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Editorials & Comments - Fate Of Black Institutions The controversy over the pos sible closing of Double Oaks School and the Charlotte Com munity Hospital are hard re minders of the price blacks are having to pay for the privilege of assuming they are living in an integrated and, therefore, a better society. In fact, as we look about the nation we find that many hi storically black institutions are not closing but rather are ex panding. However, there is one significant difference in that these institutions are shifting from being primarily black to being predominantly white. This is particularly true with refer ence to public colleges and uni versities. West Virginia State, Bluefield State and Lincoln Uni versity (Mo.) - just to name a few - are now largely white institutions in nearly every respect in athletics. In some cases, there remains probably the last black institution presi dent and the last predominantly black faculty. inese developments have oc curred because blacks lacked a strong commitment to these in stitutions in their respective states and communities. On the local level, the possible closing of Double Oaks School, Community Hospital and other historically black institutions, is in part the result of apathy by blacks to ward the preservation of these institutions. The time to study lax Cut Mania Since President Reagan an nounced to Congress and the nation two weeks ago his plan to cut federal spending by $41.4 billion for fiscal year 1982, there/’ has been a nearly instant epi demic of support of other tax cut proposals. First, liberal Democrats and Republicans, originally strongly opposed to Reagan’s massive federal spending cuts plan, are now said to be embracing the budget-cutting mania. Possibly encouraged by this new-found support, the Reagan administra tion announced it proposed to cut another $6 billion because the original $41.4 billion was con sidered inadequate to meet the President’s ceiling on cuts. • As if to out do the President, Federal Reserve Board Chair man Paul Voicker urged Con gress this week to consider cut ting the federal budget even more deeply than the Reagan administration wants. Voicker told the House Ways and Means Committee that more severe cuts would not harm the economy. In addition, budget director David Stockman has warned that a possible national economic slump this summer might require yet additional cuts in the federal budget. Apparently sensing a growing uneasyness to this mad rush toward a get-on-the-band-wagon the long term utilization of such aging institutions is not when they are threatened by the large ly white powers of the commun ity. If blacks are really serious about preserving buildings that have some historical signifi cance, they need to organize a black properties commission. Such a commission should de velop a set of criteria for study ing and determining the existing and possible long term use of some structures. Up-to-date files should be kept and funds should be raised to cover operating costs for further study. Recom mendations should be prepared periodically and filed for use when needed. Under such a plan, school, hospital and other offi cials might seek-initial advice irom the commission before making decisions on the future use of such structures. if a commission as proposed here were already in existence the black community might have available by now a clear, un biased and objective report free of political pressures on the set of complex questions and issues involved in the proposed closing of both Double Oaks School and Community Hospital. Let us not forget, when Second Ward High School was closed blacks complained but the school is gone and few seem to really care. tax cut mania, Stockman has attempted to ease people’s fears by supply stating that the budget cuts will be across the board - affectingall programs from food stampa to tobacco subsidies to grants to corporations. We agree that some nmits on federal government spending are necessary and we agree in part with the Reagan adminis tration’s commitment to not; bend to the pressures of special interest groups to exempt their, pet projects from the tax cut ax. * However, we strongly disagree with the plan to cut social programs - food stamps, CETA public service jobs, school lunch programs, health care services and educational programs for youth. We would agree to cut accesses in these programs if they exist. However, most people served by these programs need them just to survive. We are talking about bare bone neces sities of life. Furthermore, the people served by these programs have the least resources to lobby in support of their basic needs. as a result of the budget cut mania, and a concern for the poor, a labor-led coalition of 157 national organizations was formed last week to oppose the Reagan’s planned budget cuts even as announcements were being made about the additional $6 billion proposed cuts. ssfW/ / co<>f jo» > •#r* Black Communities Should Help Impose Order Letters To The Editor Missing Black Children In Adanta February 24,1981 Dear Editor: As I read the paper, and listened to the news about the missing Black children in Atlanta I really get sick to my stomach. What makes me sick is not only the fact that these poor children are missing and some dead, but our Nation al Government isn’t doing a thing about aiding the local government in their search for the mentally insane person or persons responsible' I'm sure someone in Washington has some federal jargon to jus tify what I call federal apathy, but I feel that it is time to put away the regu lations and lets be good Samaritans to our own people. We as a country are always aiding causes in other countries, but we can’t do anything for our own people. ror montns we had 52 persons being held hostage in Iran. During the four