I Editorials And Comments
The Meaning Of Violence
Last week we commented on
the racial violence that shook
Miami as a result of an all-white
jury’s acquittal of four white
police officers who had allegedly
beaten to death Arthur McDuffie
a black insurance agent.
Now that the smoke and dust
have cleared in an atmosphere of
relative calm, Miami’s black
population has begun to review
what has happened. They are
experiencing a sense of anger
and sorrow toward themselves
because many of the black com
munity’s businesses were de
stroyed in the violence and tur
moil.
In spite of this concern, a
60-year-old black man said, “I
don’t care if I have to go to
Washington to buy a loaf of
bread. There’s got to be violence
when you want action.” A 30
year-old unemployed black male
said with anger und frustration,
“Violence itself is a way of
communicating across the
nation. It isn’t just the McDuffie
case. It’s the way. ‘crackers’
(white people) have been kicking
us in the a- all along.” In
referring to the black com
munity, he added, “We built this,
we’re entitled to destroy it.”
While the Post sympathizes
with the plight of Miami’s
blacks, we deplore the violence
for at least three reasons. First,
the destruction of residential and
commercial facilities in black
neighborhoods simply creates
inconveniences in those neigh
borhoods for black people. Se
condly, self-destruction gives in
surance companies greater jus
tification for charging substan
tially higher rates for business in
black neighborhoods. Thirdly, if
and when public funds are made
available to rebuild the riot-torn
areas, the net result will be to
restore the community to its
pre-riot status and probably
little else. Thus, little of eco
nomic or social gain will actually
be achieved. Watts, for example,
heavily destroyed in the summer
of 1967 still has sections that
have not been rebuilt.
Black people are certainly
aware of the disadvantage of
violence against themselves; yet
the violence has occurred in
Miami and black leaders claim
its potential exists in many other
cities. The question that natural
ly follows - why violence?
Rollo May tells us in “Power
and Innocence,” sub-titled “A
Search For The Sources of Vio
lence,” that “violence has its
breeding ground in impotence
and apathy.” Thus, while blacks
have achieved a measure of
political influence in some urban
centers, they have not yet
achieved / any significant eco
nomic influence. Therefore,
Miami blacks are impotent be
cause of limited economic influ
ence and they are apathetic
because they see a combination
of forces that reinforce white
Miami’s apathy toward the
needs and concerns of blacks.
Miami blacks see a combined
effort by Miami’s largely white
business and political com
munity and the federal govern
ment encouraging Cubans, es
pecially those with business
skills, to come to America. Such
Cubans are provided with a wide
range of economic assistance in
their effort to re-establish them
selves. Part of the federal go
vernment’s motive is to say to
the world that Cubans living in
America are better off than
those under Castro’s com
munism.
• A 4 41. _i* 1_ 1 •
uit <xuu^ uiuc uiauv liar
tians are denied free entry to
America. This denial is prompt
ed by the lack of job skills of the
Haitians and the desire of the
U.S. to not embarrass president
for-life Jean Claude (“Baby
Doc”) Duvalier, the Haitian dic
tator. While privately many U.S.
government officials may dis
approve of Duvalier’s leadership
publicly, he is supported because
he allegedly opposes com
munism.
Therefore, the “deeds of vio
lence (in Miami and elsewhere)
in our society are performed
largely by those trying to
establish their self-esteem,” Rol
lo May continues, “...to defend
their self-image, and to demon
strate that they, too, are signifi
cant.”
In summary, Miami blacks
found it necessary to use vio
lence to communicate the mes
sage that “we, too, are signifi
cant.”
Winning Is Not The Only Thing
On Memorial Day two major
league baseball games involving
the California Angels vs. the
Texas Rangers and the Philadel
phia Phillies vs. the Pittsburgh
Pirates erupted into violence
over alleged bean-ball pitches.
Look here in our own city, the
Jackie Robinson Semi-Pro Base
Pall League did not have any
games over the weekend be
cause of abuses and threats to
the umpires.
"Recently, near Lancaster, SC,
52-year-old Raymond Dawkins
was umpiring a softball game
that ended suddenly when he was
fatally shot as a result of the gun
i
knife dual between a player or
one team and a coach on the
other.
These incidents appear to be in
part an outgrowth of the late
Vince Lombardy’s philosophy
that winning is the only thing. Ii
sports events - at whatever level
- require violence, confrontation
as a condition for winning, then
we need to end all competitive
sports. Sports should relate t<
building strong healthy bodies
and men and women with £
competitive spirit within the con
text of a high moral character
We hope you agree.
SELF
HELP/
| Team Work
As I See It
« , •
Political Indifference
GERALD O. JOHNSON
POST COLUMNIST
Recently, I have had to
defend my stance on being
politically inactive. People
are astonished to find that I
take so little interest in the
political process. I am told
that my indifference to the
political process is an
abuse of my privileges. I
think not.
