the Charlotte-Mecklenburg School Board and that it be made available to the Media.” «r Charlotte ^ celebrating Charlotte. Many activities are going on all over town this month. This is also senior citizens month. Have we stopped to think how we will celebrate the senior citizens of tomorrow? I have Just read in a local paper that the adminis tration has sold the records of our children in ninth and eleventh grades to a local newspaper. Yes, their names, address .and their entire records. Just think what that will do to the morale of the student when he or she goes to get a Job and their grades has Improved or gone from good to bad. Here these children’s future is being blighted by the administration of all people; the ones that are supposed to help make them responsible citizens. Does this come within the guidelines of H E W? If so Mr. Califano needs to stop and take a good look at himself before he executes any more rules. This is child abuse in its highest form. How can these students grow up gracefully knowing that they are being commercialized on by the media. Yes, this is child abuse. How can they survive such hostile treatment as be ing commercialized on. Al ready, all the children have not been given an equal oppor tunity of getting a good educa tion in our public schools. Just say so many students are going to private schools; Just say so many women won’t let their offsprings be born. ' Do we want another test score like the one that we Just experienced? Why can’t we do as these resolutions above call for. I hope we will look at our children from a child’s point of view. Give them the necessary respect; they will meet competition. Throw soda) /promotion .put of the window; give them an oppoi tunity to compete, something to fight for and a recognition of the hard work that they will do with a full opportunity. I would like to hear from those of you who love your children and want them to have the best education possible. City Transit Charlotte Transit System revenue passenger ridership increased .64 percent in April, the second month an increase has been recorded following the 56-days drivers' strike. The number of riders on express buses rose 110.3 per cent over the number carried last year. The highest daily express passenger number during April was 380 pesesn gers ; the pre-strike daily high was 334 express passengers. Sales of the Charlotte Tran sit System’s monthly unlimit ed ride pass increased IIJ percent in April. SBSBBSBSy VERNON E. J< jjm ; to’ I BE ; ► . . j 5 EQUAL j Black College Gains An IHmaon V' Every time I see an analysis of the state of Made Americans there is always one supposed bright spot in an otherwise gloomy picture. More blacks are going to college, and the proportion of blades in college is about equal to the numbers of college-age blacks, and to the white rate of college attendance. Tbs only trouble with that bright spotip that it isn’t true. V - That’s because all post-secondary education is lumped under the label “college.” Surveys show more Mack high school seniors aspire to a 4 college education than do whites. But they don’t set it. in post-secondary education are far more likely than whites to be in vocational schools or in two-year community colleges. Proportionately fewer wind up in four-year colleges, and still fewer in universities. Hie opposite is true for white students. Of special concern is the fact that the two-year community colleges are playing a steadily larger role in educating black youth. Almost barf of all black students attending colleges gf* going to those institutions. And yet there has been no national strategy devised concerning just what the proper role of those schools should be. Too often they are restricted to providing terminal occupational training. That may be fine for many of their students, who receive the skills and knowledge required 'for specific occupations. But many others are drawn to the two-year colleges because they are cheaper, because they think they can eventually transfer to four-year schools, or because they wrongly aesume they can't do academic college level work. Buck educators have expressed dismay that bright youngsters who should be getting univer sity training are moving instead into community colleges and foregoing the career mobility and higher statue occupations open to those holding higher degrees. There ere also fears that the nation may be creating an underfunded, understaffed and under-achieving sector of higher education, designed to drain off minority and disadvantag ed students whom the colleges and universities width) Ignore. Thus, critics say, there is a danger that the two-year colleges may become the ghetto of the . college community, reservations for the disad- 1 vantaged. Meanwhile, the higher track fflUagre and universities would be free to cater to the needs of white and middle clan students. Such a development would be a Cruel blow to black educational aspirations. The two-year community colleges have a tremendous poten tial to develop into important institutions inte grated into the structure of higher Property funded and organised community colleges can fulfill the basic needs of thstr students and also serve as bridge to education. But so long as many four-year colleges refuse to accept transfers with full credit and so long as they are viewed as centers for remedial work and for Job trainii*, that won’t happen. Too many black students who want to attend four-year colleges and universities don’t do so • because they can’t afford them. Financial aid to students is drying up, and what’s left to being spreadmore widely instead of being targeted to those moet in need. THE CHARLOTTE POST “THE PEOPLES NEWSPAPER” Established 1918 Published Every Thursday By The Charlotte Post Publishing Co., Inc. 1524 West Blvd.