Newspapers / The Charlotte Post (Charlotte, … / Jan. 29, 1981, edition 1 / Page 2
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Editorials & Comments IJNCF: A Worthy Cause Last Saturday night Charlotte area television viewers had an opportunity to see the “Lou Rawls Parade of Stars” on WBTV. The three-hour Las Vegas-based show including such personalities as Lola Falana, Bill Cosby, Charlie Pride and Muhammad Ali, was a fund raising special for the United Negro College Fund (UNCF) and its 41 private, predominantly black colleges and universities. There are at least three rea sons for giving your support to UNCF institutions of higher learnincs. These are economic, 1 historic and psychological. Over 50,000 black students benefit from the support given to UNCF member schools. In fact, over half of the students en rolled at UNCF schools come from families with less than $9,000 in annual income. There fore, 90 percent are in need of financial aid. Secondly. the historic found ation or cultural heritage of black Americans is partly rooted in our black colleges and uni versities. Darwin T. Turner re minds us that these institutions “were established originally co provide for the minimal educa tional needs of free and newly freed black people. Administer ed and staffed primarily by white professors, they helped train Negro teachers and ad ministrators. who eventually as sumea leadership of most of these colleges.” Turner adds, ‘‘Many of the ablest, leaders of the ‘‘older” generation of Afro Americans were educated at Negro institutions.” Thirdly, there is a psycholo gical need for the private black college. This is twofold. First, white-oriented institutions that teach from a white perspective too often cannot respond to the relevant needs of black youth. This is reflected in the fact that about 70 percent of the blacks who attend white colleges never graduate. Secondly, Tony Brown tells us that the implementation desegregation plan of the federal Department of Education and its Office of Civil Rights is a “racist version...which has turned black colleges (public) into white col leges and let white colleges re main white. Suddenly, West Vir ginia State, Bluefield State, Lin coln University in Missouri were desegregated or predominantly white” just to name a few. Thus, we have fewer institutions of higher learning teaching from a black perspective. If black culture, history and self-awareness are to survive, and continue to make an inpact upon America, UNCF colleges and universities must survive. Gid to UNCF...It’s good for you, good for your children and good for America. Remember the UNCF motto: “A Mind Is A Terrible Thing To Waste.” West lrade Street -Then And Now! On two nights last weekend Charlotte police, aided by two female officers posing as prosti tutes, arrested over 15 men on West Trade Street for soliciting sex, including crimes against nature. It has been because of similar police efforts to break up the cycle of prostitution on West Trade that “the street,” as one writer has said, “is an express lane for prostitutes and a sitting room for vagrants and winos.” Contributing to the encourage ment of prostitution, crime, drug use and an assortment of other / illegal actions on West Trade Street has been the encroaching physical decay that has been allowed to occur - decaying and boarded-up housing units, va . cant lots, abandoned commer cial sites and little business activity. Ironically, West Trade Street was once a prestigious roadway of large elegant hotels, cuisine restaurants, small commercial establishments, the Southern Railway Station and the center of Charlotte’s high society. How ever, government-stimulated events under the guise of plan ning set in motion changes that led to West Trade’s eventual decline starting about 25 years ago. With the relocation of the Southern Railway Station and Harding High School went many white residents and neighbor hood businesses. Then, with en couragement from city govern ment, federal people relocated the main post office. The com bined effect of these actions, along with the surburban shop ping center boom, has‘led to the decline of West Trade Street and its trafficking in prostitution. Local government, which is now frantically trying to revive the grandeur that was once West Trade Street, needs to carefully assess its own role in creating the environment that now exists on West Trade. If planners, de velopers and public officials can not foresee more clearly in the future the consequences of their planning decisions, Charlotte will be in serious trouble and never achieve the greatness of its potential. Jrart of that consequence is to realize that prostitution, the world’s oldest profession, will not leave the city just because West Trade Street is revived, or should we say, if it is revived. Thus, as public officials and today’s planners begin a revival of West Trade, let them not forget that part of their planning must include an awareness, if not an actual plan, for the possible relocation of prosti tutes, winos and vagrants. To simply ignore these groups with out a social engineering plan would be to recreate a West Trade Street somewhere else. BUCK