In my defense, let me say
that I think the political
process can be divided into
two distinct entities; a dis
crete entity and a con
tinuous entity.
By definition anything
that is continuous is on
going; anything that is dis
crete is in pieces. To under
stand my indifference to
politics, you must appre
ciate what I’m about to
say.
Politics is a continuous
function. The politicians
and the lobbyist are the
_ individuals that make up
~ the continuous entity. The
ongoing issues of our so
ciety are actually handled
by these individuals.
The voters comprise the
bulk of the discrete entity.
We can voice our political
opinions at interim periods,
formally known as elec
tions.
It is virtually impossible
to have any influence on a
dynamic and continuous
system with static and dis
crete input. It is much like
trying to stop a large snow
ball rolling down the side of
a snow covered hill by
throwing rocks at it every
, hour.
The truth of the matter is
that the political process is
a token attempt at appea
sing the people by letting
them think they have some
say in the process.
Ask yourself why is it
Gerald O. Johnson
that- regardless of who is
voted into office nothing
seems to change. Ask your
self why is it that you never
hear from politicians until
it is election time.
Because the political sys-.
tern is so dynamic, no one
man has any influence on it
at all. This is why the
system works regardless of
who is in office. Our foreign
policy is~unaltered by Cy
rus Vance’s resignation;
Richard Nixon’s resigna
tion did not bring the sys
tem to a screeching halt;
the system will keep chug
ging along regardless of
who wins the election in
November.
Or you could ask your
self why is it that the
human indignation suf
fered by the mass of Black
people in this country has
not improved even though
the number of Blacks in
political offices has in
creased tremendously over
the past decade.
Again the dynamicness
of the system forces indivi
duals to participate accord
ing to the system precepts.
Either you roll with the
system or you don’t roll at
all.
Consider the various lob
I?_c.
uy uup. Alley wine ciiiu
dine, give kickbacks, con
sult, and generally stay in
close contact with poli
ticians on a daily basis.
Compare this with the
amount of time the normal
voter spends with a politi
cian. It should be apparent
that politicians decide the
fate of an issue based on
the influence of the lobby
groups.
Consequently, I consider
the political process a time
consuming and costly farce
which I do not have time to
participate in.
This is not a condemna
tion of the system; the
system is a by-product of
an industrialized society,
and it functions the way it
has to. I do feel, however,
that the voting process is
not the best way to partici
pate in the political process
for me.
Moreover, this is not a
condemnation of those peo
ple who participate in the
political process. Each of
us must dance to different
tunes and my tune is not for
everybody. Nor is every
body’s tune for me. After
all, that’s politics, baby!
Clean-Up
An easy-to-make and in
expensive solution of
bleach and water will clean
household surfaces such as
Sinks, bathtubs, showers,
basins, tile, plastic, wood
work and glass.
Just mix ■£ to % cup
liquid bleach to a gallon of
water, say NCSU agricul
tural extension specialists.
Be sure never to combine
bleach with any other
household product such as
ammonia, toilet bowl
cleaner, rust remover or
oven cleaner.
Hill
>
How Many Doctors Do We Need
One of the most curious concepts to come
along in quite a while is the growing notion
that America has too many doctors. Just try
telling that to minorities and the poor, who
frequently live in rural areas or urban
neighborhoods that have no doctors at all.,
It’s the old story of looking at gross
figures. The annual output of new doctors
has doubled in the past two decades. But
that doesn’t mean they practice where the
people who need their skills live. Nor does it
mean they are in specialties most needed by
the average healthy consumer.
Still, the so-called doctor shortage is aq
excuse for support for cutting federal aid tiq
medical schools. It’s even being used as q
rationale for opposing a national health
insurance plan. '•
It is argued that the more doctors theipi
are, the more people will use them, and tl>e
more inflationary will health costs becompk
Strange. At the same time, we’re told thftt
the law of supply and demand has not beep
repealed. The more there is available of:a
good or service, the lower its price is likely
to become.
But that doesn’t hold true for health caret
Why? The answer is that organized metfif
cine operates like an internal OPEC mono
poly, freed from the normal constraints of
the marketplace. Fee-for-service medicine
keeps health care costs high, as does the
cost-plus insurance system.
It’s hard to understand the argument that
it’s bad if people use physicians’ services
more often. If more people use more
doctors, that-obviously means they need
those doctors and the health care they
provide.
Whenever sales of some consumer item
increase we never say that’s bad. We
recognize that people want more of that
item and business takes steps to supply it.
But why flien do we say that items in human
services, like health care, should be carefulm
ly rationed and kept limited? ■
Those limits are today imposed by ■
excessive costs. If you can afford to pay a I
doctor you use his services, if you can’t, you I
don’t. Poor people covered by Medicare and I
Medicaid programs have some access I
to health care since the government will pay 1
for it. And there’s been a rise in health I
services utilization since those programs 1
*»V* V OM4I iVU>
That’s good, it means more people are
getting better health care. But millions of
others are not. They don’t have access to
doctors. The financial structure of medical
professions is such that esoteric specialties
drain off many who in former years might
have been general practitioners and family
physicians.