-Charlotte. N.C. 28208 Telephones (704)376-0496-376-0497 Circulation, 9,915 j 60. YEARS OF CONTINUOUS SERVICE BILL JOHNSON...Editor Publisher BERNARD REEVES...General Manager / I SHIRLEY HARVEY...Advertising Director Second Class Postage No. 965500 Paid Af Charlotte, N.C under the Act of March 3, 1878 Member National Newspaper Publishers Association North Carolina Black Publishers Association Deadline for all news copy and photor, is 5 p.m. Monday. All photos and copy submitted becomes the property of the POST, and will not be returned. National Advertising Representative Amalgamated Publishers, Inc. 45 W. 5th Suite 1403 2400 S Michigan Ave. New York, N Y 10036 Chicago, III. 60616 (212 ) 489 1220 Calumet 5-0200 Publisher Sees Crises For Minority-Owned Businesses by Ernest E. Schell Minority-owned businesses face greater challenges today i than when they first began to i thrive nearly a decade ago. So reports Earl G. Graves, publisher of Black Enterprise, speaking to an audience of 100 students, faculty, and busi ness executives at the LaSalle College International Business Lecture series last week. Graves, who heads five cor porations, noted that the bur dens facing black business men today are “simply awe some.” The biggest problem of all, he said, is “the severe. : lack of access to capital on the part of minority business men.” "The history of minority owned businesses is filled with stories of entrepreneurs who had to resort to last-ditch substitutes because they could not obtain legal, legitimate business loans,” Graves observed. “Worse yet, many banks and financial institu tions, large and small, are simply disbanding their minority lending departments and programs.” Pointing to the trend toward cutting hack on federal pro grams designed to aid minor ity business, Graves declared that such aid is obviously a "last resort," but added that such programs are “our pri mary hope of strengthening our businesses, and they t*ed to stay alive for the tipae being.” One bright spot, according to Graves, is the appointment of J. Bruce Lewellyn as head of the federal government’s Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC), which up until now has been criticised for helping primarily multi national corporations. Under Llewellyn, a successful entre preneur whose chain of super markets ranks third ib the Black Enterprise list of 110 lop minority-owned businesses, Graves hopes that OPIC will extend loans, loon guarantees, and risk insurance to a great er number of black business ns wishing to do business abroad. The purchasing power of the black community is the key to economic clout in dealing with mainstream corporations, Graves emphasises. A former aide to the late Senator Robert Kennedy, Gravea farmed his own consultant firm after Kennedy was sseaeslnaleil in 1968 The company was set up to advise corporations on hew best to reach minority markets Today, in addition to publishing the remarfcabiv successful magazine, Black Enterprise, with a readership of 1.2S million. Graves owns 2 radio stations in Dallas and several economic develop ment and marketing Arms. “If I tried to do today what I did when I started 11 years ago,” he says, “I would most likely not be as successful. Times are changing, and not at all for the better.” “Ten years ago,” Graves reminded his audience, "the nation was more receptive to ideas, programs, and laws for equal economic opportunity and social justice.” More than attitudes have changed. The percentage of black families earning over 124,000 a year has declined from a high of 12 percent in 19fa to only 2 percent today. The gap between the median income of blacks and whites has also widened. What the majority of America’s business corpora tions must realize, Graves concluded, is that black eco nomic opportunity is at the heart of the effort to save our nation's cities. If black busi nesses can survive and thrive, they can go a long way toward easing the minority unemploy ment that is leading to frustra tion and despair in many of America's older urban centers. Corporations, financial In stitutions, and elected official* must be made aware that 4 matin the American dream mk reaWyae^NOM hurnm rirbta for *1.” PTA Challenges Nation ’« Leaders What Can We Do For Our Schools? cnicago — culminating a series of public hearings which explored problems fac ing cities and their schools - and opportunities for positive change - the National PTA will bold a national conferanca on this subject as pert of Us Urban Education Project. The day-long meeting will be in Washington, D.C., on May 15, 9 a.m. - 5 p m., HEW Building, in the Snow Room, Number 5061, 330 Indepen dence Avenue, S.W. Offering a forum for leaden of national organizations con cerned with Urban problems and their impact on our cities’ schools, this conference rep resents the PTA’s commit ment to initiating a coopera tive discussion of these con cerns among key figures in government, education, and national citizens' organiza tions It also signifies the beginning of a mobilization of both local and national re sources for addressing these crucial issues ueuncung OM project in November lm, the PTA’e objectives ere to focus natioo •1 attention on the prnfilsms their schools; to generate mw ead dynamic epprssthse to their reeolutioa; and to moke graotojhe landtag force to *• grace BAISINGER, National PTA president, "The six cities w» Meed met>oto!Sali^L>MV* impressive croeeHMCtion ^f educators, public officials, pnrenle. etudenU, clergy, and community leaden spoke out cto»«y <» the problems and resources of our urban “Baaed on a preliminary analysis of the heartr« testi mony, the five meet frequent ly cited recurring problems effecting urban centers and schools were: inadequate fi nancing for public education; lock of parental involvement. Or broad-based community low Om
The Charlotte Post (Charlotte, N.C.)
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May 10, 1979, edition 1
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