teen (14) months our coun try had National Prayer Sunday, flags flown at half mass, TV stations, radio stations with special mo ments of silence. Everyone was doing everything sym bolic to assist in freeing the hostages. Now we have twenty (20) children dead or missing inTtlanETand one missihg in Charlotte and you seldom hear any thing about it. I think it is time America does some thing. It is up to us to encourage our government to lend support, financially or by giving manpower and > ralize that we are very short in the department of future leaders of this country. I am calling on all the pastors in the city of Char lotte and all of the sur rounding areas to desig nate the 2nd Sunday in March as Prayer Sunday for our missing children in Atlanta and Charlotte. Let us pray that God will send those of them who are still alive back home and sus tain and comfort the parents ot all of them. Last but not least, pray that this maniac (or maniacs) is caught before he hurts again. All things are possible through prayer. Sincerely, - Richard A. Graham Charlotte, N.C. Hlacks Urged To Return To Farming WASHINGTON - Blacks should hold on to their farmland, according to O. C. Simpson, research di rector at Prairie View A4M University, Texas. Speaking at a Black Hi story Month observance at the U.S. Department of Agriculture February 18, Simpson deplored the loss of farmland and said the United States, with its small-acreage fariqers dis appearing, faces a food crisis in the c oming cen tury. we must urge farmers to expand and produce more food,” he said. “Farming today can be a profitable business.” He cited fish farming and rais ing dairy goats as ex amples of non-traditional farming that could be pro fitable. Simpson said each year the size of individual farms gets larger but the total amount of farmland grows smaller. “The small acreage farmer is leaving the land. Especially the black farmer. In 1920, there were 926,000 black farmers and farm workers; but in 1974 there were only 45, 594.” ' It s important to re member that the future of our country is not in a moon program but in a soil pro gram to produce more food for the earth’s millions,” he continued. Urging blacks to etum to their agricultural heritage, Simpson said: “We don’t make any more land, de spite our advanced tech nology.” Global Educational Workshop Set A “We Agree” workshop in global education* spon sored by the Charlotte Mecklenburg Schools and the Charlotte Sister Cities Committee will be held March 13-14 at the Park Road YWCA. The workshop (or agen cies, is designed to raise public awareness to con sider including global per spective in school pro grams. Participants will search for ways to help young people acquire and use information and skills and develop attitudes to understand the world today and the way it will be tomorrow. It will be conducted on Friday from 4-9:30 p.m. and on Saturday from 8:30 4 p.m. by Shirley Johnson, Community Relations Spe cialist for the Charlotte Mecklenburg Schools, and Marian Beane, coordinator for International Student Programs at UNCC. Mem bers of the Charlotte Sister Cities Committee and par ticipants in the Sister Cities Regional Training for Glo bal Education also will con tribute. pSESSSBy Vernon E. Jordan, Jr.^=!^^j TO BE EQUAL Food Stamps A Target! The Food Stamp program is slated to expire this year, and if we are to avoid creating a hungrier America, it will have to make its way through an increasingly hostile Congress. While there have been calls to drop ttw program, few of its opponents plan anything so drastic this early in the game. Rather, they are targeting the program for drastic cuts in fundings and a harsh restriction in eligibility requirements that would remove many needy people from the rolls. From its inception, the Food Stamp program has faced a rough road. It started as an attempt, not to feed the hungry, but to help reduce farm surpluses. That’s why the program has always been lodged in the Department of Agriculture. H.ven after it got off the ground, the program came under heavy attack for escalating costs, waste, and welfarism. Those attacks Increased after the reces-— sions sent the numbers, of eligible people higher and the Carter Administration, to its credit, loosened punitive eligibility require ments. The real reason for attacks on the program have little to do with costs, which are inevitable, or waste, which is virtually non-existent. They have everything to do with the fact that it is a program that helps poor people in a way that effectively demonstrates how well a federal social program can work. Not that costs haven’t been rising fast — they have. It is expected that the Food Stamp program will take over 10 biHion in the budget next year. But that reflects the greater need for food stamps, as more people are unemployed and as food prices rise sharply. If Congressmen are concerned with cut ting costs, let them take positive steps to create jobs and restore the general eco nomy to health. That way, people won't need food stamps to survive - tney’Il have paychecks instead. * ' Not that food stamps provide any lavish aid. The average recipient gets stamps worth about $40 a month, which works out to pennies per meal per famly member. In fact, benefit scales are based on a food plan that the government admits does not provide an adequate diet. ^ Charges of waste have been made since the program stated. As a consequence, it has been one of the most closely examine programs on tfie books. And those exami nations have failed to reveal the waste and fraud so commonly - and irresponsibly - made. J Infact, there no doubt at all that the strict eligibility requirements serve to discourage many people from claimTnc although the stamps are needed And the U^pan League’s Black Pulse survey ■'«yealed that large numbers of eligible families, including welfare fami lies, do not receive food stamps. The stamp-siahers need to be reminded that a 1967 Field Foundation report found widespread hunger and • malnutrition in America, affecting perhaps 10 to 15 million people. the charlotte post “ s*»cnnd Class Pofitrmn Mn Qftggnn “THE PEOPLE’S NEWSPAPER” Established 1918 by The Charlotte P^f Publishing Co., Inc. 1524 West Rlvd., Charlotte, N.C. 28208 Telephone (704I37S-04SS 1 _Circulation ».2oo 62 Year* of Continuous Service Bill Johnson...Editor, Publisher Bernard Reevea,,, Genera I Manager Second Class Postage No. 96550 Paid At Charlotte. N.C. under the Act of March 3,1878 I Member National Newspaper Publishers "_Association North Carolina Black Publishers A«.nrUtio„ 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. 