The result is that some areas and people
are not served at all, some are underserved,
and relatively few have full access to the
health care they need. So long as the
nation’s ghettos and barrios are virtually
without health practitioners, so long as
many public hospitals would stop dead in
their tracks without foreign trained physi
cians, and so long as medical professionals
are maldistributed, America doesn’t hav6
too many doctors. ■:
* *
THE CHARLOTTE POST
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(212) IR9-I220 Calumet 5-62p<^^
Alfreds L. Madison
Special To The Post
When people are sitting
on a powder keg, it can
certainly be expected to
blow up sometime. That's
what happened in Miami
recently. Blacks have been
constant victims of police
brutality and injustice in
courts’ handling of cases.
These conditions have
existed down through the
years.
Senator Stone of Florida
informed me that the cases
against blacks in this coun
try such as the Dade Coun
ty School superintendent's
misuse of school funds are
handled quickly; but cases
of similar conduct against
whites are a long drawn out
process For comparison
he used Gov. Mandel of
Maryland’s case which was
drawn out through many
years. Then, of course,
everyone knows that
whites who are in high
places do not serve long
prison terms, if any. The
Watergate rascals who did
serve, generally had short
terms and some were even
pardoned without any time
at all.
From Capitol Hui *:
Inhumanity Caused Black Explosion In Miami?
In Miami, blacks were
infuriated over the alleged
rape of a black 11-year-old
girl by a white highway
patrolman, and the Grand
Jury refused to Indict him.
Then a black school teach
er, to whose home the
police came with a warrant
in search of cocaine,
the door and upon learning
that the police (who had the
correct address on the war
rant) came to his home
which was not the proper
address, shut the door. The
police broke into the teach
er’s home. The authorities
said closing the door in the
policemen’s face was
wrong.
Freeing of the four white
policemen who beat in
surance agent McDuffie -
who was snatched from a
motorcycle and his head
beaten to a pulp as well as
numerous devastating
blows to his body - trig
gered the explosive situa
tion which has been sim
mering for a long time over
the many unjust racial pro
blems. Unemployment is
high among blacks; espe
cially black youth. These
Miami Blacks observe wth
Alfreds Madison
disdain the preferred treat
ment of Cuban refugees by
the government and em
ployers while overlooking
their needs and concerns.
They also observe the
government's horrible
treatment of Haitian boat
people who are black. Sure
ly they see a close relation
ship between the Haitians
and themselves.
Several black national
leaders went to Miami with
the hope of cooling condi
tions, finding out the real
underlying causes, and
calling upon the city, state
and federal leaders to live
up to their responsibilities
to black citizens, who are a
very vital and valuable
part of the United States’
population.
The black leaders called
upon the Justice Depart-'
ment to investigate the
entire criminal justice con
ditions in Miami. They are
also calling the country’s
leaders' attention to the
necessity of immediately
alleviating the high rate of
unemployment among
blacks in Miami and all
inner American cities, be
cause there can quite likely
be repeat Miami perfor
mances in other places.
William Raspberry of the
Washington Post said Pre
sident Carter stated that
the riot in Miami was no
way to get attention. All
agree it’s certainly not the
best way, but as blacks
we ve always had to take
drastic steps for anything
like justice. Mr. Carter will
have to admit that he had
not considered sending the
Justice Department to
Miami before the riot, and
since he and congress lave
continuously turned *saf
ears to the high unemploy
ment of blacks, but instead
induced higher unemploy
ment for them under the
pretense of lowering infla
tion, they might have to
give more attention time
to destruction « riots
Both Mr. Carter und th
congress' hands are • oiled
with the Miami riot be
cause of their inhumane
austere budget, and lack of
concern for rising racism
In the United States which
is its most serious problem
! today
LSDA km Final Lunch Patton
11/ A CUTMP'TAIT n_I nn.i in
on recent surveys of chil
dren’s eating habits and
nutritional needs, the U S.
Department of Agriculture
today issued rules that will
change lunches served to
children in schools starting
next fall.
"The rules encourage
schools in the national
school lunch program to
tailor meal and portion
sizes to the eating habits of
children,” Assistant Secre
tary of Agriculture Carol
Tucker Forman said. "This
measure is expected to
reduce plate waste among
younger children and also
do a better job of meeting
the nutritional needs of
older children."
Forman said these rules
are the second and final
I" ■ » mm iiiujoi v.i iu
school lunch meal patterns,
originally proposed in 1977.
USDA implemented in
terim regulations in August
1978 to field test the pro
posed changes, and also
solicited public comment.
Today's final regulations
reflect findings about the
impact of the meal pattern
changes gathered durfeg
the test phase.
The rules recommend:
-schools service dif
ference sized portions ol
food to children of different
age groups.