M/5T0RY f A Race Is Like A Man-Until It Uses Its Own Talents, Takes pride In Its Own History. And Loves Its Own Memories, It Can Never ^ Fulfill Itself Completely." Letters To The Editor Are Reagan’s Goals Attainable? To The Editor: The question now being asked in private and group discussion is: ‘ What will Reagan do as President?" It may be premature to try to answer this question, considering that (1) cam paign promises are often loaded with political rhe toric and sometimes diffi cult to fulfill, and (2) the Reagan cabinet has yet to “hit the ground and be off and running." There are, of course, certain observ ations tha t can be made based on what we now know. Reagan’s economic pro gram, which will aim to -trengthen the economy by inleashing the forces of the free market, is the focus of intense interest. Regan will take a conservative path, trying to control govern ment spending, reduce tax es, diminish the role of government in the eco nomy and stimulate sav ings, production and in vestment. The issues are the scope and vigor of Keagan s economic poli cies. Some advisors want radical action - a massive tax cut to accelerate growth and an immediate return to the principles of unconstrained capitalism. Others favor a more mo derate course -- sizable tax cuts across the board, with business getting special at tention, and substantial re ductions in government spending. I feel that Rea gan will incline toward mo deration, away from radicalism. in energy policy, Keagan may push to end all federal price controls on oil and natural gas (due to expire in December 1984). He may encourage the use of coal and nuclear power as well. He has criticized the public corporation that promotes apathetic fuels, out my guess is that he will accept it eventually. I would also expect Reagan to try to ease the burden of govern ment by eliminating regu lations. He might combine a general moratorium on new regulations with an “offset" policy to allow new ones only if old regu lations are retired. I feel certain he will force agen cies to balance the costs and benefits of regulations more carefully, and he may agree that Congress should have the power to veto any new regulations it dislikes. On national security, Reagan's primary goal will be to reestablish America’s military superiority - he will propose a new strate gic bomber, more Navy ships, increased pay for military personnel and greater numbers of land based strategic missiles. The immediate emphasis will be on accelerated pro duction of current weapons systems, not the develop ment of new systems that win not D€ avaiiaDie tor years. He will try to count er the growing strategic power of the USSR as soon as possible. Success in do ing so will enable him to deal from a stronger posi tion in negotiating a new limitation on strategic arms. Reagan has made it clear that he will withdraw SALT II from the Senate and seek new talks on limiting American and Soviet nuclear weapons. Also, he has said he be lieves in “linkage,” which implies that disagreements with Moscow in Africa or the Middle East may have adverse effects on new talks. Although Reagan op posed the partial grain em bargo against the USSR, it is not yet apparent whether he will act to remove it early in ms administration. I feel that Reagan will probably drop his insist ence of "official relations” . with Taiwan as he comes to recognize China as an im portant potential partner in the three-cornered strate gic game. It is almost certain that Reagan will not press friendly nations on internal political ar rangements or violations of human rights. Over all, my feeling is that the new pre sident will preside over foreign policy more cau tiously than his campaign rhetoric would suggest. Reagan will advocate several major changes in federal programs. He wants to remove the earn ings limit for Social Se curity beneficiaries, trans fer welfare back to the states, give broad block grants for urban renewal and create “enterprise zones” to attract business to blighted neighborhoods in inner cities. Many of Reagan's ob jectives are worthy. My own view is that the Reagan administration will be flexible and pragmatic, not as titled to the right as some expect. It is far hard er to run the country than it is to criticize those who run it. Political leaders will be gin to sprinkle their re marks with such wards as “realistic,” “practical,” and “compromise.” Rea gan knows that he became president with only 27 per cent of Americans support ing him. He, of course, will try to keep his coalition together. He will recognize that the country is so big and so diverse that he will be able to move it only gradually, but, we hope, sufficiently to give us rea son to believe that things are getting better. -Andrew DiAntonio Bv Gerald C. Horne, ESQ?