24SO S. Michigan Ave. 45 W. 'Ah St.. Suite 1493 Chicago. III. «mi« New York. N Y. I003« Calumet 5-92S9(212) 489-1220 From Capitol Hill I President jteagan’s Plan Is Robin ✓ Hood In Reverse? Alfreds L. Madison Special To The Post After President Rea gan’s economic address to ; a Joint session of congress and OMB Director Stack man’s budget proposals, the Congressional Black Caucus has strongly pro nounced its disagreement with the Administration's entire plan. They call it Robin Hood in reverse. It takes from the poor and l gives to the rich. •he Caucus has sharp differences with the Presi dent’s and Stockman’s pro ! *«ying, spending cuts will not be at the expense of the truly needy ” The administra tion is hacking away at t programs that are the life line of millions of the poor est families, causing them and their children to be come hungrier, colder and sicker than they already are, says the Caucus. Since President Reagan has been constantly trying to hammer into the Ameri can people that govern ment spending, govern ment taxation and govern ment regulations are the Alfred* L. Madison l cause of unemployment, inflation and problems in world affairs; so the Black Caucus feels that imple mentation of the Adminis tration’s proposals of bud get cuts, tax cuts and go vernment deregulation in stead of lowering inflation and unemployment; they will only fuel both The group emphasizes that the nation's domestic problem is not a balanced budget but a balanced economic growt■* The Caucus stated three myths upon which the Ad ministration is posturing its position: 1. Government reduced * * spending will have a sub stantial impact on reducing inflation. Economics and the Congressional Budget Office testified that balanc ing the budget will only reduce inflation by two tenths of one percent. i. we ve accomplished nothing through federal spending The responsibili ty of government is to promote the general wel fare of the people, poverty, hunger, health, environ ment, business promotion, employment security, price stability and the eco nomy and the tool for ac complishing these is the federal budget The President and Me Stockman have completely disregarded the accom plishments of the social programs of the sixties and seventies. Through these the proportion of People below the poverty line was reduced from 22.4 percent of the population two decades ago to 11.6 percent in 1979 3. High priority domestic programs are wasteful and misdirected. Even though some waste may exist in the social programs, il iA small compared with the greatest waste in the eco nomy which is the conduct of economic policy by high level public officials sworn to uphold the law; the policies of contrived stag nation, the trade-off of Jobs, raising interest rates and astronomical oil prices Kepresentative Ron Dei lums spoke of the huge military budget which is estimated to be around $214 billion in the Reagan plan. He stated that social pro blems which meet human needs are being cut for the purpose of increasing and sustaining the military. This huge defense proposal seeks to lead the citizens of the nation to believe that world problems can be solved and world peace attained through a huge military build-up. The Con gressional Black Caucus heartily rejects that notion It feels that the $41.4 bil lion that has been cut from the budget was not really done with balancing the budget in mind, but rather for the purpose of increas * ing and expanding the mili tary. These congress per sons strongly emphasized that the world problems are not military but eco nopity* .social and political and that national security must not be a static con cept. Our national security needs are tied in with how we respond to the solution of human problems. De fense of the United States should be our goal but not world domination. The Black Caucus is strong for seeking world peace rather than the use of communism expansion, Soviet expan sion and international ter rorism that the Admin istration is projecting as human rights. Dellums says, we should move back into the framework of arms control, and expand our foreign aid budget so that we can deal with the world problems of malnutrition, hunger, starvation and de velopment of the Third T World The Congressional Black Caucus intends to chal lenge Ronald Reagan be cause it considers his prey gram irrational, and irre sponsible It speaks only to his long time commitment to the wealthy, rich and to corporate leaders. "®xt few weeks, the Congressional Black Caucus will announce a Kiati.Ve agenda that will detail steps that must be taken for the economy world affairs and civil, USrT1 hUm*n ri«hl* Tax Workshop# The Internal Revenue Service and North Caro »na Department of Re venue have scheduled small business tax work •hops in nine North Caro SU °" March 12. iwl, from » a m. to 4:30 pm. Call the IRS’ toll-free ( rnberatl-Mo«24»oofor Uie 'option of the nearest workshop in your locality. I'l
The Charlotte Post (Charlotte, N.C.)
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March 5, 1981, edition 1
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