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Oil-The Moral Equivalent Of War
oy noyie n. Martin, Sr.
Post Editorial Writer
As the nation crosses the threshold
of summer and the pending
summer-travel season, Amtrak
train travel is overloaded, the air
lines are jammed with the additional
problem of the FAA-ordered
grounded DC-lOs and motorists in
many areas are finding exorbitant
gas prices or simply no gas.
While the gasoline shortage
appears to be moving around the
country - California, the New Eng
land area, Washington, D.C.-U.S.
Energy Secretary James R.
Schlesinger has warned that things
are going to get worse before they
get better. He said the nation will
have about 95 percent of the gasoline
that was available last summer but
Math demands already up shortages
may be as high as 7 percent. In spite
of these warnings, the American
people are skeptical. Many don’t
believe the government nor the oil
companies’ claims about shortages
'nut- .1___ . ....
JUaulieu
since the oil barons contend that
gasoline per gallon will need to go up
to $1.50 if research is to be under
taken to find new sources of oil.
Ironically, the same claims were
made in 1974 when gas prices were
allowed to nearly double, yet few if
any new oil sources were found.
It is ironic too, that just two years
ago President Carter said after a
long-awaited announcement con
cerning a comprehensive energy
policy, “Our solutions must ask
equal sacrifices from every region,
every class of people, every interest
group.” Yet, even today, it is lower
income, working people and inde
pendent truck drivers who appear to
be carrying most of the burden of
paying higher motor fuel prices.
In an apparent effort to offset
some of the credibility lost by the
government over the energy crisis,
President Carter has s^id energy -
its access and conservation- are the
“moral equivalent of war.” To be
sure, the President’s statement is a
lot more than political rhetoric. The
“war” theory arises from the deter
mination of the technology-deprived
and oppressed groups in the oil-rich
areas of Africa and Arabia to either
not sell or sell at a high price, crude
oil, to the United States. The
uncertainty of this loss of oil and the
possible influence of the Russians
with the oil-rich nations has moved
the U.S. to the brink of or “moral
equivalent of war.”
One of the international implica
tions of the gasoline crisis is evident
in Nigeria’s warning to both Eng
land and the U.S. not to lift economic
sanctions against white-ruled
Rhodesia for to do so, they would run
the risk of losing Nigeria’s expand
ing oil supplies.
On the domestic scene, thousands
of gas stations - many owned or
operated by blacks - have been
forced to close or have reduced
hours. People, especially moderate
to low income people, who must
depend on their automobiles to
transport them to and from work are
being severely jolted in the pocket
book.
From a domestic standpoint, our
gasoline crisis is the moral equiva
lent of a national disaster because
we have failed to develop a national
energy policy that is workable and
fair to all socio-economic groups.
Such a policy is at least 10 years past
due.
Therefore, it is time for the
President, the Congress of the
United States and the oil company
executives to stop playing petty
politics and price gouging with the
American people and jointly develop
a workable plan for conserving fuel
and equally sharing the burden of
the shortages and the benefits of
what,we have.
Resuming The Draft
mere exists a growing aeoate
among political and civil rights
leaders over the idea of resuming
the military draft. The debate
ranges from whether the U.S. should
return to conscription to enable the
armed forces to fill their manpower
needs, to the presumed absence of
middle-class America being repre
sented in our military ranks, to
allegations that with 29 percent of
the Army’s servicemen being black
the Army’s quality has somehnow
suffered.
Sen. Sam Nunn, Democrat of
Georgia, and Chairman of the
Armed Service Committee’s Man
power and Personnel Subcommit
tee, feels there is a serious problem
with the lack of more middle-class
Americans in the Armed Forces.
However, Army Secretary Clifford
Alexander has a totally different
viewpoint. As a black American, .
Alexander has expressed concern
about the strong racial nature of the
criticism against the volunteer
army. He’s particularly concerned
about the charges that the Army’s
quality has diminished in part
because its troops are 29 percent
black and most from lower income
backgrounds. Alexaner says, “No
one ever mentions the other ser
vices.” The Navy is 8 percent black
and the Air Force is 12 to 15 percent
black. Overall, the all-volunteer
armed forces is about 17 percent
black.