—^= Affirmative Action Save The Children! Special To The Post It is now recognized in creasingly that Black youth are at the heart of uncounted significant poli tical issues. Busing, the sub-minimum wage, the draft, unemployment, etc. all involve to a greater or lesser extent the question of Black youth. And despite the Interna tional Year of the Child, despite Operation PUSH and the Congressional Black Caucus focusing on the “Black Family” and “save the children," it re mains true that Black youth are subjected con stantly to a drumbeat of attack. Making national head lines recently and confirm ing what to some was ob vious was a recent study issued by the United States Surgeon General Julius B. Richmond. He noted that while the overall death rate in this country was drop ping by 20 percent from 1960-1978, it grew by 11 percent for young people from 15-24 years old.; the chief causes of death for this age group were motor vehicle accidents, other kinds of accidnts, suicides, ec. But for Black youth murder was by far the chief cause of death. Cor Correspondingly, a new born Black is nearly twice as likely to die in infancy as a white child. And those Black children who manage to survive infancy, what happens to them? Well, for starters, like so many others in this society, they’ll find it diffi cult to obtain any kind of health care. In 29 states Medicaid cannot be used to pay for health care of children in two parent families. In other states, families cannot receive Medicaid because their an nual incomes were consi dered above the poverty jevels; but the catch is that in these states the poverty level income is set at ab surdly low levels, e g., Ten nessee’s $2,400 per year. In other words, any family of four making $2,401 per year or more is deemed not to be poverty stricken and are denied Medicaid benefits. But the threshold issue is that 19 states have denied medical funds for prenatal care, thus contributing to the unusually high infant mortality rates of Blacks, who are forced by eco nomic circumstances to re ly disproportionately on Medicid. This same economic cir cumstance and social pres sure detailed in numerous studies has led to many women-led families in the Black community. Yet this only reflects the general national trend, as the num ber of United States families led by women with no husbands increased 51 percent from 5.6 million to 8.5 million, between 1970 and 1979. If there was an adequate system of child care centers, the question of women-led families w ould not oe a major social question. There are ap proximately six million preschool age children with working mothers, yet there are only an estimated one million group child care slots available, leaving at least 5 million kids out in the cold-a disproportion ate number of whom are Black. The right wing Reagan ites who chirp incessantly about Black "welfare mothers" not working, at the same time block fe derally funded child care, the lack of which often pre vents mothers from work ing in this unemployment plagued economy. The Black youth that Is able to survive infancy and the pre-school years, then has to enter under equipped, crowded public schools, where drugs are often more available than books. One does not have to be a prude about mari juana smoking to be con cerened about a situation where one out of nine high school seniors is a daily user or where eight percent of 12-13 year olds have tried the herb with half of this group still using it. The impact on thinking pro cesses, reading compre hension, verbal and arith metic skills, etc. is incal culable. Alcohol abuse, another “drug” problem that does not receive ade quate attention, is probably worse in the schools. The Black community, should also be concerned about our youth’s undue watching of television. Wil son Riles, a Black who is California’s School Super intendent, in a recently released study indicated that the more a student watches television, the worse he does in school. After surveying 500,000 sixth-twelfth graders, he concluded that the boob tube “is not an asset and it ought to be turned off...the dialogue that goes on in many of those programs is of very low quality and the educational value (is) nil.” But a Black parent with out child care will use the tube as a babypsitter, a Black parent with a po verty level income who cannot afford to pay for in- m tellectuai pursuits will use^ the tube as a substitute - and our entire community suffers. But the price for society goes far beyond this. The Black youth who is de prived of education, health care, recreation and em ployment is likely to be found in a Miami-style re bellion. A survey conduct ed by the Behaviorial Sci ence Research Institute and the Miami Herald in Dade County shows that the typical person involved in the rebellion was 27.8 years old, a single man who dropped out of high school and a bluecollar worker earning less than $10,000 a year. He was dissatisfied with his run-down neigh borhood, poor working con ditions, and salary. THE CHARLOTTE POST Second Class Postage No. 965500 “THE PEOPLE’S NEWSPAPER’’ Established 1918 Published Every Thursday by The Charlotte Post Publishing Co., Inc. 1524 West Blvd., Charlotte, N.C. 2X208 . Telephone (704)378-0490 Circulation 9.200 * 62 Years of Continuous Service Bill Johnson...Editor, Publisher _Bernard Reeves...General Manager Second Class Postage No. 96550 Paid At 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 photos is 5 p.m. Monday. All photos and copy submitted become the property of the POST and will not be returned. National Advertising