What is too often overlooked in
such debates is that the basic reason
for a disproportionate representa
tion of blacks in the armed forces
has historically been disproportion
ately high unemployment among
blacks, particularly among draft
age blacks where the jobless rates
^rejiearly 40 percent.
'DESPITE the lack of oihectiohofsome
BLACK STUDENTS AMD YOUHO PEOPLE, WE NEED
THESE YOUHO PEOPLE POE THEM /MAGINATION AND
INVENTIVENESS,THEIRNBHIDEASAHD APPROACHES"
fe. NOYWILNINS
J NE± M.
They Want To Be A Part Of The New Awareness
Affirmative Action In Police
Force Reduces Crime Rates
Special to the Post
WASHINGTON-The affir
mative action program
implemented by the Detroit
Police Department has contri
buted significantly to declin
ing crime rates in that city,
said Mayor Coleman A. Young
at a recent news conference
held in conjunction with plan
ning for the third anmui con
ference of the National Organ
ization of Black Law Enforce
ment Executives (NOBLE).
"Crime is down 30 percent
in the lasttwo years, and there
is some reason for this,” the
Detroit mayor said. “The only
significant change that has
happened during this period is
the composition of the
(Detroit) police force at the
officer and command levels.”
In 1967, Detroit suffered a
race riot that had a traumatic
effect on that city and its
police force. At that time the
police department was only
4.9 percent blpck; at the
supervisory-ranks, blacks
accounted for only 2.6 percent
of the sergeants and 1.3 per
cent of the lieutenants.
In 1974, under the leadership
of the Young administration,
the Detroit Police Department
designed an aggressive affir
mative. action program to
study the effects of previous
discrimination. By late 1977,
when a federal court ruled
against the department’s
affirmative action program,
blacks accounted for 32.3 per
cent of the total force and 15.1
percent of the sergeants were
black. As Young noted at the
news conference, the crime
rate had decreased signifi
cantly.
According to Mayor Young,
‘‘A poUce torce mat is 50
percent white in a city that is
50 percent black, or a police
force that lives outside the city
and has no common interest
with the people that it serves,
cannot get the same kind of
results."
Young’s remarks give sup
port to the race-conscious
affirmative action promotion
system, instituted by the
Detroit Police Department in
1074, that mandated a one-for
one racial quota. The pro
gram was found to be in
violation of Title VII of the
Civil Rights Act of 1064 by a
federal district court in 1077.
The case, Detroit PoUce Offi
cers Association v. Young, is
now pending in the United
States Circuit Court of
Appeals for the Sixth Circuit.
“Where a dramatic racial
imbalance exists within the
police personnel of a depart
ment, that imbalance affects
that department’s ability to
control crime, the two are
interrelated. You cannot
separate one from the other,’’
said Hubert Williams, presi
dent of NOBLE and director of
the Newark, New Jersey,
Police Department. “Police
agencies cannot function
effectively without com
munity support in producing
evidence and testimony. By
nature people will trust and
support those with whom they
share a common experience.”
The issue of affirmative
action in policing will be dis
cussed at length at NOBLE’S
upcoming third annual con
ference at the Hotel Pontchar
train, Detroit, Michigan, June
30-24. Drew Days, assistant
attorney general, Civil Rights
Division, U.S. Department of
Justice, and Dr. Bemadine
Denning, director of the U.S.
Office of Revenue Sharing,
will discuss the issue. Peggy
Triplett, special assistant to
the director, National Insti
tute of Law Enforcement and
Criminal Justice of the Law
Enforcement Assistance
Administration, will moderate
a panel on the future of equal
employment opportunity.
NOBLE is an organization
of the nation’s highest echelon
of black law enforcement offi
cials. Its 150 members include
Dr. Lee P. Brown, public
safety commissioner of
•lAtlanta; Homer Broome,,
deputy administrator of the
LEAA; Burtell Jefferson, pol
ice chief of Washington, D.C.;
Bishop Robinson, deputy
police commissioner,
Baltimore; and William Hart,
police chief of Detroit.
For more information, con
tact Tom Hart at (202)
833-1460 _
Where Can I Get A
Checkup For Cancer?
Your family doctor or a
doctor at a hospital or health
center can help detect the
presence of cancer through
regular checkups. During
your checkups, certain testa
may be performed to check
for different kinds of cancer.
Common testa are the breast
examination for breast
cancer, the Pap test to detect
cancer of the uterus, the pros
tate examination for prostate
cancer, and the procto for
cancer of the colon and
rectum.
— ■«» VERNON E. JORDAN, JR.
TO
BE
EQUAL
Welfare Reform’s Uncertain Fate
i
When it comes to welfare, the wheels of reform
grind slowly. For almost two decades, there has
been a national debate about reforming the
welfare system.
The announcement of a new Administration
welfare reform plan has reopened the issue. The
President asked for a fairly broad welfare
reform package in 1977. That never got
anywhere with Congress. So he has come back
with a scaled-down plan that might pass the
Congress.
The Administration’s persistence is commend
able. Back in 1969 the Nixon Administration
came up with a major welfare reform plan it
made only a half-hearted effort to pass. When
that failed, Nixon just dropped the issue, in effect
killing welfare reform’s chances for a decade.
The present Administration’s commitment to
progressive domestic programs can be seen by
its pattern of returning with alternative plans
after its original proposals fail to pass Congress.
We see this not only in welfare reform but in its
health proposals, urban policies, and other key
reforms.
But the Administration’s persistence is often
negated by the tactical mistake of building
compromises and cutbacks into its proposals.
Often what it sends to Congress is the irreducible
minimum, leaving little room for the inevitable <
weakening changes Congress will make.
The welfare reform package is a case in point.
The original 1977 plan was deeply flawed. After
its defeat, it was apparently decided that only a
very narrow reform plan could pass. But the
present plan is now so weak that even small
changes in Congress could effectively kill the
limited advance it makes over the present
svstem
The welfare reform plan would set a national
minimum of only two-thirds of the poverty level,
provide incentives to states to boost payments
above that amount, expand tax credits for the
working poor, extend benefits to needy two
parent families, and earmark ,60Q,Q0Qnii*ib|ic
fifryf^e jobs for welfare recipients. - ^ ttytcooA
That package falls far short of comprehensive
reform of the present degrading welfare system*
It is also far short of the ill-fated 1977 plan. ™
The work requirement is especially trouble
some. Stressing that aspect plays into the hands
of those who stigmatize welfare recipients as
shirkers who won’t take jobs. But few recipients
are able to work - most are too young, too old,
too sick, or too burdened with home responsibili
ties.
Those capable of work find the private sector
job market closed to them. The jobs just aren’t
there for relatively unskilled and less educated
workers. Just look at the unemployment rates.
Recognizing this, the Administration stresses
job creation in the CETA public jobs sytem. But
that introduces a serious negative element - it
threatens to turn CETA into a welfare job
program, at least in the public’s view. And as
state and local employment officers scramble to
get welfare recipients onto public jobs they may
well displace non-welfare CETA workers.
The most likely result would be a kind of
revolving door system in which people move
from welfare to CETA and then, since CETA jobs
are temporary, back to welfare again.
John Lewis Says “To Be Older Is To Be Blessed”
fliiocf ITHitnrial hv
Guest Editorial by
John Lewis
Special to the Post
(John Lewis, a long-time
human rights advocate, now
serves as director of the
dome«‘;c programs of
AC" i' the federal volun
teer m en y. He formerly
sei <>d rfs Chairman of the
Student Nonviolent Coordinat
ing Committee (SNCC) in the
1960s and directed the non
partisan Voter Education Pro
ject (VEP) for seven years in
the 1970s )
May was Older Americans
Month. It is a time to pay
tribute to older Americans, a
time to consider the plight of
the elderly in our society, and
to examine our own attitudes
toward older people and the
process of aging
It is said that you can judge
the character of a society by
the way it treats its elderly
citizens. If so, then we as a
nation stand to be indicted as a
selfish, uncaring, and un
appreciative society, for, in
too many instances, we have
turned our backs on older
Americans
As black people who have
suffered the effects of racism,
we must he careful that we do
not discriminate, in attitudes
or actions, against older
people The problem of age
ism in America exists just as
surely as racism and sexism.
Ageism is that notion that
people are different, somehow
inferior, just because they
pass a certain age. Ageism is
perpetuated by stereotypes,
fear, and ignorance.