Representative Amalgamated Publishers, Inc. 2400 S. Michigan Ave. 45 W. '. Ah St.. Suite 1493 Chicago. III. 80818 New York. N.Y. 10038 Calumet 54)200 ( 212 ) 489-1220 * From Capitol HU Reagan’s Inauguration Was Marked By Pomp And Glorv Mirena L. Madison Special To The Post The four-day inaugura tion of Ronald Reagan was marked by pomp and glory that only the rich could afford. The entire occasion had Washington seething with mink coats, long black limousines, private planes, black ties and tails all carried out at an astrono mical individual cost rang ing up to $2,000 Even the dance given for the young people cost $40 per person, and bleacher seats along the parade route were from $15 and $25 with some seats running as high as $100. It is said that the entire in auguration cost around $10 million The complete mi lieu was seemingly planned with only the very rich in mind who represent a Very small percentage of the nation's population R was quite evident that the aver age citizen was again sad died with the leftovers - standing room only to see the parade and to get a glimpse of their congress persons, a president who got their votes, with their families and friends ♦ Alfreds L. Madison decked out in the height of fashion and casting a glance at the constituents while they rolled by in black limousines and from their lofty inaugural perch The Capitol Center show that presented the biggies of Hollywood was also priced so only the wealthy could attend Ben Vereen, a marvelous black entertain er was featured as a ragged, tacky black-face comedian. One wonders why? Then Charlie Pride, the black western singer, said during his perform ance that it was wonderful for a black boy from Miss issippi to be singing at this affair. He said that Nancy Reagan invited him. So he turned around and said, "Thank you, Miss Nancy.” Had it not been for the operatic singing of Grace Bumbry, one w^id have thought that uiacks were just beginning to emerge from the early reconstruc tion days. This was the most ex pensive inauguration in the history of the United States. T In commenting on Mr. Reagan's inaugural ad dress, Representative Won Pat of Guam, said that the emphasis was on the eco nomy without any speci fics. Julian Dixon of Cali fornia stated that Mr. Rea gan emphasized as he did in his campaign, a return to states' rights. He said the President spoke of equal izing opportunities for groups that have been too long neglected, yet, he has no government programs for accomplishing this Representalive' Cardiss Collins said that Mr. Rea gan’s emphasis on return ing government to the local 0 governments gives the states a signal for a re turn to the pre-civil rights days and that he placed great stress on budgetary matters rather than hu manitarian concerns. Congress woman Shirley Chisolm said the inaugura tion speech was just a reiteration of the things Mr. Regan has said all along during his campaign. She stated that the entire inaugural panorama repre sented people in the upper bracket. She sees a con flict in the President’s talk of concern for the farmers and factory workers and getting the federal govern ment out of their lives. Mrs. Chisolm stated tuai the Reagan cabinet ap pointments all come from a monolithic group. They are primarily white male big corporate officials, the ma jority of whom do not have to depend on salaries Wo men, minorities and the middle and lower income people are left out of the cabinet positions She says it’s impossible for the Pre sident to get a multiplicity of views. Since this country is made up of various eth nic groups, and people in different economic stratas. these make up the majority of the citizens. However, good as Mr. Reagan's in tentions are, these groups have no cabinet member who really understands ana shares their concerns and plight. Generally, the Black Caucus members have a wait and see attitude. They say Mr. Reagan and the Republicans now have the opportunity to provide Jobs for the unemployed, main tain and foster civil rights and equal opportunity, pro vide health care, care for the aged and handicapped and continue needy social programs. i KRS TO THE EDITOR Why He Opposes Bwiiu’? * To The Editor: Whereas I don’t believe that color has anything to do with the quality of edu cation in this country, I must stal? that I am a Black who is and has al ways beer, thoroughly oj> posed to busing for racial mix of the schools. Busing is an expensive, time consuming and dan gerous way to: Bodge school adminis tration accountability; Cram Blacks down the throats of whites and vice versa and slow the natural process of integration; -Conceals the fact that Quality education is being W—9 denied all U.S. citizens, young and old, rich and poor. About 1968 (the last time I read of such an event) the best U.S. students were in competition with the best of 12 or 13 other countries. The U.S. students came in last Since 1966, the scholastic average in the U.S. has been on the de C^B®’ Hezekiah Nickleson ■ —*■*.»• mt i»i»s* nan ma* ■ 1
The Charlotte Post (Charlotte, N.C.)
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Jan. 29, 1981, edition 1
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