Our mothers and fathers
who are black, old, and poor
suffer from triple discrimina
tion. Poverty increases with
age and poverty rates in
minority communities are
three times higher than in
white communities. It is diffi
cult to imagine how older
people, living on fixed
incomes or no incomes, cope
with skyrocketing costs of
food, shelter, health care, and
energy.
Too many older Americans
experience the anguish of
abandonment, feeling that
family members and society
itself has no further need of
them The result of such
loneliness and despair is that
illness is accelerated, infir
mity is hastened, and lives are
dramatically shortened.
Instead of a time of loneli
ness, older Americans should
enjoy the support Of a loving
and appreciative community
Instead of despair, there
should be a celebration of a
lifetime of experience. Instead
of wasting away, there should
be an opportunity for giving to
others Instead of being
poverty stricken, older Ameri
cans should be guaranteed the
resources to meet their basic
needs
The Older American
Programs of ACTION - Retir
ed Senior Volunteer Program
(RSVP), Foster grand
parents, and Senior Compan
ions •• have enlisted the
energy and experience of
270,000 older volunteers who
are a model of inspiration for
future generations.
Foster Grandparents bring
love and attention to abused,
retarded, handicapped and
neglected children Senior
Companions provide the
attention that families once
gave to the frail elderly.
RSVP volunteers attack a
multitude of local community
issues ranging from crime
prevention to economic self
sufficiency.
ACTION’S older American
volunteers accomplish the
miracle of turning despair and
anguish to hope and new
ambition. While renewing
their own lives, they give their
most precious gift - them- •
selves - to those who heed love
and attention most. They
demonstrate that older people
are not a problem, but a
resource.
There are millions of older
Americans who want to make
a greater contribution to
society According to pollster
Louis Harris, 53 percent of
retired older Americans are
desperately sorry that they
retired. Eighty-six percent of
all Americans want to be
allowed to work aa long aa
they want with no restriction
to age.
Aa we ahatter the negative
atereotypee of aging, we muat
find new and creative ways to
utilixe the trenoeodoua untap
ped human resources of older
Americans. In a selfish, ms
first society, the willingness of
older Americans to share their
wealth of experience comes
like a breath of fresh air.
During Older Americans
Month, we should rededicate
ourselves to the task of remov
ing the stigma of age. We
must create a climate of
Understanding and MM a
society where we are able tdf
Klaim, “To be older is to be
led."
USDA lightens Contort Over Donated Foods
WASHINGTON. - The
knowing misuse of food which
thelJ.8. Department of Agricul
ature donates to child nutrition
programs is a federal offense,
under regulations announced
last week.
"This action will help us to
correct serious problems that
exist in accounting for the
receipt and use of donated
foods,” said Assistant Secre
tary of Agriculature Carol
Tucker Foreman.
The department will provide
about $600 million worth of
food this year to states for child
nutrition programs. States may
distribute the food directly to
schools or to commercial firms
that process the foods for use in
schools. Previously, the federal
government could not ordinari
ly prosecute for the illegal use of
donsted food once title had
passed to state or local govern
ment
The regulations carry out a
provision of the child nutrition
amendments enacted in No
vember. Under that provision,
both those who administer
child nutrition programs and
those who receive benefits are
subject to federal law. Fines
and prison terms are spelled out
according to the amount of loss
to the program in food or
property. The child nutrition
programs include school lunch
ana Dreaktast; summer and
child care food, and food service
equipment assistance.
The regulations, scheduled to
he published in the June 5
Federal Register, become tffcc
tlve on that date.
^ More Common
e* you sir on onto the court,
racket in hand, do you ever
stop to think how dangerous a
high-speed ball can be to your
eyea? Eye injuries, some
resulting in blindness, are
becoming more and more
common in racket sports.
In a recent arucie published
in Family Health, two ophthal
mologists who surveyed
athletes' eye injuries in 1«7«
found that 3,220 eye injuries
were caused by racket-related
activities.
Ironically, the majority of
eye injuries occur among
people with good eyesight
because they rarely think of
protecting their eyes (or
glasses, since they don't wear
any) from potentially danger
ous objects such as balls or
rackets In an average tennis
game, for example, the ball
can travel up to M miles an
hour back and forth acrae the
net In faster sports, such as
squash and racketbaU, the
ball's speed can double that
Any contact at these velocities
can temporarily if not perma
nently damagethe eye.
I
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